Winding Canyon, Morning Haze. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
Morning haze mutes the features of a distant mountains beyond a winding desert canyon.
I am not sure how many times I have photographed in this location over the past fifteen years or so, but it may have been dozens. There are striking features here, and I’m sure that they are what attracted me at first. I recall many years ago setting up on a high spot before sunrise and photographing for the next hour or two from within perhaps a 25-foot radius. Since then I’ve gone back on every visit, which at this point is perhaps twenty or more times. The fascinating variety of the spot attracts me, but part of the story is that it is relatively easy to get to, even when I only have a few hours on a morning when I’m about to start the long drive home.
Due to the nature of access to the area, I start at the same end every time I photograph there. At some point the early morning light comes over mountains from the east and lights up the formations, and I typically stop and intensively photograph wherever I am at that point. As a result, I always seem to arrive at the end of this little loop too late for the best light. I’ve often looked up this canyon and others like it, hoping to photograph their winding paths with the mountains in the background… and too often realized that the light was gone. But this time I arrived at a lovely high spot in good light and photographed into the morning haze that muted the details of the mountains beyond the twisting canyon.
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.
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Good question! (Though it suggests that you imagine that my life can now be measured on the geological time scale!)
I’m trying to think of a situation where I have done that, and I’m not coming up with one. I could probably try to look at some of my old photographs from Racetrack Playa that I made over perhaps a ten year period — it is possible that some of the rocks moved.
I know that the bottoms of canyons like this one do change, and I’ve even been in some of them when there was water and the effect was obvious, though I haven’t ever analyzed it carefully.
Dan
Out of curiosity, have you ever taken a current picture and the earliest picture you took and closely compared them to look for changes, i.e., fallen rocks, washed away parts, etc?