Tag Archives: orange

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

Layered Autumn Aspen Groves

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Layered Autumn Aspen Groves
“Layered Autumn Aspen Groves” — Groves of Sierra Nevada aspen trees at various stages of autum color transformation.

As I look back on this year’s autumn aspen photography one theme that emerges (which I wasn’t aware of when I was in the field) is groves that encompass a wide range of foliage color. At the right moments and in the right places you can sometimes see simultaneously all of the states of the autumn leaf transition, from green trees through yellow, orange, and red… and even some bare trees. (I suspect that the tall, leafless trees in this scene are old, dead snags.)

This photograph provides another opportunity to mention my preferred light for this subject. I tend to stay away from the bright midday sun, with the exception of a few photographs in which it backlights the trees. I much prefer somewhat soft light from slightly overcast skies or the shadows of morning and evening. I made this photograph under broken clouds, which retained a bit of the directional quality of the late-day light.

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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

River of Aspen Color

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River of Aspen Color
“River of Aspen Color” — A band of colorful autumn aspen trees follows a gully down a Sierra Nevada slope.

The grove in this photograph is semi-famous. The earliest photograph of it that I’m aware of is by Galen Rowell, and just about everyone who photographs Sierra aspens has given it a shot. Timing is everything — along with a bit of weather luck — and I arrived a bit after the peak of color. (At that point there might not be any bare trunks, but some of the foreground trees would still show a bit of green.) Rather than showing the whole thing, I decided to crop a bit and let the green area at upper right intrude into the space where yellow turns to orange.

While timing is a key to getting aspen photographs, the window is often a bit wider than you may expect. We want to arrive at the perfect moment of maximum color before leaves really start to drop. But the color transition is quite photogenic both before an d after that brief moment. Before the peak a few green trees might be part of the scene, and a bit later scattered colorful leaves might poignantly interrupt a forest of nearly bare white trunks.

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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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

One Rock

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One Rock
“One Rock” — A solitary orange-tinted rock on a bed of blue and gray rock.

Rocks tell stories in the high country of the Sierra Nevada. I can’t understand the details of all of these stories (I’m not a geologist!) but I understand some of the themes. One is the constant wearing down and eroding of the highest peaks, a process that eventually transports rocks far from their source. And when this happens you find things like this solitary orange-toned rock sitting on a bed of entirely different material.

These small details fascinate me in the mountains. Yes, I do love and am impressed by wide panoramas and towering, dramatic ridges. But over time I’ve learned to look at smaller things. They provide so much material for photography, they are everywhere, and they turn seemingly familiar landscapes into endlessly fascinating places.

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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: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)

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Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)
“Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)” — Patterns formed by light, paint, shadows, and structure on an urban building.

This is the second in a series of three photographs that I made on a walk that took me through an area of urban renewal in my town. A large corporation committed to very extensive building plans, then backed off during the pandemic, and now seems to be trying to, in my view, make it look like something is happening when not much really is. They have painted buildings and put up interesting interpretive signs. To their credit, this is better than just letting the properties decay.

I’m very attracted to strong graphic forms and colors — which I suppose might surprise some who think of me as “just” a landscape photographer. But I don’t see any conflict, and I feel that the interest in such forms underlies quite a few of my landscape images, even though it is possible to look at them primarily as being “pictures of nature.”

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.