Aspen Groves, Conway Summit. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 16, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon sun backlights the immense aspen groves near Conway Summit, California.

As the sun dropped toward the peaks of the Sierra crest to the west of Conway Summit, beams of light occasionally broke through the partly cloudy skies and backlit these brilliantly colored aspen groves alongside highway 395. I’ve shot here enough times over the past few years to understand how the light works here – though I admit that every time I think I understand, I discover something new! For me, the ideal is to go to Conway Summit right at the peak of aspen color, or perhaps a bit earlier when a few green trees remain, and to shoot in late-afternoon light, aiming almost directly into the sun. The color of the light coming through these leaves is almost unbelievably intense and saturated – and, in fact, is a bit of a tricky thing to photograph!

There are many attractive things about Conway Summit when it comes to aspen viewing. (There are also, admittedly, a few less attractive things, such as shooting from the edge of a four-lane highway!) The stands of aspens are extensive here, covering many acres. Because of the slightly elevated viewpoint, the observer can look down into and across the trees as they follow the slope gently rising toward the Sierra. There are actually a large number of separate groves that stand mostly in lines stretching from left to right, and each of them is often in a different stage of color development at this point in the season, with the result being that trees of almost every shade from green to brilliant red can be seen at once.

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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Aspen Groves, Afternoon Light. Conway Summit, California. October 16, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon sun backlights the brilliant fall colors of aspen groves along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada near Conway Summit.

This is one of what is likely to be a series of very gaudy and colorful photographs of autumn aspen color, much of it photographed at Conway Summit along highway 395 just north of Lee Vining and Mono Lake. Keep your sunglasses handy!

If you happen to arrive at the Conway Summit area at the right point in the fall color season, you can be treated to an astonishingly large and brilliant show of aspen color. (It isn’t a sure bet though. Some years it is not nearly as spectacular. ) This year the trees seemed to turn quite suddenly. A week earlier there had been a lot of very green trees at this elevation along the east side of the Sierra, and many of us expected that the most striking colors would not come until as much as a week later. But nature wasn’t listening, and one week after I had seen so much green, the aspens all along the eastern escarpment of the range were turning golden and many other shade, frequently all the way down to the level of Owens Valley.

After shooting in the early morning out in Owens Vally and then hiking up to Parsons Lake in the middle of the day, I finally made my way up north to Conway Summit just before what I regard as the ideal time to photograph aspen color here, namely during the last hour or so before the sun drops below the peaks of the Sierra to the west. During this period the trees are back- and side-lit in very dramatic ways. While shooting almost directly into the sun can be tricky, the backlit trees really light up. At first I was a bit concerned when I arrived since clouds over the crest threatened to end the light show early, and they actually did interfere at times. But they also broke up the light a bit and provided a combination of ever-changing light and shadow patterns. One moment the light would strike one area and I would shoot in that direction. A moment later that light was gone, but shortly it would appear in another spot – and I’d swivel the camera around and work that subject for a moment.

This little pair of groves is one that I’ve watched and photographed for several years. I like the way that it stands apart from the much larger main groves and has the plain grass and sagebrush covered hills as background. I made a series of exposures of this subject, and in this one the light crossing from left to right not only struck the colorful trees but also lit up some of the gentle ridges of the slopes beyond.

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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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