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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Granite, Autumn

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Aspens and Granite, Autumn - Aspen trees with golden autumn leaves grow among boulders on a rocky eastern Sierra Nevada slope
Aspen trees with golden autumn leaves grow among boulders on a rocky eastern Sierra Nevada slope

Aspens and Granite, Autumn. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen trees with golden autumn leaves grow among boulders on a rocky eastern Sierra Nevada slope

Before my single day of eastern Sierra Nevada aspen photography this season, I had been concerned about the quality and timing of the color – and reports by some other photographers who visited just before I was there were not encouraging. Reports mentioned trees that had turned earlier than usual (true) and trees that turned without producing special color and so forth. Compounding my concerns just a bit was the fact that my schedule required me to be there a bit earlier than the time I would typically regard as being prime for aspen color. But I’d rather shoot one day of less-than-stupendous aspen color than miss the entire show, so up into the eastern Sierra above Bishop, California we drove.

I was pleased to find that there was actually a lot of great color. Some of the usual “hot spots” that people seem to flock to were perhaps not as amazing as they can be, but after photographing the aspens for some years I have found some odd little personal places where I could find good color – and in a few places color that was downright excellent. I photographed these trees rather late in the day, perhaps after many people who prefer to photograph aspens in the sun had already left. I intentionally sought out an area that I knew would be in shade since I often prefer the muted and softer light this brings. Here the trees are not quite so thick since they grow on very difficult and rocky slopes. But what they lacked in density they made up for in color!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

One Green Leaf

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One Green Leaf, Capitol Reef National Park
“One Green Leaf” — One green leaf on a bed of brown and tan autumn leaves in a desert wash, Capitol Reef National Park

My two October trips to photograph in Utah extended my ongoing education about the place, and one of the locations about which I had and still have the most to learn is Capitol Reef National Park. My encounter with this park, in 2012, was a bit superficial, though my excuse is that we were only passing through on our way to another place. All I saw was the short highway drive that passed through the park via the Fruita District — the rest of the park remained a complete mystery. In October I was there twice. On the first visit I was in the area enough to start to get a bit of a feel for the place, though I mostly still stuck to popular and accessible areas, with the addition of a bit of hiking and a long drive on gravel roads down the less-visited side of the park. On the second visit I learned and saw a bit more – enough to convince me that there is much more to this park and that I want to return.

I made this photograph in a short slot canyon in an out-of-the way area of the park. We drove there on a very cold morning and headed into the canyon while the temperature still hovered around freezing. There was no one else there, and we barely even saw anyone else on the long drive to get there. The little canyon itself was quite beautiful and full of interesting surprises – juxtapositions of glowing red-orange walls and shaded blue-purple walls, brilliantly colorful gambel oak leaves, large sandstone faces and walls, and more. As I investigate a place like this I try to let my eyes roam beyond the first things I see, and try to also see smaller things that could easily be missed. Here I happened to look down at my feet – sometimes a good thing to do! – and see that the floor of the stream bed carpeted with oak and other leaves that had recently fallen, and this batch of brown and tan leaves held one that was still green.

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Floating Cottonwood Leaves, Autumn

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Floating Cottonwood Leaves, Autumn - Floating cottonwood leaves nearly obscure the surface of a small pond along the Escalante River, Utah
Floating cottonwood leaves nearly obscure the surface of a small pond along the Escalante River, Utah

Floating Cottonwood Leaves, Autumn. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. October 24,2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Floating cottonwood leaves nearly obscure the surface of a small pond along the Escalante River, Utah

On our first of two hikes into the Escalante Canyon we had to contend with very strong winds. Wind is usually not the landscape photographer’s friend. Not only does it create some issues for camera stability, but it also sets trees and other foliage in motion, and given the relatively long exposures we sometimes use – especially when shooting down in the bottom of a deep canyon – making motion blur a very serious issue. It is virtually impossible to stop the blurring motion of leaves and grasses and branches. To some extent you might be able to make use of this and “go with the blur,” but that isn’t likely to work with all shots.

However, there is often a silver lining behind such clouds, and one bright spot with wind is that in the fall it drops lots of colorful leaves on the ground and into any water than happens to be lying about. As we worked our way downstream we came to a spot where a small stream joined the main watercourse in a flat area. Because of the flat terrain the water had created some almost still pools in places where faster flows had previously carved out hollows in the sand, and the surface of these ponds was almost completely covered with freshly fallen cottonwood leaves.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Butte and Petrified Dunes, Arches National Park

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Butte and Petrified Dunes, Arches National Park - Morning light on buttes and petrified dunes, Arches National Park
Morning light on buttes and petrified dunes, Arches National Park

Butte and Petrified Dunes, Arches National Park. Arches National Park, Utah. October 10, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on buttes and petrified dunes, Arches National Park

While I’m fascinated and amazed by the namesake arches in this park and by the monumental sandstone buttes, mesas, fins, canyons, towers, and more… I also find that the light and the atmosphere can produce some of the most interesting subjects in Arches National Park. Because this particular butte and the terrain beyond are seen from a spot that is also excellent for photographing certain other nearby subjects, especially in the early morning, this was not the first time that I photographed this scene – though the atmosphere and light were so different on the two main occasions that you might hardly see them as the same subjects at first.

After photographing some impressive nearby sandstone formations in early morning light, I watched as the sun rose high enough to slant its light across the tops of the low formations known as petrified dunes. This is one of several photographs I made there were largely “about” that light and those dune structures, though in both cases I used them as elements in a larger scene rather than the primary subject. Here the backlit morning haze was thick enough to almost render the furthest buttes in the upper right corner of the frame invisible. They are a good distance away, being on the far side of the canyon of the Colorado River, which is visible in front of the buttes. The large, close butte at the lower left posed a challenge as the “front” side was in shadow. (Though the challenge here was less than the last time when I shot here – on that occasion the backlight was so brilliant that I could keep almost no detail in the front of that butte.)

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.