Tag Archives: trees

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Pines

October 15, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A few pine trees stand among the autumn aspens near Conway Summit in the eastern Sierra Nevada

I made this photograph in the vicinity of a well-known and easily accessible aspen color “hot spot” in the eastern Sierra, at Conway Summit along highway 395 north of Lee Vining. Here is one of the largest and most easily accessible areas of aspen color in the eastern Sierra, since it is in a large open area with grand vistas up aspen covered slopes and because these slopes rise from an open section of the highway. At the right point in time (almost) every season, trees in every stage of color may be seen, ranging from green through yellow, orange, and red to bare trees that have lost all of their leaves.

This season I was in the eastern Sierra for five days, ranging between Carson Pass in the north and as far south as the Bishop Creek drainage. Several times during this period I managed to end up at or near Conway Summit. The first visit was on the trip over to Bishop, when we drove 395 down from Carson and Monitor Passes in the middle of an early season snow storm. Arriving at the summit that day, I photographed this area in falling snow that almost obscured the trees. Only two days later I was there again in the afternoon, when the backlight coming across the Sierra crest can cause the autumn aspen leaves to glow with great intensity. For this photograph I found a spot where the nearer trees were largely bare except for a few trees still holding a few golden leaves.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Emerald Lake and Granite Benches

October 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A series of granite benches with back-lit trees rises above the emerald waters of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake, Kings Canyon National Park

This photograph includes several features that say “Sierra Nevada high country” to me, and which immediately evoke a whole range of associations that have evolved over decades of backpacking, hiking, skiing and otherwise being in that world. The rounded granite slabs and benches rising toward more distant talus slopes are a common feature of these mountains. The small, widely spaced trees growing in the rocky terrain not far below timberline are another. The late-season brown grasses and yellow willows are a part of the annual cycle announcing that winter will soon be arriving. And everywhere, small but deep lakes scooped out by glacial action can both reveal the patterns of shoreline rocks and descend into deep emerald blue.

This is – no surprise by now, perhaps! – one more photograph from our mid-September time photographing in the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, camped for the better part of a week in an area of many beautiful lakes near the 11,000′ level. This was an incredibly rich field for making photographs, and we were able to “work” it for the full-time and rarely walk more than perhaps 15-20 minutes from our camp. This small lake was simply one of many small lakes in this area, and I passed by it several times as I wandered up the meadows and granite of the valley above our camp.

Events, Locations

Looking for Eastern Sierra Aspen Color?

October 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Since this is the season of aspen color along the east slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, it seems like a good time to share a link to my article on where and how to find and photograph these beautiful trees: Sierra Nevada Fall Color Season – Coming Sooner Than You Think.

Fallen Aspen Branch, Snow - A small aspen tree branch blown down by an early fall storm rests on snow, North Lake, California. — Fallen Aspen Branch, Snow – A small aspen tree branch blown down by an early fall storm rests on snow, North Lake, California.

I originally wrote this article four years ago, in response to a lot of questions about this seasonal change, and I have updated it regularly since then. The short story is that the aspens begin to change near the end of September in a typical year, and if you know where to look you can find aspen color for the next three weeks or perhaps just a bit longer. The change starts in the highest groves of trees and then works its way down to lower elevations as the transformation progresses, with later potential down along the base of the range and in some of the east side canyons.

I have not (yet) been up to photograph the trees this season – though I plan to rectify that situation very soon! – but everything I’m hearing right now suggests that the change came earlier than usual this year. In a more typical year I would expect to see the best color perhaps starting right about now and continuing for another week or longer – but this year there are a lot of reports of high elevation trees already dropping leaves and of lower elevation areas already in peak form. If you are going this year, I would make it sooner rather than later!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake, Trees, and Granite – Afternoon Light

October 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Afternoon light slants across a Sierra Nevada landscape of water, trees, and ascending granite ridges

This lake, and the rocky meadows and forest and other small lakes and ponds surrounding it quickly became one of our favorite locations to photograph during our mid-September time photographing in the Sierra Nevada range of eastern Kings Canyon National Park. This spot was a very short ten minute hike away from our camp site, and it drew us back many times over the course of our six night stay – morning and evening, fair weather and stormy. The location was so varied and detailed that there was no end of things to see and photograph.

On this day several of us headed over there in the late afternoon, and once we arrived we headed off in various directions to find photographs. By this point we were clued in to the evening pattern of light, one that suddenly and a bit unexpectedly “turned out the lights” a bit earlier than we might have expected, with the shadow of a large ridge to the west quickly sweeping from north to south across the lake. We figured out that we had to start earlier than we might typically start for evening shooting, and that we then had to watch the change carefully so as to be ready for it when it happened. By the time I made this photograph, the wind had come up and what had been smooth waters began to take on a different appearance as the wind created some surface waves. A bit of haze accentuates the difference in distance between the closest trees and the more distant trees leading up the base of the rockier slopes.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Aspens and Pines

Emerald Lake and Granite Benches

Looking for Eastern Sierra Aspen Color?

Lake, Trees, and Granite – Afternoon Light

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