Canyon Bend. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Contrasting warm and cool colors in a narrow section of a desert canyon.
During my hikes up and down this canyon I made quite a few photographs of these lovely narrows. I camped at the mouth of the canyon, and this made it possible to hike up twice — once late in the day and again the next morning. The appearance of a narrow canyon like this one depends so much on the nature of the light, and that was almost completely different during the two visits.
Several things intrigue me about this particular narrows. Sections of it are quite angled, with the wall on one side slanting away and on the other side overhanging the bottom of the canyon substantially. In other words, you don’t look straight up to see the narrow band of sky, but instead you look off to one side a bit. I assume that this is a partially due to erosion following natural lines of weakness in the geology and partly due to the tendency of moving water to undercut a side of the canyon. Of even more interest to a photographer, the color of the light in this canyon and others like it is quite variable. In the darkest section the only light comes from the very blue sky, and the light here is quite blue. (I actually toned it down a bit in the photograph.) However, where the light comes in a bit more directly or perhaps through a wider gap the color is much warmer, as we see on the far wall beyond that gap in this photograph.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email
Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.
Scroll down to leave a comment or question.
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.