Tag Archives: trees

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

East Side Canyon, Autumn

Image December 5, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Well, I thought that I had shared the last of this fall’s Sierra Nevada aspen photographs. But then I took another look at my raw files and decided that a few more were worth working up. This is one of a set of four in that group. It features one of the steep canyons that rise along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra. There is a row of cottonwood trees in the foreground and larger groves of autumn aspens far up the canyon.

You can’t tell from the photograph, but it was almost impossible to make pictures here doe to high winds. I had parked along a rough gravel road and was alternately making photographs and cowering behind my vehicle as gusts swept through. Between that wind storm and the snow that came in a few days later it was a tricky year for aspen photography in the Sierra.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red Cliffs and Trees

Image December 3, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

There are plenty of people whose knowledge of the red rock sandstone formations of the Southwest exceeds mine. But I have observed tremendous variations in these rocks as I photographed in Utah. The rock generally comes in layers that vary significantly in color and texture. Sometimes they are thick, uniform, and massive. In other locations they are filled with textured sub-layers and contain curves and cracks.

The example in this photograph is one of those massive, solid layers. This cliff is in Zion National Park’s slightly-more-remote Kolob Canyon. It is in a location where you can get quite close to this impressive layer. I made the photograph on a morning with a bit of haze. The position of the sun in front and to the right of the camera produced rim light on the cliff’s edges.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Forest and Dome, Sunset

Image November 30, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This may (or may not!) be my final post of a summer 2025 photograph from the Yosemite high country. (As long time readers know, sometimes I do dig back into the archives and work up “left behind” photographs.) It is a modest little photograph, but it seems appropriate to conclude the coverage of the high country year with sunset light on forest and granite.

I made the photograph on an early July walk through parts of Tuolumne Meadows. I was up there, in part, to adapt to the elevation before an upcoming pack trip — but also, obviously and predictably — to do some photography. I was out wandering the meadows as the day came to an end, and I made the photograph as the last direct sunlight, soft and warm, illuminated the forest at the east end of the meadow and the line between light and shadow began to ascend the dome.

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

Meadow and Sunset Trees

Image November 28, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Back on July first I wandered through parts of a nearly-deserted Tuolumne Meadows late in the day. Since the campground was still closed, I camped just outside the park. For that reason and due to summer restrictions on vehicle traffic, the meadow was nearly deserted by the end of the day. I photographed these two trees as the day’s last light hit them.

Chasing the last light of the day at sunset in Tuolumne Meadows is a bit of a challenge. Because the meadow is nearly wide open on an almost east/west axis. the low angle light can traverse most of its length late in the day. But that also means that the sunlight disappears suddenly if you are near the east end. If you want to photograph the colors of the last few minutes of warm light, you have to work quickly!