Tag Archives: north

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

Aspens and Conifers, Autumn

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Aspens and Conifers, Autumn
Aspen and conifer trees grow up the slopes of an Eastern Sierra Nevada valley.

Aspens and Conifers, Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen and conifer trees grow up the slopes of an Eastern Sierra Nevada valley.

If you look closely you may find aspens in just about every state of autumn color transition — nearly bare trees, brightly colored yellow and orange trees, and a few that are early in their transition or even still entirely green. This is a reminder that when you visit the Eastern Sierra aspens in the fall, if the color isn’t what you were looking for in one spot there is a good chance that you can find color by moving north or south or heading to a different elevation. While you take that close look, also notice some taller trees (a bit tricky to find) that are entirely bare but surrounded by smaller, very healthy aspens. When aspens are disrupted by fire or other problems, new growth frequently springs up from their extensive root systems, sometimes in weeks, and before too many years those trees engulf the old snags.

The view here encompasses terrain that rises from sagebrush highlands in the Eastern Sierra toward conifer forests at higher elevations. Aspens often grow in this sage country, in places as essentially the only large trees. Here we’re right at the lower boundary of the conifers, beginning with the single large specimen in the center of the frame, with a larger grove halfway up the slope, and hints of much larger forested areas near the top margin.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Autumn Aspens, Ridge and Haze

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Autumn Aspens, Ridge and Haze
Autumn aspen “color” in black and white, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Aspens, Ridge and Haze. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen “color” in black and white, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention —or at least a trigger to try something different that what I would usually be doing with a subject like this one. The subject is, of course, “fall color” from the Eastern Sierra Nevada aspens. The challenge at times on this visit to the area was the wildfire smoke was obscuring a lot of the landscape and muting and altering the colors. Late-summer and autumn wildfire smoke has long been a seasonal feature in and around the Sierra Nevada, but the situation has become much worse in recent years. The fires a larger and they last longer, with the end result being a whole lot of smoke in the air.

So, what to do? There are almost always ways to shoot around such challenges. One is to forego the large landscape and shoot more intimate subjects — perhaps focus on one grove, one tree, or even one leaf rather than on the grove in the larger landscape. Another is to embrace the smoky conditions and try to find a way to make aesthetically compelling photographs of that subject. Another option is to move to monochrome. The smoke that looks brown and ugly in color can merely look like interesting haze in black and white. Of course, this leaves us with another challenge when the subject is fall… color. But we photographed autumn in black and white in the past. We can still do that.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

960 Loading Dock

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960 Loading Dock
Loading dock area of a San Francisco building.

960 Loading Dock. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Loading dock area of a San Francisco building.

As life trends slowly back towards a more normal world, I was recently able to join my Studio Nocturne friends (a group of San Francisco Bay Area night photographers) for the resumption of our annual fall “open studio” events in conjunction with the ArtSpan San Francisco Open Studios. The group and its ancestor, The Nocturnes, has shown night photography during this event for a couple of decades. Things were more or less suspended last year, for reasons I hardly need to explain, but this year we were able to offer a very successful open studio event in North Beach, followed by a “pop-up” event in Dogpatch.

So, for the first time in a couple of years, I spent the better part of several full days in San Francisco, showing art, working with my colleagues, talking to visitors about our work. This return to something feeling a bit like the old normal was wonderful. It was also great to once again feel like the life of this city was returning — masked and socially-distanced, yes, but still. The photograph includes the “view” from my location at the pop-up event. As an aside, its composition reminds me of the ubiquitous “chyron” displays on television…

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Autumn Aspens, Sage Brush Country

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Autumn Aspens, Sage Brush Country
A sage brush country grove of colorful autumn aspen trees in back-light, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Aspens, Sage Brush Country. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sage brush country grove of colorful autumn aspen trees in back-light, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Wildfire smoke has posed challenges to Californians and those in other western states in recent years, and the current historic drought in the state has produced even more widespread and often large fires. We have come to live with smoke levels that are occasionally very unhealthy and almost always aesthetically displeasing. Almost every late-summer or autumn visit to the Sierra during the past two seasons has been affected, and on several occasions I have had to cut trips short as a result.

On this month’s brief visit to the eastern Sierra things were a bit better in the Sonora Pass area and a bit south, but the conditions deteriorated quickly starting just north of Mono Lake. Photographically speaking, this creates some rather serious challenges, especially when smoke covers (and discolors the atmosphere of) the larger landscape. There are some options — black and white can often work in such conditions or one can focus on closer subjects, composting to eliminate the longer views. The latter is what I did in this photograph of grove of small aspens growing in a shallow valley in sagebrush-covered hills, where back-light intensified the colors of the fall foliage.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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.