“Aspen Trees and Beaver Pond” — Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees line the shore of a beaver pond.
When I first explored this Eastern Sierra Nevada canyon years ago, I went there to find fall color among the aspen trees. I found that in abundance, and I’ve returned every year since then. There were other interesting features, too, including small ponds flooding the canyon floor far up the canyon near where the road ended. Eventually I realized that these were beaver ponds, something I had not really seen in the Sierra. Although I have yet to actually see a beaver here, it wasn’t long before I figured out where their lodges are located.
“First Light on Bare Aspens” — Morning light strikes the tops of nearly leafless aspen trees.
I came to this ridge overlooking Mono Basin and the Eastern Sierra well before sunrise. My intention was to photograph some extensive aspen groves along with other landscape subjects as the morning light arrived. It turned out that I was too late in the season for these aspens — I should have remembered that their drop leaves early — so I worked those other subjects as sunrise began to light up the terrain.
“Autumn Cascade” — A Sierra Nevada creek descends a steep chute past autumn colors.
If you have been following recent posts, I may be starting to sound like a broken record. But here, again, I photographed a subject that I had not noticed until very recently, even though I’ve passed by scores of times and likely looked straight towards it without “seeing” it.This small cascade descends from the heights of an Eastern Sierra canyon. In my defense, there’s a lot of other stuff to see nearby, and the cascade is only visible from a rather small location.
“Aspen Thicket” — A dense aspen thicket, with few remaining leaves.
One of the advantages of returning to the same subjects over the years is that this gives your vision for them time to evolve. Here I speak not just of aspens in general, but of this particular grove of trees. Some years ago, while photographing a different nearby subject, a large grove further up the hillside caught my attention. It posed two challenges. First, getting close to the grove would be extremely difficult. Second, it always seemed to have lost its leaves when the other trees I came to see were at their color peak.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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