Tag Archives: south

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen, Rock, and Lichen

December 1, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autum aspen colors against a background of lichen-covered rocks near South Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

This splash of color comes from a roadside aspen in full fall glory, found along the roadway to South Lake not far from Parcher’s Resort in the eastern Sierra Nevada range above Bishop California. I was attracted not only to the colorful fall leaves of the tree, but also to the background of shaded granite and the greenish lichen that covers the rocks.

This photograph is from my early October visit to the eastern Sierra Nevada to hunt aspen color. This was one of those trips on which the weather was beautifully awful. This day started with very high winds and cold temperatures, and throughout the day I encountered overcast and scattered snow flurries.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Three Aspen Trunks, Lichen Covered Rocks

November 8, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three small aspen trees with fall color leaves among small plants grow from a crack in lichen-covered rocks – Sierra Nevada, California near South Lake.

Yet another variation on the “bare aspen trunks with some leaves, photographed against granite” theme – I can’t help myself! :-)

This is another of several photographs I made along the road below Parcher’s Resort on the way to South Lake in the eastern Sierra above Bishop, California. At this early October point in the season there are almost endless ways to approach photography of aspens – still-green aspens, aspens barely starting to change color, newly colorful aspens among still-green aspens, aspens at the height of their yellow/orange/red color, aspens past peak starting to thin a bit, aspens with only a few beautiful leaves remaining (and the rest littering the ground beneath), aspen trunks bare of any leaves and waiting for the winter to arrive – and all of these shot in an infinite variety of light, in an infinite variety of settings, with an infinite variety of compositions.

So I hope no one minds if I continue to post a few more. :-)

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Bare Aspen Trunks and Boulders

November 7, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Granite boulders stand behind a row of nearly bare fall aspen trees near South Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

This is one more photograph from my early October aspen-chasing expeditions to the eastern Sierra. On this trip I ended up in the Bishop Creek area and on this cold, slightly snowy, early fall day I ended up at one point along a section of roadway just below Parcher’s Resort near South Lake. Below Parcher’s there is a meadow – I parked there and spend some time wandering up the roadway past this area of steep, jumbled rocks and aspen trees and other foliage.

A note about the light in this photograph: I had passed by this area before – on previous visits and earlier during this trip – and thought about how I’d like to photograph here in diffused, shaded conditions. So I made a plan to return much later in the afternoon when I knew that the sun would move around behind the ridge about this spot and leave it in shade, but with some light coming in from the open sky and ridge on the other side of the valley – pretty much exactly the sort of conditions I look for when I photograph this type of subject.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: row, aspen, bare, tree, trunk, season, fall, autumn, white, branch, leaf, leaves, vertical, yellow, gold, rock, boulder, cliff, lichen, texture, parchers, resort, south, lake, bishop, creek, road, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, california, usa, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Red and Green Aspen Leaves

October 24, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Red and green aspen leaves in the Sierra Nevada near South Lake.

I spotted a grove of small aspen trees with very colorful leaves as I was driving down from South Lake and just as the light was just about too dark to continue shooting – especially since the wind was rising and by this time blowing like crazy! It can be tricky to shoot aspen leaves close up even in a slight breeze, but shooting them in fading light when the wind is rising to near gale force is darn close to impossible!

While many of the trees in this grove were headed more in the yellow direction, I found a few that seemed to be going almost straight from green to red.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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