Aspens and Granite. North Lake, California. October 8, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.
Photographing this section of rocky hillside along the road the runs past North Lake has become a bit of a habit for me during the past few years. North Lake is a well-known place for photographing fall colors, with good reason. It is in the larger Bishop Creek drainage of the eastern Sierra, one of many places where it is possible to find a lot of autumn aspen color. As a consequence, many people (sometimes too many!) head there to photograph the seasonal color change. I think I first shot there a bit before the most recent upsurge in visits by photographers and photography workshops, so I was able to make some photographs of the general scene in somewhat more solitary conditions.
In recent years, on too many occasions, I have arrived at this lake to find mobs of photographers. Fortunately, for the most part they stop and photograph to same two well-known areas of the lake. Even more fortunately, with a little bit of walking and looking around, one can find a lot of other stuff to photograph here. While the grand views are obvious and spectacular, there are many opportunities for photographing “intimate landscapes” that feature perhaps a few trees, some rocks, a bit of lakeside grass, and so forth. These two trees, almost bare of fall leaves, stood against a bit of cracked cliff that was covered with patches of colorful lichen.
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.
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