Autumn along a creek in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Inyo NF, CA, USA
I just returned home after spending nearly two weeks on the eastern side of the Sierra. It was fun spending so much time among all the yellow and orange leaves, and we had two wonderful groups for our workshops.
We had cooler-than-average weather in September and early October, which set things turning early this year. Despite that, there was still a lot of color around the June Lake Loop and lower Lundy Canyon when we left on Wednesday. This image, from Wednesday morning, shows the diversity of eastern-Sierra habitats, with a creek, aspens, willows, and sagebrush-covered hillside.
On my way home I checked out the color in Yosemite. The higher-elevation dogwoods along Highway 120 were beautiful, with lots of red leaves. They should still be good this weekend, but I suspect they won’t last much longer. In Yosemite Valley, the yellow big-leaf maples were gorgeous. The black oaks also looked like they were close to their peak, but seemed less colorful than in most years. The cottonwoods and valley dogwoods were still about 40 to 50 percent green, so they should peak in another week or two.
I start another workshop in Yosemite Valley with The Ansel Adams Gallery on Tuesday, so I’m looking forward to another fun workshop, and to seeing and photographing more fall color.
— Michael Frye
Related Posts: Autumn Snow; A Landscape Transformed
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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, 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 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael 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.
The layers in this photo are fantastic. It’s so nice to include more colors and textures than just that great yellow. Thanks for the Valley report. We’re headed over this afternoon for the weekend.
Thanks very much Kevin, and I hope you have a great weekend in Yosemite. The color should be nice.
1. Nice images over the last few weeks.
2. What is the forcast for color in Yosemite Valley this weekend?
3. When will the updated iPad app (The Photographers Guide to Yosemite) be ready in the App store, Looked for it yesterday and the old one is sill there but not the new one
+Joseph Hawkins on google+
Thanks Joseph. The color forecast hasn’t changed much from what was stated above, except that the recent weather system put a lot of the maple leaves on the ground. The oaks are close to peak, the dogwoods are now close to peak, and the cottonwoods are about 70% turned. This weekend should be good for everything except the maples, which are not past peak.
I’m not sure what kind of update you’re looking for with the iPad app. We didn’t update it for iOS 7 because it still works fine, as far as we know, with iOS7, in which case no update is necessary, but if it’s not working for you let me know.
Many thanks for your advice, Michael. I went to the valley this weekend. As it was my first time there during the fall color season, it was quite interesting. It was very beautiful, but in a slightly subdued, un-American fashion. It does not hit you over the head, as New England fall color or does, or Kyoto’s. But still, extremely beautiful to see, next to the Swinging Bridge, Cook Meadow, other spots along the river …
Glad you enjoyed your visit Lenya. Indeed the color in Yosemite Valley is usually not as spectacular as some other places, but it has the advantage of being juxtaposed with those cliffs.
Thanks for the replay and again for you informative site. Found a good spot yesterday along the south side of the Merced with the morning light bathing El Capitan and reflecting into the water. Thought most of the Fall color is gone you are right about its beauty contrasting against the granite.
I put 6 images from the location on my blog at http://hawkinsphotoalchemy.com/?p=1171 . i invite you critique.
jbh
You’re welcome Joseph. I was in Yosemite Valley on Saturday, and I wouldn’t say that most of the fall color is gone. The oaks and cottonwoods still actually haven’t peaked yet, including the oaks in your photographs. Sorry, I get a lot of requests to critique or comment on people’s photographs, but if I did that I wouldn’t have time to write blog posts or teach workshops or anything else. 🙂
Exactly! These trees near the Swinging Bridge were perfect for that.
Hi Michael
I purchased your Lightroom 5 PDF + videos. Great stuff.
I notice that you do not use HDR methods/ HDR effects on your Landscape.
Is there a reason for this?
regards
Sue
Sue, thank you for purchasing the ebook — I really appreciate that.
I do occasionally blend two or more exposures together in high-contrast situations, but either do that “by hand” with layers and layer masks in Photoshop, or with an exposure-blending application called LR/Enfuse. This days, however, I rarely need to blend exposures, since Lightroom does such a good job of handling high-contrast scenes ever since Lightroom 4 came out.
The main reason I prefer exposure-blending or just staying in Lightroom is that I get more natural-looking results than with HDR. I can sometimes get natural-looking results with HDR, but it’s often a struggle to do so, while it’s never a struggle with the alternative methods I’ve mentioned.
thank you Miachael.
I also have LR/Enfuse. Unfottunately there are times that the blended image cannot for some reason to be re-imported into Lightroom, even though it is set to re-import into Lightroom. Would you know the reason for this/ and I I can get around this?
Sue
Sue, I haven’t encountered that issue, so I’m not sure what the problem is. If the blended image was actually created in LR/Enfuse and saved into the folder where the original Raw images reside, you can make sure that folder is up-to-date in Lightroom and shows everything in there by right-clicking on the folder within Lightroom and choosing Synchronize Folder.
thank you
Hi Michael
The issue with Enfuse not re-importing the “Enfused” photo back into lightroom seems to happen only in Lightroom 5.
I have been watching Simon Maxwell videos on ” Enfuse” and his feed back on my question on Enfuse not re-importing photo into Lightroom see his feedback.
Sue
Simon MaxwellYesterday 7:18 PM
~Hi Sue : if you look at my other video on Enfuse you’ll find there are others who have experienced issues when using Enfuse with LR5: when Lightroom (and OS systems for MAC) change, the 3rd party plug in providers, through no fault of their own, need to perhaps develop their software further. When LR and MAC OS change I am very slow to embrace the new version for that reason: so many items, eg printer software, get thrown and there are always bugs to sort out. My enfuse videos are recorded in LR4 on Lion OS where all works fine. Enfuse works but if you are experiencing difficulties the variables are : correct location of plug in (sounds OK in your case), operating system update, and version of Lightroom
Thanks for letting me know about this Sue. The “re-import image into Lightroom” function works fine for me with Lightroom 5 and Mac OS 10.7.5.
Hi Michael
I have version Mac 10.8. 5. . This I think where the issue begins with Enfuse.
Could you elaborate what you mean by right-clicking on the folder within Lightroom and choosing Synchronize Folder in relation the the photos that has been enfused
Hmm… I’m not sure how to explain it better. Go to the folder where the original images are (the ones that you chose to blend together with LR/Enfuse). Right click on that folder name, over on the left-hand side of the Library Module in Lightroom (you can also Control-click on the Mac). Select “Synchronize Folder.” If there are any images in that folder that are not in Lightroom, it will show you that, and then bring up Lightroom’s Import dialog, where you can import whatever images are missing — such as a TIFF created in LR/Enfuse that didn’t get automatically re-imported into Lightroom.