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| Fall colors near Bishop, CA Saturday, September 20, 2014 |
Fall colors are getting underway in the Eastern Sierra. These are some of the better locations I found last weekend down in the Bishop area. The aspen were still mainly green, especially nearly all of the larger trees off of steep hillsides, but for the next two weekends conditions should continue to spread the color to more trees at a wider diversity of elevations.
I say "should' because at this point in the transition to color, the big variable becomes wind. If a storm blows through, the turned leaves can blow down. Similarly, extreme cold can make the leaves go directly to brown. So if you can only get up there on weekends, consider the next two for the Bishop area (especially Bishop Creek and Rock Creek), but do check the weather forecast and factor that in if you can only pick one.
The examples on this page were all taken Saturday, September 20.
Proceeding for a lap around Yosemite Valley, Upper Yosemite Fall was completely dry, missing even the modest wetness you'll often see on the rock. Most of the deciduous trees seemed a couple of weeks behind schedule turning color, like the aspen had been in the Eastern Sierra this season. The oaks were lightening somewhat, but not far enough along to warrant a stop by Cook's Meadow. I did spot some trees nicely back-lit against Cathedral Rock, so I pulled over.
Unfortunately in this dry year even spring-fed Bridalveil Fall is nearly non-existent, breaking up into a thin mist partway to the ground. Noticing the angle of the sun, I stopped to see whether there was enough water in Bridalveil to create a rainbow in its mist. Sure enough, the rainbow was there, and the low water of the Merced River made a perfect reflecting pool to offer creative compositions including colorful Fall foliage. Odd that the photo workshop passed it up (perhaps they caught it the day before).
Last year the only other person who had anticipated the moon rise in the position I had chosen was a guy from Seattle shooting on film. Of course once the moon rose, two or three dozen people joined us! This year, from another location, I first met someone from Cincinnati. As it turned out, someone had gotten the word out online, so roughly 2 dozen people more people eventually showed up (and there were apparently a few more at the vantage point I had used the prior year). 
