Tag Archives: sierra

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Leafless Aspen Grove

October 29, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sierra Nevada aspen grove with bare trunks

I’ve written before that this has been a very strange fall color season in the Eastern Sierra, and this photograph might be an example. Although the photograph was made very near the beginning of October, typically the time that the peak colors are arriving, this grove was one of many that were already completely devoid of autumn leaves. After spending some time in a very colorful area much further south along the eastern slopes of the Sierra, I decided to head back to the San Francisco Bay Area over a couple of passes that cross the range much further north. Near the top of one of these passes there is a vast open area that holds many large aspen groves, and I had hopes of photographing some color here late in the day.

I arrived to find a beautiful scene — high, open sagebrush country with clouds moving quickly across the landscape and creating changeable light. But the aspens were pretty much spent. I pulled off the main road at a place I know well, and took a short detour down a little gravel road toward the edge of groves where there are some very large trees. Here I found the trees, alright, but the leaves were gone. Fortunately, I like aspen groves in almost any condition — with bare branches, with new spring growth, with colorful autumn leaves, in snow — so I went to work photographing the dense patterns of closely spaced aspen trunks in the soft late-day light, muted even further by clouds.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Lake, Trees, Storm

October 26, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening at a subalpine lake on a day of late-season storms

This weeklong photography trip into the Yosemite backcountry this September brought some very strange atmospheric conditions. To begin with, the four-year California drought has deeply affected the Sierra, and by the time we got into the mountains there were wildfires up and down the range. One significant fire was burning no far away inside the park, another large fire burned just outside the park to the north, and a small lightning-caused “management fire” was burning very close to our camp. At least once per day we were inundated with thick wildfire smoke, morning or evening. (We counted ourselves lucky to get a good half day of photography conditions each day.)

Closer to the end of the trip we encountered another weather anomaly. Thunderstorms are not unusual this time of year, and it is even possible to get an early Gulf of Alaska Pacific storm. But instead we got the remnants of the hurricane off of Mexico. When all was said and done we had virtually two days of rain — not the terrible rain that keeps you in at the tent, but the general light rain that eventually gets everything wet, but which also produces some very wonderful effects of atmosphere and light. This evening exemplified such conditions. Beyond the forest ringing out lake the sky included dark clouds and lighter areas where a bit more light made it through, and all of this was mirrored in the calm surface of the lake.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Grove of Small Aspens

October 23, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dense autumn grove of small eastern Sierra Nevada aspen trees with bare trunks

This little grove, and this specific spot in this grove has become a sort of old friend. It is one of those odd little spots that most people would probably miss, and with good reason. The trees are small, they are on the far side of a creek, access is via a short and unmarked little one-lane gravel road, and the trees are in many ways unremarkable, especially in a place and at a time when there are many larger and more spectacular groves nearby.

I first came here by accident some years back, turning into a nearly hidden side road on a whim and then randomly exploring its short length. Part way along there is a wide spot, and I happened to pull off there, get out and look around. The small and very dense trees got my attention, and I discovered that they grow so closely that it is difficult to pass among them. (This year I thought I’d walk through the grove to see what is on the other side — I have up about thirty feet in!) But such a grove, with so many little trees, offers an astounding range of arrangements of trees. I can photograph up close with a wide-angle lens; I can step back and narrow the frame with a long lens, I can move in among the trees, I can visit when the trees are full of colorful leaves or almost bare. In any case, every time I pass by here, without fail, I take the little side road and stop quietly here for a few minutes.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Color

October 22, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful aspen trees near the peak of autumn color, eastern Sierra Nevada

Sometimes it is very difficult to find compositions among the many potential variations related to aspens — and then other times I just feel like pointing the camera at the wild colors and making an exposure. This grove moved me more in the direction of the latter approach! The grove itself is huge, stretching across a valley-bottom creek and then a good distance up a sub-alpine slope. The well watered trees near the bottom tend toward stocky vigor, while the upper reaches are populated by small, slender trees growing among boulders and talus fields.

I had visited this area twice during the previous two weeks, and on those visits I could tell that the color crescendo was coming. So by the time of this visit I was pretty certain that I would see good color and I wasn’t disappointed. The grove was in that wonderful state in which almost every possible aspen color appears at once. There were a few trees that were still solidly green, while others were completing the color change process and had already dropped many leaves. The trees in this photograph were somewhere in between, with spots of intense color ranging from yellow all the way to orange-red. But a few trees lagged behind, still quite green or just entering that telltale lime green phase that indicates that full color is not far away.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sierra

Leafless Aspen Grove

Lake, Trees, Storm

Grove of Small Aspens

Aspen Color

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