Bright yellow-gold leaves of autumn Sierra Nevada aspen trees near Sabrina Lake, California.
I visited this small grove on a couple occasions during this weekend of eastern Sierra fall photography. I had primarily stopped to photograph a large nearby grove of very bright and colorful trees, but the arrangement of these tree trunks caught my attention and I spent some time shooting the subject in fading evening light and gentle rain.
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.
A dense grove of aspens along Dunderberg Road in the eastern Sierra Nevada.
If you passed by this grove along the rough, gravel Dunderberg Road you might not even think to stop – in many ways it seems a lot like many other aspen groves along in this part of the Sierra and along this road. However, I once stopped in this spot the first time I drove this road and for some reason the location has become one of those that draws me back. This time I arrived very late in the afternoon, just as the sun was slipping behind Dunderberg Peak to the west, leaving the trees in shaded early evening light. This section of the grove is remarkable for the thickness of the trees – you might not guess from the photo, but trees are not all that tall. It also is more open than some groves of this size and it isn’t quite as cluttered with non-aspen plants that sometimes make it difficult to find a composition.
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.
“Fall Color, Eastern Sierra Aspens” — A grove of aspen trees along Bishop at the peak of their gaudy fall colors, Sierra Nevada, California.
On a week of brilliant fall color during an autumn when the color was exceptional in parts of the eastern Sierra, this little grove of aspens was almost absurdly colorful. I first saw them while driving away from a nearby shot – their fluorescent colors got my attention while I was looking in a completely different direction. The colors nearby were quite something, but they literally paled next to this grove. (I’ve heard trees like this referred to as Cheetos trees – and I think you can imagine why.)
Should you think that this color is simply something I’ve pumped up in post processing, take a look at the boulder in the lower part of the frame and see the tree trunks and the pale grasses at bottom right. The fact that I shot in over cast conditions, late in the day, and in a very light rain did intensify the colors a bit, but this is what they looked like.
These colors present some photographic challenges. The main one is that almost all of the light is in the red channel, and when shooting a digital camera it is easy to blow out (grossly overexpose) the red channel and not even realize it. I have found that with this subject it is critical to use the three-channel histogram display that shows the separate levels of red, green, and blue. The single luminosity histogram display averages the values of the three color channels, and if one is extremely hot (as is the red channel here) you can blow it out even if the histogram looks fine.
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.
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.
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.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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