Tag Archives: leaves

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

Aspen Forest, Near Cedar Breaks

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Aspen Forest, Near Cedar Breaks - Autumn colors in extensive aspen forests extend into the distance near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah
Autumn colors in extensive aspen forests extend into the distance near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

Aspen Forest, Near Cedar Breaks. Dixie National Forest, Utah. October 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors in extensive aspen forests extend into the distance near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

This was a serendipitous photograph. We were driving down a main road from Cedar Grove towards the lowlands when I caught site of a decent looking gravel side road that looked like it might head in the direction of some interesting and extensive aspen forests that were in full fall color – so I quickly turned off and headed down this road. It passed through huge stands of aspen trees as it descended toward the south, and eventually I felt that I had gone as far as time allowed, so I turned around and started back up the road with the sun at my back.

At about this time, a high thin layer of clouds moved over. This is more or less ideal for daytime photography of subjects like the aspens since it softens the light just a bit and moderates the harsh shadows and extreme contrasts that are otherwise found during daytime hours. With this tree color and this light, it was mostly a matter of finding some scene that would fit together compositionally, and here I found a bit of open meadow between colorful trees, along with a distant view to further aspen covered hills almost as far as I could see.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

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Aspen Grove Below South Lake
A dense aspen grove in full fall color near South Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage

Aspen Grove Below South Lake. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense aspen grove in full fall color near South Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage

I have been returning to this little group of trees for several years now. There are many like it throughout the eastern Sierra, but somehow this group has come to seem like “mine” and I shoot it every fall. There is nothing obviously special about it – it is not some sort of landmark location, and you would easily pass right by it if you happened to be there and look in a different direction. It is up a somewhat obscure little dirt road that goes no where in particular.

At the right moment in the fall season the grove turns completely golden-yellow with the exception of some years when it seems to hold a bit of orange or red, if I recall correctly. I like to arrive in the early evening just as the sun is about to dip behind a nearby ridge and bring soft, shadowed light to this spot. This year I had thought that I might be too early, since I would more typically shoot there perhaps a full week into the month of October, but this has been an early season for aspen color in the Sierra and in a number of other areas of the west as well.

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

Aspens and Granite

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Aspens and Granite - Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.
Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.

Aspens and Granite. North Lake, California. October 8, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.

Photographing this section of rocky hillside along the road the runs past North Lake has become a bit of a habit for me during the past few years. North Lake is a well-known place for photographing fall colors, with good reason. It is in the larger Bishop Creek drainage of the eastern Sierra, one of many places where it is possible to find a lot of autumn aspen color. As a consequence, many people (sometimes too many!) head there to photograph the seasonal color change. I think I first shot there a bit before the most recent upsurge in visits by photographers and photography workshops, so I was able to make some photographs of the general scene in somewhat more solitary conditions.

In recent years, on too many occasions, I have arrived at this lake to find mobs of photographers. Fortunately, for the most part they stop and photograph to same two well-known areas of the lake. Even more fortunately, with a little bit of walking and looking around, one can find a lot of other stuff to photograph here. While the grand views are obvious and spectacular, there are many opportunities for photographing “intimate landscapes” that feature perhaps a few trees, some rocks, a bit of lakeside grass, and so forth. These two trees, almost bare of fall leaves, stood against a bit of cracked cliff that was covered with patches of colorful lichen.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Black Aspen Leaves, Frost

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Black Aspen Leaves, Frost
“Black Aspen Leaves, Frost” — Blackened aspen leaves in frost following an early fall snowfall, eastern Sierra Nevada.

This is a photograph from last year’s (2011) aspen color season in the eastern Sierra Nevada range of California. It was a bit on an unusual season, though in the end it turned out to be one that provided quite a lot of aspen beauty of various sorts. Because that autumn followed the second of two winters with greater-than-normal precipitation in the Sierra, there was a lot of lush and healthy plant growth of all sorts, and even as the end of the summer season arrived there was a lot of greenery about. Then, just as the color season started near the beginning of October, a series of three winter-like storms traversed the range and dropped a foot or more of early season snow. While some snow isn’t unusual at this time of year, a sequence of three storms and that amount of snowfall are unusual. All of the trans-Sierra passes closed for several days.

I came across Tioga Pass on the day that it reopened, and then headed south to the prime aspen-hunting grounds above Bishop, California. The next morning I decided to head up to the North Lake area, and I found the gravel road still snow-covered. I drove on up carefully, and it appeared that I might have been among the very first to try the road after the snow. Needless to say, the storms had a big effect on the aspen leaves! Many of the “ripest” and most colorful leaves had fallen, leaving the trees a bit more bare than usual at this time. And, perhaps due to the cold, rather than turning red and orange and golden-yellow, quite a few leaves went straight to black. Now I’m as attracted to the wildly colorful aspen leaves as anyone, but I’m also intrigued by somewhat unusual conditions, so I found some of the blackened leaves to be interesting, too. In the early hours I found this cluster, no doubt blown down and piled together during the storm, sitting on top of the snow bank and covered with crystalline frost from the previous night.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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