Beyond a dead tree lying in shoreline grasses, an autumn aspen grove rises up a Sierra Nevada hillside
Trying to find different ways to photograph this well-known subject, here I excluded some of the most characteristic features, included both the near and far shorelines, and placed an old fallen tree in the lower part of the frame. If memory serves, that dead tree has been there for a while, and I may have thought of incorporating it during previous visits. The grassy foreground — with grass growing in the lake — produces its own interesting fall colors as it changes from green to brown.
The grove of brilliantly colored aspens across the lake is, at this point, iconic. Indeed, there are frequently quite a few people photographing here. I arrived at an atypical time of day, and on an afternoon when the clouds may have made the conditions seem unpromising to some. As a result there was hardly anyone else there! The clouds worked to my advantage, as they softened the light coming onto the grove from the left, filling the shadows with a bit more light and avoiding the overly bright highlights that are difficult to deal with in full sun.
Grasses grow along the marshy shoreline of an alpine lake backed by a glaciated terrain and a huge talus field
To illustrate just how long it took the sun to reach our camp near this subalpine lake, by the time I made this photograph I had already been up long enough to walk the length of the lake, make many photographs, and walk nearly all the way back to camp! Sunrise was actually much earlier, but the very tall ridge (see in the distance in the photograph) blocked the light for the first few hours of the day. If you look carefully you may notice the upper slopes are softly lit by light reflected from peaks on the other side of the valley, behind and to the right of my camera position.
In this extended morning twilight the quality of the place was special. It was quiet and still — the water on the lake was still mirror-like. Soft light gently illuminated the scene, and a few subjects that were more colorful stood out — as seen in the early autumn colors of some of the foreground grasses. It was a time to walk slowly and alone along the shoreline, taking my time to enjoy and photograph this quiet landscape.
Subalpine forest ascends on granite benches above a small lake
This scene is located in one of the lovely intimate landscape areas of the valley we visited in mid-September this year. While spectacular alpine ridges and peaks and long vistas seem like primary features of the Sierra Nevada, the more time you spend there the more you’ll come to think of scenes like this one as defining the nature of the place. It is a land of bare granite slabs and benches, on which small trees managed to find sustenance, broken up by lakes and tarns and meadows. While those monumental peaks are often visible above, these scenes are more characteristic and perhaps affecting.
The light is special, too. In this terrain of open forests, widely spaced trees, rocky formations, lakes and meadows the light manages to find its way into nearly every corner of the landscape. Unlike denser forests, where the ground can seem to be in perpetual shade, here the light almost always breaks through. Even in areas where the light is blocked by peaks, other peaks often reflect soft light to illuminate the shadows. And everywhere, especially early and late in the day, back-light can make the trees and grasses glow.
A grove of autumn aspen trees descends to the shoreline of a reflecting lake
I’ll use today’s post for several purposes — the usual photograph shared with comments, plus some thoughts and observations about the Sierra Nevada autumn color season. The photograph comes from a well-known location in the Eastern Sierra. I was fortunate to visit on a day when the usual crowds weren’t there, and I had the place almost to myself! It probably helped that I arrived at an unusual time of day, taking advantage of some broken clouds that produced some special light on the river of aspen trees flowing down the hillside to the edge of this subalpine lake. Parts of the grove were past the proverbial prime, but in some ways I like seeing a few bare trees in the scene.
On this past week’s short trip to photograph Eastern Sierra Nevada fall color I thought a bit about what I’ve learned over the years regarding the timing of the annual transition. One thing that I finally have accepted is that it is more or less impossible (with some minor exceptions) to accurately predict the evolution of the color in a particular year. A second thing I’ve realized is that, despite year-to-year variations within the season, the overall color transition tends to take place on more or less the same schedule each year. In other words, leaving aside truly exceptional times such as year five of the recent five-year drought, things tend to start and end on about the same schedule each year — despite the annual initial “observations” about how the season is going to be an unusual one — beginning high and working down the mountains to lower elevations, with other local variations in the evolution. (I confess… I’ve made those predictions, too.)
While the start/end times of the fall color transition tend to be fairly consistent (for example, week two of October is almost always a good bet), there are sometimes variations within that time frame. Some are obvious. For example, a big, windy storm when there are lots of yellow leaves will blow down many of those leaves, and there will be a gap of a few more days before other leaves change color and take their place. Others are more mysterious. I noted a few of those mysteries this year. For example, in one location where I often find trees losing their leaves somewhat earlier than elsewhere, this year there were still some green trees! Yet, in other nearby locations trees that are often coming into form just a bit later… were in full color already!
What to do? My advice is still pretty much the same. Target a time around the end of the first week of October for your visit, expecting that the week starting then is likely to produce good color. Once on the scene, be alert for variations and be ready to change plans. If one area is still green, try going higher. If the trees you visit seem to be losing (or have already lost!) their leaves when you get there, try a lower elevation, a location with larger trees, or a deep east side canyon. And realize that it is almost unheard of for all the trees in an area to be at peak color simultaneously — you are far more likely to find some bare and some green trees mixed in with your trees in prime condition.
What about this year? Based on what I saw last week, this weekend (October 12, 13, 14) should be great in many places. In addition, given the number of purely green trees I saw in various locations, it should be quite possible to still find excellent color in another week.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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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.
