A group of autumn aspen trees with twisting trunks
Dense, twisting little aspen trees are common in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. In our imagination, aspen groves are full of tall, strong trees that stretch on for great distances. Such things exist in the Sierra, generally on a small scale, but they are not the norm. More typical are these stunted, twisting trees — which in many ways are more interesting than those perfect tall trees...continues: https://gdanmitchell.com/2023/12/08/twisting-trunks/
Autumn aspen trees rise from a valley toward the Sierra Nevada crest.
This little valley running along the base of the eastern slopes of the Sierra was on my agenda for this trip. But due to trying to squeeze in visits to numerous locations I couldn’t get to all of them in the perfect, soft, early and late day light. I arrived at this spot in the late afternoon, when the sun was backlighting these trees...continues: https://gdanmitchell.com/2023/12/07/aspen-slopes/
Five aspen trees inside a dense grove with autumn leaves.
I love wandering in dense aspen groves, especially the sort with small, twisty trees. They look like they should be easy to photograph — after all, they are filled with white trunks, the light filters through the colorful canopy, and underfoot there are leaves and all sorts of other goodies. But once I enter the grove, it inevitably turns out to be harder than expected to find the elusive ideal subjects and compositions. A bit of bright sky overwhelms the trees, a distracting branch or boulder enters the frame, the colors are lovely but can’t be corralled into a composition, the undergrowth is too thick to traverse...continues: https://gdanmitchell.com/2023/10/31/aspen-quintet/
A colorful grove of mixed trees in the high desert below the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.
As the Eastern Sierra aspen color season progressed during October, the colors (to speak generally) work their way down from the highest groves to trees in the high desert, where they may appear alongside cottonwood trees, which themselves produce color even later in the season. On this morning I had finished photographing my sunrise location, but I didn’t want to stop just yet. So I decided to stretch the photography time as far into the later morning hours as possible and to do a bit of exploring at the same time. And this brought me back to this familiar grove in the high desert... continues: https://gdanmitchell.com/2023/10/23/high-desert-autumn-color/
A grove of Sierra Nevada aspen trees that have lost their autumn leaves.
This is not the first time I have photographed this little cluster of aspens growing very high up on a rocky hillside, though I think I finally found a way to photograph it the way I had in mind. Perhaps because the trees grow in rocky terrain, they seem to lose their leaves before other nearby trees. At the right time of day, given their elevated position, they are brightly lit by backlight as the sun tops the ridge beyond. The good light doesn’t last long here, and this time I think I hit it just right...continues: https://gdanmitchell.com/2023/10/21/bare-aspen-trees/
Evening light on an autumn aspen grove in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.
This is another photograph made near the end of the day, perhaps within minutes of sunset and it a deep valley where tall mountains had blocked the sun before that. This is a busy time of the year in these places, and there are often a lot of photographers chasing the fall colors — but most of them seem to leave before this most-beautiful time of day when the light softens and everything tends to become quiet and still. (OK, the wind was blowing more that I wanted on this evening…)…continues: https://gdanmitchell.com/2023/10/20/aspen-grove-autumn/
Winter in the Rocky Mountains. Snow covered, frosty white aspen trees. So cold, but so beautiful, a winter wonderland. Barren trees, covered in ice crystals. Icey breeze whips the sparkling crystals into the air above the forest creating a glow against the blue sky.