Red and Yellow Aspen Leaves

Red and Yellow Aspen Leaves
Autumn aspen leaves in yellow and red, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Red and Yellow Aspen Leaves. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen leaves in yellow and red, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Although it is hard to quantify such things, this Eastern Sierra fall color season seemed to produce better colors than I have seen in some time. Overall the colors were good, but two characteristics stood out. In many years I see a significant number of trees whose leaves simply turn dark brown or black and fall off — but I saw virtually no examples of that this year. But the most impressive feature this year seemed to be the large number of trees with red or orange colors. We always look for those, but they don’t necessarily show up in large numbers every year.

After photographing the large landscape at an iconic location I found a lovely grove full of leaves of every color from green through red, orange, and gold. I put a macro lens on a camera and wandered among the trees, looking for compositions that mostly consisted of a few leaves, often with some interesting color or light in the background.


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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