Tag Archives: trunk

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

Tall Aspen Trees, Autumn

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Tall Aspen Trees, Autumn
A grove of tall aspen trees at peak autumn color, Eastern Sierra Nevada

Tall Aspen Trees, Autumn. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of tall aspen trees at peak autumn color, Eastern Sierra Nevada

“The color isn’t very good this year,” someone said. “The color is changing late,” said someone else. “It changed to early,” said another. “The trees are still all green,” according to one observer. “Too many trees are bare already,” lamented one photographer. “The early snow turned lots of leaves black,” someone wrote. “It isn’t as good as it used to be,” reported another. After watching quite a few fall color seasons in the Sierra, I have observed that seasons do seem to have a bit of a personality. I’ve also heard (and spoken!) some generalizations about the development of color every year. It finally occurred to me this season that I often hear some variation on the same comments almost every season! Someone reports early color — or that it isn’t starting on schedule. Someone reports that the colors are better — or worse — that usual. But, aside from some differences likely attributable to weather variations, both long-term and short-term, over time things do seem to play out it fairly similar ways each year.

This year I spent — so far — about six days in the Sierra during fall color season. I feel like I pretty much hit the peak color over the past few days, with good color remaining at higher elevations and starting at the lower levels. If you haven’t gone yet and can get away in the next few days, I’m confident that you’ll be able to find some great eastern Sierra color, too. You will find a few groves have lost their leaves, but you’ll also find some in peak condition and probably even a few trees that are still green. I made this photograph on a very cold autumn morning — made a bit colder due to a miscalculation on an ice-coated rock while trying to cross a stream! — in a location where the morning sun had not yet cleared the top of a nearby tall ridge. The trees were picking up some soft reflected light that opened up the shadows and revealed details and colors that would not be a visible later on when the trees were in full sun.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon

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Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon
A large cottonwood tree with fall colors in front of sandstone walls and a side canyon

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon. Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 25, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large cottonwood tree with fall colors in front of sandstone walls and a side canyon

During a bit of hard drive housekeeping this week I found a folder full of files from a Utah visit in 2012. Because I have a hard drive that is about to fill, I’ve been looking for unused and unneeded files that invariably get left behind after work on various projects — you know, the files that I “just might want to keep around, just in case.” I think that the batch in this folder were transferred from my laptop, and they are most likely files that I worked on quickly in the field and planned to update on my desktop computer later. My first thought was that I’d just delete the folder, but then I looked more closely and found several files that I want to keep.

This is one of the keepers. Although I hadn’t thought if it for quite a while, I now recall this little canyon junction quite distinctly, a place were a smaller side canyon dropped down into the larger canyon through which we walked. Scale is hard to judge against this landscape, but the old cottonwood is very large, especially for one in the base of a narrow canyon. This photograph reminds me of something else, too — I need to get back to these canyons!

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Slender Aspens

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Slender Aspens
Slender aspen trees with leaves transitioning from green to yellow

Slender Aspens. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Slender aspen trees with leaves transitioning from green to yellow

I made this photograph quite a bit earlier in the season that usual — just past the middle of September. More typically I photograph these trees a couple of weeks later. However, this fall I made a reconnaissance trip to the Eastern Sierra at this early date and discovered quite a bit of good color, especially at higher elevations. (The typical pattern has the earliest color starting at higher elevations and in the smaller trees, then progression downwards and into the larger trees over the next few weeks.)

When it comes to the possible ways to photograph aspens, there are too many to count: front, side, or backlit; while there are still green leaves, when everything is golden-yellow (and orange and red), or when the trunks are bare; in sunlight or shadow; big trees and small; up close or from further back. I photographed this beautiful little grove of slender trees from some distance, using a long focal length to flatten the perspective a bit and to create a tighter composition. The leaves were at a typical early stage, with a few having turned yellow and others still quite green. But I think it was the slender and stark white trunks and the patterns they created that drew me to this grove.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Snag, Sky

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Snag, Sky
An old, twisted snag against a gray and cloudy Sierra Nevada sky

Snag, Sky. Yosemite National Park, California. September 13, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old, twisted snag against a gray and cloudy Sierra Nevada sky

Old dead snags can be some of the most compelling sights in the High Sierra. They are everywhere —on the glaciated granite slabs, high atop ridges, within the first, lying in meadows. They are the other end of the life cycle begin by small trees at the edges of meadows. Sometimes to me they seem almost closer in spirit to rocks than to other living things, and some that die in dry rocky places continue to stand for a long time before finally decaying and fading away. Because they are stripped of small branches and needles, the reveal the complex and twisting shapes of the inner tree.

I came across this snag high in an area of granite slabs above a lake where we were camped. I visited it several times, intrigued by its shape and challenged to figure out a way to photograph it that did not include the surrounding living trees. Finally I found an angle that I could photograph with a long lens, tightly cropping a section of its form against the gray of a cloudy sky. In the end I decided on a monochrome rendition, feeling that it better captures the abstract from of the trunk and branches.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.