Tag Archives: orange

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

Red Maple Trees, Autumn

November 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn red maple trees growing against a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park

Sometimes I just have to make a photograph that is full of color, and finding these trees constituted one of those “sometimes.” During the latter part of October we passed through Zion on our way to points east, so we spent most of a day along the Mount Carmel Highway looking for various subjects that can be found there in a fall. Among them, we were looking for autumn foliage. (The color comes to this high country area of Zion while things are still mostly green back down in Zion Canyon.) At this point some cottonwood and box elder trees were changing, though there was a lot of green still around. However, the red maples, which seem to change first, were at peak color conditions in many spots.

As we drove along the park road, we were more or less hanging out the windows, looking for those combinations of light (quality and angle), color (or trees and rocks), and geology that might make good photographs. Most often we found ourselves looking down into narrow canyons where colorful trees lined the banks of the stream beds. Sometimes we photographed from above, but the most productive shooting involved hiking down into these canyons and then slowly walking them while looking intently for subjects. Of course, the red maples don’t require a lot of careful looking! This group of trees was in a shady curve in the bottom of a canyon, so I found a frame-filling bunch of branches and leaves and made a few exposures.

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

Utah Fall Color, Meadows

October 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful autumn foliage of aspen and other trees near a meadow in the Dixie National Forest near Cedar City, Utah.

The opportunity to photograph this wild fall color resulted from the second “random ride” of the afternoon – with “random ride” being a family description of a drive that ends up going where no one would have predicted. After a brief afternoon visit to Cedar City, Utah to take care of some minor business involving coffee, we headed back up into the mountains to the east of town. Driving along, I spotted another road that branched off in a potentially promising direction, and without so much as a glance at the map I turned right and headed up a canyon.

Since I spotted some interesting color right away, and because the road looked like it would climb to elevations where I knew the color was good, I continued on it. The hunch paid off. As we ascended, wide open vistas appeared across a panorama ranging from south to north, and new and interesting colorful foliage continued to appear. We finally ended up at location where the road crossed one of the most colorful autumn foliage displays I have seen. After photographing a nearby grove of trees right above us, I turned my camera the other direction and found this composition that includes a wild assortment of colorful autumn trees (mostly but not entirely aspens) leading down to the edge of a small meadow.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Utah

Aspen Color Explosion

October 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

An almost unbelievable explosion of aspen color in the mountains east of Cedar City, Utah

This impresses me as just about the most ridiculous, over-the-top, unbelievable explosion of aspen color that I’ve ever seen. I visited Utah during the first part of October this year, and I encountered what must be almost peak fall aspen color during the first week of the month in the southwestern part of the state not far from Cedar City and Zion National Park. By the time I arrived the trees at the highest elevations had lost many of their leave, however the show from trees and somewhat lower elevations more than made up for this.

While there were colorful trees everywhere, this particular group seemed unrivaled for the sheet variety of colors packed together in one small area. The specific spot isn’t all that important and, frankly, in many ways the location was otherwise not necessarily the most wonderful example of Utah wilderness. (There were homes not too far away.) We came upon this scene while driving a back-road not far from Cedar City – we were basically just driving around looking for color and hoping we would find some. (Actually, it was hard to avoid seeing aspen color!) While some leaves had fallen from the lower portions of a few of these trees, the color variation was amazing – ranging from yellow-gold through orange and right on to red, with a few still-green leaves thrown in for good measure.

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

Aspens and Sage

October 12, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspens grow against sage covered hills near Conway Summit in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

If you want colorful aspen photographs, there are several things that may help. First, you need to be where the aspens are when they turn colors! (Obvious, huh?) In the eastern Sierra Nevada, this means roughly the first two weeks of October in a typical year, though you can often find some color a week or so either side of that period – but be aware that every aspen season is different, so there are no guarantees. And where are they? They can be found all up and down the east side of the Sierra. At their peak, you can find them by simply driving along highway 395 along the eastern slope of the range and looking west. For somewhat more specific information, take a look at this post of mine. Second, you’ll need to look around a bit for great trees. Photographs of aspen color can often make it seem like there is astonishing color everywhere – but the reality is often a bit more complicated. Trees will often be in various stages of transition, and the timing varies according to such things as elevation and local soil moisture. On top of that, not just any aspen trees will do – so you can count on doing a bit of searching to find that perfect tree or grove or colorful slope. Third, it helps a lot to consider the light. Often grove of trees that may look fairly drab when front lit can turn into an amazingly colorful wonder when the light comes toward you from behind the trees.

That is precisely what is happening in this photograph, taken at one of the well-known aspen color spots near Conway Summit just north of Lee Vining. On the right few days each fall, there are huge swaths of wonderful aspen color on the eastern slopes of the Sierra here. I often shoot here in the late afternoon, just before the sun drops behind the crest. This may mean that I’m shooting almost directly into the sun, but it also means that the leaves are brilliantly lit by light that comes from behind and passes through the leaves. This photograph captures a type of grove that always intrigues me, namely one that sits apart from the iconic alpine scenery and instead is in rangeland and sage brush country.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: orange

Red Maple Trees, Autumn

Utah Fall Color, Meadows

Aspen Color Explosion

Aspens and Sage

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