Tag Archives: leaves

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red Rock and Autumn Color

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Red Rock and Autumn Color
Early autumn color at the base of Zion Naitonal Park cliffs.

Red Rock and Autumn Color. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn color at the base of Zion Naitonal Park cliffs.

Back in Autumn of 2012 I had an unusual opportunity to spend a total of roughly a month photographing in the red rock country of Southern Utah. I was there early in the month for a couple weeks, and I returned in near the end of the month with photographer friends. On that second visit we concentrated on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and on Capitol Reef and Zion National Park. We visited Zion twice — as we entered the state and again as our trip concluded and we started back to California.

From my autumn visits to this part of Utah I started to learned a few things about how fall color evolves there, though my knowledge is far from complete. The first thing I learned is that the aspens change color earlier than in California — more like late September than early October. (I learned this the hard way, by showing up a bit too late to photograph peak aspen color.) The color in the red rock canyons seems to come later, and we had plenty of it to photograph in the second half of the month. When we arrived in Zion National Park at the end of the month interesting color was showing up at higher elevations, but I think we were catching only the very beginning of the color in Zion Canyon. That’s where I made this photograph, with an early riot of color at the base of the ubiquitous red rock cliffs.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Oak and Granite, Autumn

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Oak and Granite, Autumn
A small oak tree in deep shade at the base of a Yosemite Valley granite cliff.

Oak and Granite, Autumn. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small oak tree in deep shade at the base of a Yosemite Valley granite cliff.

Back in 2012 I took a somewhat later-than-usual trip to photograph fall color in Yosemite Valley. When I think of Sierra Nevada fall color the high country aspens, mostly but not exclusively on the east side of the range, come to mind. Those colors tend to be an early October thing. But colors appear a bit later on the west side of the range, eventually working their way down to the foothills and finally the Central Valley. In Yosemite Valley beautiful colors come from cottonwood, black oak, dogwood and a few other sources, typically arriving in late October and peaking around Halloween.

For reasons that I can no longer recall, this time I ended up in the Valley a couple of weeks later. There was still sufficient color, and it came with the added bonus that light snow had recently fallen. (Unlike summer and winter, which tend to be just what you would expect, the transitional fall and spring seasons often bring surprises.) I took a walk along a section of the north wall of the Valley and photographed this small tree in the shadows at the base of a very tall granite cliff.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Canyon Cottonwood Trees

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Canyon Cottonwood Trees
Cottonwood trees with autumn leaves in a Utah canyon.

Canyon Cottonwood Trees. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

© Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I came across this pair of cottonwood trees while walking up a lovely, narrow canyon in Southern Utah some years back. It is the same canyon I’ve mentioned in previous posts — the one where I had my very first introduction to the joys of exploring red rock canyons. I was here on this occasion with a couple of photographer friends.

There are, of course, quite a few cottonwood trees in Utah. (To say the least!) Why these two? I was impressed by just how different they were, despite growing in virtually the same spot and in the same conditions. Part of this can be explained, no doubt, by a difference in their ages. But such trees are also profoundly affected by the happenstance of where they sprout — is the soil shallow or deep, does it flood, is it rocky? The tree on the left still retains quite a few green leaves, it no longer has any lower branches on its straight trunk. The tree on the right seems like a veritable teenager, with its yellow leaves and its less solid structure — though if you look close you can make out the shape of its future growth, too.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

The Last Leaves

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The Last Leaves
The last autumn leaves on trees and bushes above sculpted rocks along a bend in the Escalante River.

The Last Leaves. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last autumn leaves on trees and bushes above sculpted rocks along a bend in the Escalante River.

Fall is my favorite season. I’m not really a summer person — too hot! — but the warm early autumn days are just about perfect. I love winter, too, and part of the appeal of fall is the certainty that winter, the time of “interesting” weather is coming soon, too. And as fall moves on toward winter the first of the Pacific cold weather systems begin to arrive, and snow begins to arrive in the Sierra.

Before that happens, though, we go through the autumn color season. In recent years I have discovered that I can stretch it out for months. For me it begins with a few early changes by the beginning of September in the Sierra which culminate a month later with the spectacular aspen color. Then the color works its way west across the range and down into the westside valleys, before it finally begins to peak in November nearer the coast. There’s still a bit left in December… and sometimes even later. I photographed this scene deep in the canyon of the Escalante River along a rocky bend where the final colors of the season were just about spent.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.