Welcome to our 2011 Sacbee.com photography coverage of the autumn season in the Eastern Sierra.

Each week, we'll present new photographs of the best fall leaf color in the Fall Leaves 2011 gallery.

It's always a spectacular sight, and we invite you on the journey. To make it easier for you, every week we'll offer "Best Bets" for leaf color and rate 22 prime photo locations through the Eastern Sierra.

Our Fall Leaves section, www.sacbee.com/leaves, also includes a photography how-to of Tips and Techniques to help you capture the best shots. Upload them to the Fall Leaves Reader Photos gallery or email your photos from your computer or mobile phone: fall@sacbee.com

Last year, the fall leaves color was about a week later than the average season. This year it's anyone's guess. I just completed the drive today of all 22 foliage stops on our interactive map and found wildflowers still blooming in several places. Go figure!

Every year I drive the Eastern Sierra for weeks, photographing the changing leaves, and it never gets boring for me. Yesterday, I was like a little kid on Christmas Eve. I couldn't sleep and decided to leave at 4 a.m. to get to the eastern side of the Sierra by sunrise.

And, sunrise was just about all there was to see. That means the entire drive is very green. I did, however, find color in one of the usual places in the Bishop Creek area. See it for yourself in the gallery.

There's just something about 12,000-foot peaks and a panoramic wash of brilliant color that just takes your breath away. When you stand in a valley and see color all the way up both sides of the mountains around you, you just stare at it in amazement.

The only way to compound the thrill is to capture it with a camera.

That's what this project is all about. We'll help you get the best pictures possible with photography tips and suggestions for the best locations for leaf color.

First, we tell you when to go to maximize your foliage shooting and minimizing the search for the best color.

Then we tell you where to go because not all 22 spots will be turning at the same time.

And finally, we tell you how to make those eye-popping photos with our in-depth Tips and Techniques series of articles and detailed captions under each photo in our gallery.

The gallery is our album of photos as I make them along the way. As the season progresses, you can see the same locations and watch the colors change over the weeks.

Looking at past years' galleries, you can forecast the color this year by studying the dates of the same scenes. Those galleries also show how quickly trees go from green to "stick trees." You will have about a week of peak color in any one location. Then that scene goes into decline and is gone in about 10 days.

The interactive map will give you a general idea where each stop is located. Use the Google map to find the destinations or simply stop by the AAA club and pick up an Eastern Sierra map showing Highway 395 from Lake Tahoe to Lone Pine.

Our color trail goes from Meyers in South Lake Tahoe to Bishop. These 22 stops have evolved over the years into general locations for good color. Explore the areas around each stop and take some of the side roads to discover a hidden treasure chest of color.

Beginning next week, I'll write a weekly "Best Bets" article highlighting where I think the best color will be for that upcoming weekend. That should make your foliage excursions successful.

All color photographs in the gallery can easily be made within a short distance of your vehicle. We do this so everyone can participate in the journey. There is also very little climbing involved, unless you decide to hike up the side of a mountain for a better angle.

By now you have discovered my secret reason for covering this project, and that is to create such a curiosity that you get out and enjoy and marvel at the beauty of nature's last grand show of the year before she puts the hemisphere to sleep.

When spring awakens and explodes with wildflower color, I hope you will follow that project as well at www.sacbee.com/wildflowers.

I hope you enjoy your photography and get some really nice shots. If you do, don't forget to upload them to our reader gallery.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me: davehenryphotography@gmail.com.

Just remember though, I'll be out shooting to bring you the latest in color somewhere in the majestic Eastern Sierra.

Get ready because next week will be a totally different picture!

COMING SUNDAY

• A guide to the brilliant fall leaf color of Plumas County, where the aspens, cottonwoods, oaks, maples and dogwoods will soon be donning fall fashions.

• More places to go to see fall leaf color.

www.sacbee.com/leaves

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