Tag Archives: mountains

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakeside Meadow, Boulders, and Trees

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Lakeside Meadow, Bourlders, and Trees
“Lakeside Meadow, Boulders, and Trees” — Before the sun arrives, a scene at the shore of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake with meadow, boulders, and trees.

The Sierra Nevada is a place of diverse terrain — rugged alpine ridges and summits, gentle meadows, both dense and open forests, streams and rivers, and more. But my favorite places are mostly like this one, where the last trees are about to give way to barren alpine country, and where meadows, running water, and lakes are plentiful.

This scene is typical of that region. It is along the shoreline of a moderate-sized lake at just over 10,000′ of elevation. Away from the meadow and the lake, forests of good-sized lodgepole pines grow, but here in the open it is all about the light, meadows, rocks, sparse trees, and water.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Within The Grove

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Within The Grove
“Within The Grove” — Autumn aspen leaves begin to glow in morning light as the sun clears a distant ridge.

This is one of those odd little spots that is likely on no one’s itinerary of important aspen color sites except mine. I first stopped here a couple of decades ago on the drive between some better known locations, and since that time I have paused here every season to photograph this little grove. This year I arrived just as the canopy was thinning and, on this morning, as the first direct sunlight began to flood the grove.

I encourage everyone who is an autumn aspen aficionado to find a few special little spots like this that have personal meaning, even though they may not initially seem spectacular. I can almost guarantee that over the succeeding years you will be glad you stopped and made such places your own… and that you’ll get a special feeling each time you return.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lean To The Left

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Lean To The Left
“Lean To The Left” — A conjunction of aspen groves, one with left-leaning small trees and red foliage and the other with large trees with yellow leaves.

My camera position may have a little something to do with the “lean” of the tree trunks in the middle of the frame, but they really were leaning significantly to the left. While our idealized aspen trees are tall and straight, the reality in the Sierra Nevada is often different. There are many groves of very small trees, and many others end up twisted and stunted after being pushed and broken by winter snows and winds.

This grove is huge, stretching from its wide, flat base far up mountain slopes toward a ridge high above. Here the color division — reddish versus yellow — marks the point at which the trees begin to ascend that slope. It is one of the sharpest divisions I know of between trees of different colors.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves, Morning Frost

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Aspen Leaves, Morning Frost
“Aspen Leaves, Morning Frost” — Fallen aspen leaves covered in morning frost, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

I had been photographing long views of colorful aspen groves on mountainsides as the sun came up. Photography in quickly-changing early morning light can be intense, and ideal conditions only last a short time. As the sun rose the light soon become too intense for the photographs I was interested in, so I went for a stroll along the base of a nearby rocky hill where it was still shady.

The hill produced the conditions that made this photograph possible. The most obvious was that the shaded light remained soft, revealing subtle elements in this little scene. Because direct sunlight had not yet arrived, the fallen leaves were still covered in frost. Morover, it is likely that the leaves collected here in the first place because the hill provided some protection from wind.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.