Tag Archives: twig

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn. Muir Woods National Monument, California. October 25, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunlight filtering through the canopy of the redwood forest back-lights overhead red alder leaves at Muir Woods National Monument.

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.

I made a black and white and a color version of this image – since I think I prefer the black and white version I’m posting it first.

This year I have been returning to Muir Woods in all seasons and, among other things, I’ve watched the red alder trees as they have gone through the cycle from the first spring leaves to the deterioration of the leaves as they begin to change color before dropping from the trees as winter approaches. In many places along the main trails at Muir Woods the path travels directly beneath a canopy of these trees and when the light comes through the trees, filtered by passing through the upper levels of the forest, it highlights the curving and twisting shapes of the branches.

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Aspen Leaves in Transition – Near Conway Summit

Aspen Leaves in Transition - Near Conway Summit
Aspen Leaves in Transition – Near Conway Summit

Aspen Leaves in Transition – Near Conway Summit. Sierra Nevada, California. September 27, 2009. © Copyright 2009 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen leaves in transition from green to fall hues in the shade of a grove above Conway Summit, Sierra Nevada, California.

This is another of my close-up aspen detail photographs from my one-hour or so shoot in the eastern Sierra near Conway Summit on the last Sunday of September. I took a quick detour to this part of the “east side” after completing a short photographic backpack trip to Cathedral Lakes that weekend.

I’ve photographed this grove before, so I stop every season and see what I can find. This time I think I arrived a few days earlier than usual in the color transition. There were still a lot more leaves on trees in the grove than I’ve seen in the past and a nearby grove was still completely green. (This grove is among the first you encounter as you drive up the road from Highway 395/Conway Summit toward Virginia Lake, right by a dirt road turnoff on the left side.)

As I walked into the lower edge of the grove, I discovered that among leaves that were for the most part either green or yellow, there were a few here that had a wider range of colors – some residual green, yellow, gold, orange, and even verging on red. So, in addition to shooting the larger view of the grove, I decided to use a long lens and work on a few close shots of the leaves that most caught my attention.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Aspen Leaves Near Conway Summit

Aspen Leaves Near Conway Summit

Aspen Leaves Near Conway Summit. Sierra Nevada, California. September 27, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen leaves take on fall colors in the middle of a grove near Conway Summit, California.

This is more or less my first autumn aspen color photograph of the 2009 season. Near the end of September I was in the Sierra for a few days, mostly to backpack into Cathedral Lakes for a bit of photography – but after emerging from that trip I had just enough time for a quick trip over Tioga Pass to the “east side” near Lee Vining and then around Conway Summit and Virginia Lake.

In the past I’ve found that the aspens up high on the road to Virginia Lake seem to change fairly early, and they have often lost their leaves even while trees elsewhere are still in good condition. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to try to make an early trip up this road. As you start up the Virginia Lake Road from Conway Summit you soon begin to pass some fairly large groves of aspen trees. The first grove, along the right side of the road, was still almost completely green. However, just up the road from here and on the left side is another grove at the turn-off for a gravel road – and this grove was in great shape. Many of the leaves had turned golden, and a few had turned hues of red and orange. At the same time there were still quite a few green leaves and only a few leaves had fallen.

As the sun dropped closer to the high ridge of the Sierra crest above Virginia Lake, the east side of this grove began to fall into shade – which can be the best of conditions for photographing the intense colors of these leaves.

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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Redwood Shoot

Redwood Shoot

Redwood Shoot. Muir Woods National Monument, California. August 19, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A new redwood tree shoot emerges from the base of a mature tree, Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This small, green shoot is the potential start of a new redwood tree at Muir Woods National Monument. Its bright green color contrasts with the browns and reds of the dark forest floor and the shaded bark of the tree.

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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