Category Archives: Photographs: The Southwest

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red Wall Sunrise

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Red Wall Sunrise
Saturated sunrise light on sandstone cliffs and ledges, Zion National Park.

Red Wall Sunrise. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Saturated sunrise light on sandstone cliffs and ledges, Zion National Park.

If you have been reading my posts about Utah recently, you may recall that I mentioned the striking contrast between my home range, the Sierra Nevada, and the far more colorful landscapes of Utah. Every time I return from red rock country the California landscape seems so… gray. (Don’t worry. I get over this quickly, and there’s plenty to photograph here, too!) But in many places in Utah the combination of blue sky, red rock, and green foliage — often with a few other colorations mixed in — produces a landscape of remarkably varied coloration.

But sometimes things go just a bit over the top. I have a few photographers here and there in my archives where the colors were so intense or so unusual that I hesitate the share them, as I know that someone will inevitably doubt that the photograph represents something close to what happened. (To be sure, photographs do not simply “capture” what the camera saw, and most good photography involves some level of post processing… just like good writing involves some degree of editing.) This sunrise light in Zion Canyon produced something that seems, at least in a photograph, to be unbelievable and even impossible. But red dawn light on red rock walls actually can look like this, at least for a brief interval. The truth of the matter here is that I had to reduce the color saturation!

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Tree and Shadow’s Edge

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Tree and Shadow's Edge
A border between light and shadow moves across a tree at the base of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Tree and Shadow’s Edge. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A border between light and shadow moves across a tree at the base of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Sometimes (oh, heck, often) photographs come about in somewhat unsuspected ways, and this is such a photograph. In October we were in Southern Utah and we had previously spent a day photographing in Zion Canyon. The general plan on this day was to photograph along Mt. Carmel Highway in the morning (which we did), grab some coffee and food beyond the park, and then, well, we weren’t quite sure. The day evolved organically and we ended up on some interesting Utah backroads crossing some surprisingly snowy highland before we eventually ended up in Cedar City. We gassed up the vehicle and realized that we had time for a quick side trip into Kolob Canyon on our way back toward our eventual destination.

I’ve been in the less-visited and less-developed section of Zion National Park several times. In addition to being a jumping off point for lots of interesting trails, it presents some landscapes opportunities that are quite different from those of the more familiar Zion Canyon. I’ve usually been there earlier in the day, so it was fascinating to observe the place in late-day light. Much of this landscape is huge, even “epic” in scale, but as I scanned it I started to see smaller vignettes that seemed interesting. In particular, I noticed that this shadow was moving from left to right and gradually lighting the prominent tree in the center of the scene, casting its shadow on the brightly-lit sandstone behind it.

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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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red Rock Outcropping

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Red Rock Outcropping
A variety of plantlife growing on a red rock outcropping, Zion National Park.

Red Rock Outcropping. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A variety of plantlife growing on a red rock outcropping, Zion National Park.

Utah red rock country is full of little vignettes like this one, no matter where you are. the photograph comes from Zion National Park, but it could have been made in any number of other locations where the sandstone formations appear. This California photographer, used to the relatively gray tones of Sierra granite, cannot get enough of the wild colors of this state.

I made this photograph on a morning when we drove across Zion National Park highlands on the Mt. Carmel Highway. Changes along this route, which can only assume the park service regards as improvements, have made photography considerably more difficult here. Many places where I used to be able to pull over and photograph are now off limits. That problem aside, we still did find places to stop and photograph in the brilliant morning sun, a very different experience than photographing in Zion Canyon or other deep and shaded places.

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.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Streamside Cottonwood Trees

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Streamsiode Cottonwood Trees
Streamside cottonwood trees along the Virgin River begin to change to autumn colors.

Streamside Cottonwood Trees. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Streamside cottonwood trees along the Virgin River begin to change to autumn colors.

This photograph comes from a very busy place in Zion National Park, along the trail to one of the more popular destinations in Zion Canyon. Fortunately, as is almost always the case in well-known national parks, you can usually step even a little ways off the main trails and put some distance between yourself and the hordes. That’s more or less what I did here — I just walked a little ways away from the main hiking thoroughfare to where the trees were overhanging the river a bit. (However, a warning: When there are so many people around, sometimes a critical mass of them may see you making photographs and decide to follow. Unfortunately, that happened here to some extent. On some occasions I’ve been known to go to some lengths to obscure my visits to such places!)

Once again, I was really mostly attracted by the reflected canyon light — that special light that reflects from sunlit red rock walls and then gently fills in shadows with softly-directional, warm light. (One challenge: if there is a breeze it can be hard to deal with the motion of the leaves in this low light.) I chose the portrait orientation for this photograph so that I could include a bit of the stream and the boulder along with a bit of the canyon wall above and beyond the trees.

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.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.