Tag Archives: trees

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Trees, Late Autumn

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Wetland Trees, Late Autumn
A row of trees with fall color, Central Valley wetlands.

Wetland Trees, Late Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A row of trees with fall color, Central Valley wetlands.

If there is more beautiful light than muted late-autumn sun on colorful trees against a slightly darkened sky, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen it. It was a foggy day in the Central Valley of California during this brief season between the heat of summer and early autumn and the cold and often gray winter. For a few weeks there is a surprising amount of autumn color out here, though it took me quite a long time to understand this.

Just when is autumn, anyway? I know that the calendar tells me it begins on the late-September autumnal equinox and that it ends on the December winter solstice, but that’s not quite what it feels like. I used to think that it was when the Eastern Sierra aspens change color, roughly during the first weeks of October. But years ago I began to tune in to subtle changes in the Sierra that clearly said “autumn is coming” as early as August. By September corn lilies, bilberry, and willows show color, but in the lowlands it is still effectively summer. In the Great Valley and in the coastal areas closer to where I live, real fall color doesn’t arrive until November, and it lasts well into December. I have even photographed “fall color” in January of the new year!

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: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Wetland Color

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Autumn Wetland Color
A quiet morning under fog with autumn colors, Central Valley

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

A quiet morning under fog with autumn colors, Central Valley

Autumn, my favorite season, is a month-and-a-half away by the calendar — and in terms of California weather it is more like three months away. Here the transition is gradual, and the first month of solar autumn still feels more like summer on most days, with warm or even hot temperatures and no sign of changing colors, at least not in the areas closer to the coast. (By early October aspen color does come to the Eastern Sierra Nevada.) We may get teased by a few early weather fronts in October, but the actual rainy season doesn’t start until November — and perhaps later in our changing climate.

This photograph comes from an early December visit to the Great Central Valley, hardly what most people would regard as a great fall color destination. But these wetlands, many of which are preserved in wildlife refuges, attract me in late autumn and winter. Right around the fall/winter boundary there can actually be a fair amount of color out here if you know where to look for it. The main attraction is the migratory birds, but I’ve come to love the quiet landscapes of this region, too. Because I usually arrive very early — typically before sunrise — and on days when most people aren’t out here (I love fog!), I am often nearly the only person sharing these places with a few thousand of my bird friends.

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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Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

The Forest Floor

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The Forest Floor
Ferns, redwood sorrel, other plants, and young redwoods deep inside the coastal redwood forest.

The Forest Floor. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ferns, redwood sorrel, other plants, and young redwoods deep inside the coastal redwood forest.

Here is another photograph from this year’s late-spring foray to the far Northern California redwood region — the National and State Redwood Parks. It may surprise you to find that this almost-native Californian didn’t really start to get his mind around this region until fairly recently. While I’ve know the redwoods closer to the San Francisco Bay Area nearly my whole life, the parks in the northern reaches of the state were not part of my experience aside from driving through a few of them. Over the past few years I have been exploring them and I am now starting to feel like I know that part of the state a bit better.

This scene comes from one of the state parks. Which park is perhaps not that important, given that you can find scenes like this one almost anywhere. One differentiating factor among the parks seems to be how far they are from the coast — wetter and lusher closer to the coast, warmer and a bit more open further inland. This scene is perhaps more representative of the near-coast forest, with extremely thick and lush undergrowth and green things growing everywhere. (That “green things” comment may seem odd to those who aren’t familiar with much of the rest of California, where things are distinctly not-green during most of the year.)

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Redwood Understory

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Redwood Understory
Brush, rhododendrons, and small trees growing at the base of old coast redwood trees.

Redwood Understory. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brush, rhododendrons, and small trees growing at the base of old coast redwood trees.

This photograph takes me back to early June, when we spent a few days photographing in far Northern California’s coast redwood country, mostly in the famous national and state redwood parks up there. The timing of visits to the redwoods always seems a bit tricky, and in my experience it seems that the dates for important things like the arrival of the rhododendron bloom can be pretty variable. On this trip we want back on more or less the same dates as our previous visit, but this time we saw far fewer rhododendron blooms. Of course, with the disrupted climate and drought in California, things seem to be off schedule generally.

I am somewhat notorious for being unable to encounter fog in this area, at least in the redwood forest. I regularly see foggy redwood forest photographs by others, but when I go the fog seems to flee the scene! On this morning there actually was a bit of fog though. A few minutes early some stray fog clouds had passed through the trees, and when I made this photograph higher clouds muted the light quite nicely. The lighter plant in the foreground is a tree-like rhododendron… with almost no flowers!

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.