Autumn scene along Rush Creek, Inyo NF, CA, USA

We just finished our workshop on the eastern side of the Sierra. When I arrived a few days before the workshop the aspen color was rather mixed, with bare trees, green trees, and every stage in between. But the weather was cold, and things turned quickly. By the time our workshop started most of the green leaves had turned yellow and orange, and we found lots of beautiful color – particularly along the June Lake Loop.

So we had a great time during the workshop, with good color and some interesting clouds. And then, just after our workshop ended, a storm blew in, bringing rain, higher-elevation snow, and howling winds. The wind blew down a lot of leaves – a lot. When we left on Saturday there were still patches of color here and there, but most of the aspens were bare.

But autumn is just getting started in Yosemite. Driving home yesterday we saw some beautiful red dogwoods between Crane Flat and Yosemite Valley, and the yellow maples near the old dam (the junction of highways 120 and 140) looked good too. Over the next few weeks we should see more color as the maples, cottonwoods, oaks, and dogwoods on the valley floor start turning.

Here are a few images from our workshop. Between our trips to Colorado and the eastern Sierra we’ve had a great autumn season – so far.

— Michael Frye

Aspens and pines, Tioyabe NF, CA, USA

Sunset from Conway Summit, Tioyabe NF, CA, USA. Five bracketed exposures blended with Lightroom’s HDR Merge, but still a very challenging image to process.

Mallard along the shore of Silver Lake, autumn, Inyo NF, CA, USA. This very tame mallard hen kept swimming in front of our group, hoping for handouts, then would stop and preen. At one point she started preening right in front of my camera, so I raised my ISO to 800 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed (1/60th sec.) to have some hope of freezing her motion, while keeping the aperture stopped down to f/16 to get everything in focus. She stopped preening and raised her head for a split second – just enough time to capture this image.

Aspen canopy, Inyo NF, CA, USA

Reeds and aspen leaves, Inyo NF, CA, USA

Aspens, Inyo NF, CA, USA

Related Posts: Colorado Autumn; A Beautiful Autumn Day in Yosemite

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.