Tag Archives: valley

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Wetlands

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Autumn Wetlands
Late-autumn colors in California Central Valley wetlands.

Autumn Wetlands. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-autumn colors in California Central Valley wetlands.

As I continue my pandemic project of reviewing years of raw files — and discovering and rediscovering all sorts of interesting things — I have now arrived at the very end of 2012. I’m currently working on the final week or so of autumn and about to move into winter and then on to 2013. One silver lining behind the dark coronavirus cloud is that I have had the time and inclination to revisit these old images and relive some of the experiences I had as I made them.

Every fall migratory birds return to overwinter in California’s Central Valley. Starting in about November I turn my attention that way and start to anticipate visits to this landscape — one that I don’t tend to photograph during the warmer months of the year. But in the cooler and wetter seasons, when the birds can be abundant, this part of California calls to me. I made this photograph on a cold and foggy late-autumn morning as the tule fog was beginning to thin, casting soft light on the autumn foliage of the scattered trees.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

A Forest After Fire

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A Forest After Fire
A dark forest, several years after a managed fire.

A Forest After Fire. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dark forest, several years after a managed fire.

For obvious reasons, wildfire has been on my mind a lot during the past few weeks. Back in August a spectacular and extremely unusual series of electrical storms rolled across the San Francisco Bay Area, touching off scores of small fires that soon merged into three very large and very destructive infernos. Since that time we’ve lived in a pall of smoke around here. I briefly escaped — or so I thought — to the Eastern Sierra, with plans for a short pack trip… the weekend that the huge Creek Fire started south of Yosemite. Since that time the entire west coast has been afflicted by historically awful fires.

I’m familiar with wildfires in California, for one reason from years of late-summer and early-autumn backpacking. Some smoke is common at this time of year, most often continuing on into the very beginning of October when the first rains often arrive. Long ago I reconciled myself — after years of Smoky the Bear exposure — to the idea that some fire is a natural and beneficial part of the natural environment. But it has been harder to find photographic beauty in fire-scarred landscapes. This scene merges those two notions. This forest had been burned in a management fire a year or two earlier, scorching the lower trunks of these trees and consuming some excess litter. But when I made the photograph the forest was again looking quite healthy, albeit with visible signs of the fire remaining.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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

Oak and Granite, Autumn

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Oak and Granite, Autumn
A small oak tree in deep shade at the base of a Yosemite Valley granite cliff.

Oak and Granite, Autumn. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small oak tree in deep shade at the base of a Yosemite Valley granite cliff.

Back in 2012 I took a somewhat later-than-usual trip to photograph fall color in Yosemite Valley. When I think of Sierra Nevada fall color the high country aspens, mostly but not exclusively on the east side of the range, come to mind. Those colors tend to be an early October thing. But colors appear a bit later on the west side of the range, eventually working their way down to the foothills and finally the Central Valley. In Yosemite Valley beautiful colors come from cottonwood, black oak, dogwood and a few other sources, typically arriving in late October and peaking around Halloween.

For reasons that I can no longer recall, this time I ended up in the Valley a couple of weeks later. There was still sufficient color, and it came with the added bonus that light snow had recently fallen. (Unlike summer and winter, which tend to be just what you would expect, the transitional fall and spring seasons often bring surprises.) I took a walk along a section of the north wall of the Valley and photographed this small tree in the shadows at the base of a very tall granite cliff.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Autumn Reflections, Merced River

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Autumn Reflections, Merced River
“Autumn Reflections, Merced River” — Colors and shapes of autumn branches and leaves reflected in the surface of the Merced River, Yosemite Valley.

Some years back, as is my annual tradition, I was in Yosemite Valley in autumn to photograph fall color and other aspects of the seasonal change. To be honest, I mostly avoid the Valley during the summer time. It is a spectacular place any time of year, but I’ll happily avoid the oppressive crowds and overly-hot weather and visit during the other three seasons.

I distinctly recall the circumstances of this photograph. It was morning, and there had been some light early snow. The sun was coming out in the morning, the temperature warmed, and the melting snow was dropping from every tree. As I walked across a bridge on my way to a different subject I happened to look down and see the patterns created as the droplets fell into the Merced River, creating expanding and overlapping rings. I was entranced. I stopped and set up, forgetting about my original goal, and focused on this subject instead.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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