Tag Archives: slope

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Trees, Morning Shadows

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Trees, Morning Shadows
A line of trees ascends a rocky slope in monring shadows, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Trees, Morning Shadows. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A line of trees ascends a rocky slope in monring shadows, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

While taking a morning walk along the creek below our camp I followed the water as it curved around a large flat area, tracing a route along the base of a rocky hill rising toward a much higher ridge. The ridge kept the area in shadow well into the morning, so I decided to photograph in the soft, shaded light just before the first direct sunlight arrived.

So much of what grows in these places is determined by the shape of the landscape. Here the slope was full of old moraine rocks and with boulders that appear to have fallen down from the higher ridge. But where there was a gap in the rocks the trees managed to establish themselves, creating ribbons of green ascending the hillside.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

High Country Sunset

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High Country Sunset
Sunset light on trees along the shoreline of an alpine lake below talus fields.

High Country Sunset. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Sunset light on trees along the shoreline of an alpine lake below talus fields.

This is the highest of a small series of three Yosemite backcountry lakes — the lowest in forest, the middle right below steeping terrain, and this highest lake surrounded by alpine meadows and rocky slopes and ridges. When I visit I usually camp at the lowest lake and then day-hike to the upper at the times of best light.

This time I went up late in the day, planning to stay through sunset and then hike back down to my camp in the gathering darkness. This lake sits just below a high, shattered ridge covered with slabs, talus, and boulders. It catches the late light and produces a wonderful backdrop to the lake, the green shoreline meadows, and the trees catching the golden hour colors.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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

Autumn Color Layers

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Autumn Color Layers
Layers of autumn color from aspen groves ascending an eastern Sierra Nevada slope.

Autumn Color Layers. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Layers of autumn color from aspen groves ascending an eastern Sierra Nevada slope.

This is one of those “rediscovered” photographs that I had originally left behind a couple of years ago. I found it again during the last few months while doing a review of some older raw files. I originally made several exposures of this group of trees with autumn foliage in the eastern Sierra Nevada, and I initially went with something framed a bit differently and using the landscape (horizontal) format. But coming back to the set of images, I noticed that layered effect of these trees and thought it might be a worthy photograph, too.

This grove is somewhat characteristic of the sorts of aspen trees we find in the Sierra Nevada. As friends often remind me (usually after retiring from visits to these other places), in places like Colorado and Utah and similar locations you can find seemingly endless groves of tall, thick, and straight trees. That’s quite rare here in my state. It isn’t impossible to find large groves, nor is it impossible to find thick and tall trees — but that’s not the most common situation. Often the trees are smaller and with distinct “personalities” — which is another way of saying that they many be twisted in interesting ways rather than straight and tall. But in this grove, we get a bit of (almost) everything. Behind that first line of small trees, which are likely encroaching on the foreground meadow, there is a grove of tall aspens. Beyond that, as the slope becomes steeper and more rocky, the trees once again begin to have that… “personality.”

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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

East Slope Aspens, Autumn

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East Slope Aspens, Autumn
A large grove of autumn aspen trees extends up the lower reaches of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

East Slope Aspens, Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large grove of autumn aspen trees extends up the lower reaches of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Many of the autumn aspen photographs that we see feature extensive groves tall, straight trees with beautiful white trunks, and sometimes the groves seem to stretch across entire mountains. For the most part, those are not Sierra Nevada aspens! While you can find some similar examples in the Sierra if you look around a lot, most of “our” trees tend to be a bit smaller, and they are often a bit more twisted and gnarly. Some, in fact, are downright small. If you are used to seeing those straight and tall groves… the Sierra may teach you to appreciate different sorts of trees.

However in a few places there are some rather large groves. They frequently show up in places where the aspens have little competition from conifer forest trees — on the tops of some ridges and in some of the sagebrush high country on the eastern flank of the range. This scene is an example of the latter, and the interlocking groves spread across the rise of these hills toward the eastern side of the Sierra in terrain that is otherwise largely open and dry.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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