Tag Archives: Mountain

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Foliage, Pond, Conway Summit

October 24, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Afternoon sunlight strikes fall foliage surrounding a small pond in the eastern Sierra Nevada at Conway Summit.

As is perhaps obvious from the photograph, the sky was not entirely unobscured when I made this series of photographs of the large aspen groves at Conway Summit in the eastern Sierra Nevada in the middle of October. The changing light was an asset in that it had the potential to highlight elements of the scene and de-emphasize others, and that it was constantly changing. But it also meant that at some points the scene was so flat as to be uninteresting. In other words, I had to stand around a lot, waiting for the light to suddenly appear, only to go away a moment later.

I had been watching this small pond, surrounded by aspens and brush and reflecting the sky, for some time. I wanted just the right side light to illuminate the trees and brush, but to also get something to happen on the more distant rolling hills. At one point beautiful light had lit up the foreground grove… but it had left the closest brush in shadow. At other points the more distant hills picked up interesting light… while the grove remained in shadow. Here I had a few moments of slightly cloud-diffused light on the grove (though I could have wished for a bit more on the trees at right) and brush, along with a beam of light picking up one of the more distant groves and the slanting ridge line in front of it.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Groves, Conway Summit

October 23, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon sun backlights the immense aspen groves near Conway Summit, California.

As the sun dropped toward the peaks of the Sierra crest to the west of Conway Summit, beams of light occasionally broke through the partly cloudy skies and backlit these brilliantly colored aspen groves alongside highway 395. I’ve shot here enough times over the past few years to understand how the light works here – though I admit that every time I think I understand, I discover something new! For me, the ideal is to go to Conway Summit right at the peak of aspen color, or perhaps a bit earlier when a few green trees remain, and to shoot in late-afternoon light, aiming almost directly into the sun. The color of the light coming through these leaves is almost unbelievably intense and saturated – and, in fact, is a bit of a tricky thing to photograph!

There are many attractive things about Conway Summit when it comes to aspen viewing. (There are also, admittedly, a few less attractive things, such as shooting from the edge of a four-lane highway!) The stands of aspens are extensive here, covering many acres. Because of the slightly elevated viewpoint, the observer can look down into and across the trees as they follow the slope gently rising toward the Sierra. There are actually a large number of separate groves that stand mostly in lines stretching from left to right, and each of them is often in a different stage of color development at this point in the season, with the result being that trees of almost every shade from green to brilliant red can be seen at once.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Buttermilk Range, Morning

October 22, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Early morning light strikes a ridge in the Buttermilk Range, with the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada in the background.

While in the eastern Sierra last week to photograph aspen color again, I detoured away from the trees at sunrise one morning to photograph the first light striking these hills in the Buttermilk Range above Bishop, California, with a steep section of the Sierra’s east escarpment beyond. The light in this area is often spectacular in the early morning, but it can be especially so when there are some clouds in the sky as was the case on this morning. While it was almost completely clear to the west over the Sierra crest, the sky to the east held some broken clouds which cast alternating patterns of light and shadow across the landscape. Here, while the light on the foreground rocky ridge was very intense and saturated, some haze muted the more distant ridge and the shadow from those clouds slightly obscured the lower slopes.

The Buttermilks are yet another example of the range to subjects to be found in the eastern Sierra. Sometimes I head to these mountains with a plan of shooting a particular subject or even a particular place, but this doesn’t always work out. The weather may change or my schedule may change. Fortunately, if the original subject doesn’t work, there are almost always other choices! This small range tucked up against the Sierra above Bishop – like many other similar places along the “east side” – contains a wealth of photographic subjects to explore.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Thicket, Bishop Creek

October 21, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Bright yellow autumn leaves festoon a dense aspen thicket along Bishop Creek near South Lake, California.

At the right point during the aspen season there are so many potential photographic “targets” that it can be almost overwhelming. In this general area along the south fork or Bishop Creek, there were many stands of aspens that were at or just past their color peak. I knew of this row of trees that follows the course of the stream and which is accessible by way of a short gravel road that takes off from the main road – I had photographed them in slightly less interesting conditions last year. This particular little loop road has a number of potential aspen subjects, but this year when I arrived it seemed like the most interesting trees were in this spot near where the side road starts.

I’m intrigued by densely packed trees, so dense that the white trunks, yellow leaves, and the various sized branches can grow together and almost completely fill the space within the grove. This little thicket seemed about as close to exactly what I was looking for as anything else I saw along those lines this year. By shooting at an angle across the line of trees, the light hit their trunks from the left side of the frame, and the depth of the grove was accentuated just a bit. With so much detail to work with it can be a bit hard to find a composition that isn’t overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail, so here I looked for a section of the grove where the closely spaced white trunks gave some shape and direction to the scene.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: Mountain

Autumn Foliage, Pond, Conway Summit

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Aspen Groves, Conway Summit

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Buttermilk Range, Morning

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Aspen Thicket, Bishop Creek

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.