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More Links to Current Eastern Sierra Fall Aspen Color Reports

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I’m catching up on some online reading this evening, and thought I’d share a list of some reports on eastern Sierra fall color that I’ve come across. In no particular order:

  • A quick eastern Sierra fall color update from Greg Russell/Alpenglow Images – Greg’s brief report mentions visiting the Bishop Creek area on Saturday along with visits to Rock Creek and June Lakes Loop.
  • Richard Wong offers a brief report on Bishop Creek Canyon Fall Color at the California Nature Photographers blog. (Yes, my report from this weekend is posted there, too.) Richard covers several areas in the Bishop Creek and North/South/Sabrina Lakes area.
  • The Eastern Sierra Fall Color group on Flickr includes a lot of recent on-the-scene photographs (you may be able to use them to make some decisions about your destination) and the discussion forum includes a lot of posts by those who are there and have been there recently. There is also an interesting thread on the all-important question of where to eat in the eastern Sierra! (Discussion forums only open to group members.)
  • Elizabeth Carmel’s Landscape Photography blog points out a Sacramento Bee Interactive Guide to Fall Colors. (The guide has some interesting and useful information – perhaps most importantly a map with many great aspen locations identified. However, the interactive part of the guide would be even more useful if the information was a bit more up-to-date. I wonder if they might think about building something like this with input from a larger group of photographers who are on the scene?)
  • Journal of My Travels for the Perfect Photo, Inge Fernau’s photography blog, has lots of good advice and reports on photographing Sierra aspens.
  • It looks like Carol Leigh may be updating her Fall Color in California page once again. This is one of the “classic” sites for locating information about this topic, and typically includes lots of reports from those in the field. (I’m wondering though, if it is a bit less current than in the past. (I recently sent an update last week and it never appeared on the page…)
  • Greg A. Lato has posted a sequence of three posts about his visit to the eastern Sierra. Visit his latoga Photography site and then look for the “recent blog posts” section lower on the page.
  • Leon Turnbull reports on a visit to the giant aspen groves at the top of Monitor Pass and a perhaps unfortunate abundance of certain other travelers while he was there. (The groves atop Monitor Pass are huge, and seem to me to be a bit less well-known than some of the areas further south. I was a bit surprised at his report that many of the trees had not yet changed colors, since I frequently find that they change here just a bit earlier than in some other locations on my circuit. A good aspen route is to go up over Carson Pass and then over Monitor to highway 395.)
  • The Life on the Eastern Slope blog mentions conditions in Lundy Canyon, Tioga Pass, and other nearby areas. (I drove past but did not enter Lundy Canyon on Sunday – I could see colors up high above Lundy, but cannot offer first-hand info on conditions down in the canyon. I also went over Tioga Pass twice and saw some pretty good colors just east of the pass, though colors down in Lee Vining Canyon have not changed yet.)
  • I mentioned it earlier, but it is worth mentioning that Michael Frye posted a bit of a guide to photographing fall colors in Yosemite. (For the record, if you are looking for great aspen photography opportunities, Yosemite is not your best choice. But there are other types of fall color in Yosemite that bring me back every year.)
  • Greg Boyer has posted his Fall Color Update #8 from Bishop. His view is that this coming weekend will likely be the prime time to shoot – which is pretty much in line with what I’m thinking. I would not be surprised to find that some areas in the upper Bishop Creek drainage will have lost leaves by then, but there are tons of trees a bit lower… and many other eastern Sierra areas should be in great shape. (But watch the weather – there is a chance of a change this weekend.) Other entries at Greg’s One Horse Studio blog also offer good information and perspectives on fall color.

Whew! I’m sure I’ve missed some other useful resources – feel free to share via a comment.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Yosemite

Two Trees Against Boulder, Ten Lakes Basin

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Two Trees Against Boulder, Ten Lakes Basin

Two Trees Against Boulder, Ten Lakes Basin. Yosemite National Park, California. August 25, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two small trees growing against the face of a large boulder in the Ten Lakes Basin, Yosemite National Park, California.

Earlier in the day I had wandered down from “lake three” to “lake two” in Ten Lakes Basin (where there are apparently actually seven lakes – go figure!). My goal was partly just to see one more of the lakes, but I also wanted to scope out some photographic possibilities during the day so that when I returned later in the evening I would be able to get to work more quickly. This pair of trees was on my “maybe” list, so when I returned in the evening I photographed the subjects on the “definite” list first and then turned my attention to a group of trees growing closely around a large glacial (I assume) boulder.

Whatever the aesthetic result, this was not an easy photo to do on a technical basis. Since it was late and the lake was in deep shade behind a large mountain ridge to the west there was not a lot of light to work with, and what light there was trended a bit strongly toward blue. On top of that the wind was blowing like crazy, making camera stability a bit of an issue – not to mention the problem of shooting waving tree branches with the long exposures the conditions required. In the end I resorted to a regular strategy that included making quite a few exposures, trying to time them for brief pauses in the wind, and being willing to accept a small amount of motion blur.

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

First Light, Mount Gibbs

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First Light, Mount Gibbs

First Light, Mount Gibbs. Yosemite National Park, California. July 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First morning light shines across the face of Mt. Gibbs above Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park, California.

This photograph was made in the early morning alongside Tioga Meadow, the large meadow just below Tioga Pass inside the eastern boundary of Yosemite National Park, as the first sun crept over the Sierra crest and began to hit the upper slopes of Mt. Gibbs. This is one of my favorite locations along Tioga Pass Road, probably because it is the highest area right at the pass but also because of the extensive rolling meadows containing the skeletons of trees knocked down by avalanches and because of the proximity to much higher peaks, such as Mt. Dana.

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

Spring Pond, Tuolumne Meadows

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Spring Pond, Tuolumne Meadows

Spring Pond, Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite National Park, California. July 10, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon light on a small runoff pond at the edge of Tuolumne Meadows with impressive clouds in the distance, Yosemite National Park, California.

If you have ever been to Tuolumne Meadows – or at least spent a few moments wandering about there – you probably know this little pond. It is right alongside the road where the John Muir Trail crosses on its way across the Meadows to Parsons Lodge, the old Sierra Club facility on the far side of the meadow by Soda Springs. It is a frequently-photographed feature of the meadow, though often it is used as a foreground for photographs of Lembert Dome. This photograph looks a bit fore towards the north or northwest towards Ragged Peak and the north boundary country of the park.

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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