Tag Archives: trunks

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Slender Aspens, Bishop Creek

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Slender Aspens, Bishop Creek
Slender Aspens, Bishop Creek

Slender Aspens, Bishop Creek. Sierra Nevada, California. October 2, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Slender aspen trunks and intense yellow leaves along the south fork of Bishop Creek.

I found these beautiful white-trunk trees growing in a long row alongside one of the forks of Bishop Creek in the early evening. I had been in this area before to shoot different subjects nearby, but these trees had not been colorful on that occasion so I had pretty much ignored them.

There are things I like about this photo, such as the light color and parallel lines of the tree trunks and the bits of leaves and plants below them, but I have some ideas about how I would like to shoot this scene differently next time. So I’m going to count it as a sort of scouting report shot and try to return to this spot next season.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Golden Aspen Grove, Conway Summit

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Golden Aspen Grove, Conway Summit
Golden Aspen Grove, Conway Summit

Golden Aspen Grove, Conway Summit. Sierra Nevada, California. October 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Groves of tightly spaced slender aspen trees with golden fall leaves at Conway Summit, California.

Conway Summit is a location well-known to many eastern Sierra photographers, especially those who photograph the autumn aspen color displays. The “Summit” is the high point on the highway 395 just north of the town of Lee Vining, and the aspens grow to the west on the slopes that gradually rise toward Dunderberg Meadow and Peak. When I’m looking for brilliant autumn color here, several factors come into play. First, you have to be there at the right time. This isn’t always easy to predict, and when the color is great in one area of these trees it may have passed or not yet arrived in others. Second, you need to come at the “right” time of day. For me this means, at least at Conway, coming in the mid- to late-afternoon when the groves are lit by backlight coming across the Sierra crest. Third, it helps a lot if you can be there for conditions that are not too ordinary. For example, on the afternoon when I made this and some others photographs that may follow, after a weekend of boring perfect cloud-free weather some puffy clouds began to form above the Sierra crest, and their shadows raced across the area and created patterns of light and dark.

This photograph is also an example of long lens landscape photography. For some reason there are those who think that landscape photography must be done with certain lenses, often those of “normal” to wide focal length ranges. Those certainly have their place, and I use them too. However, I find that longer focal lengths are also indispensable – not just for filling the frame with subjects that you otherwise might not be able to approach, but also to compress foreground and background and to narrow the depth of field, among other reasons. Here I photographed with a 100-400mm telephoto at 250mm.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Bare Aspen Trunks and Fallen Leaves

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Bare Aspen Trunks and Fallen Leaves
Bare Aspen Trunks and Fallen Leaves

Bare Aspen Trunks and Fallen Leaves. Bishop Creek, California. October 3, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The white trunks of nearly leafless aspen trees with fallen leaves below, Bishop Creek, California.

While the brilliant fall colors of the eastern Sierra aspens are an obvious attraction, I also like the bare, white trunks that begin to appear more clearly as the leaves fall. In fact, in some ways I prefer them as a subject to the leave. While I can’t stop myself from shooting those incredible colors, at some point they almost seem to produce a sort of visual overload. But the light-colored trunks, ranging from stout older trees to delicate and twisting small trees, especially against a background of rocks, fallen leaves, or the clutter of the forest have their own magic.

This is a scene from no special place – it is a just a spot along a road that I passed over more than once. I had shot in the general area earlier, but only noticed this as I passed by again on this cloudy and misty morning when the softer light allowed more of the details to appear and the slight rain brought out the colors a bit more.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light

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Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light

Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light streams through a redwood grove to illuminate ferns on the sloping forest floor below at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Yes, another photo of a redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument. As I think I wrote earlier, I’m working on creating a collection of photographs of this location and obviously the trees themselves need to have a large place in all of this work. This is a bit different – really, trust me! – than some of the other recent redwood grove shots in that it was made during sunny conditions rather than the more gloomy (but no less interesting) rainiy and cloudy conditions I had photographed earlier.

And, yes, there will be more… :-)

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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