Category Archives: Photographs: The Southwest

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

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

November 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage growing in sculpted sandstone terrain

The subject of this photograph is a sort of invisible icon. Let me explain. The location is not a very popular one by the usual standards. It isn’t easy to get to many places in this sprawling national monument. Things are not signed. There are no “photo spot” signs. The great majority of roads are unpaved and some are quite rough. You won’t find campgrounds with running water and flush toilets. Stores are few and far between. (While part of me is certain that its attractions deserve national park status, and frustrated that certain local politics will likely prevent this in the foreseeable future… another part of me thinks that the relative obscurity of national monument status may also have some benefits.)

Yet, there are places that seem to draw folks who love this land and are willing to search things out a bit. This particular sort of landscape of swooping, curving sandstone shapes, deep water pockets, and the occasional cottonwood tree is not that hard to find, and if you look around a bit you can find many, many examples. On this evening we photographed in soft light created by high clouds, and I decided to find a different angle on this lone cottonwood — one that would include it in a receding sequence of layers of sandstone formations.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sunrise, Capitol Reef

November 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn clouds about the peaks of Capitol Reef National Park

Finding sunrise light like this is a matter of getting up very early, making some decent pre-dawn guesses about what may happen later, finding a good location… and a whole bunch of plain dumb luck. Oh, and persistence helps, too — if you are out there a lot you will inevitably increase the odds that you’ll encounter the very special light. But no one can call up a small cloud centered above a ridge lit by first light that also turns the distant clouds shades of pink and purple.

Our primary plan on this day was to take a rather long drive down the east side of the park, though the ultimate goal was a bit fuzzy — it could have been a slot canyon I know of or it could have been a higher location that I had visited before. We started out in near darkness from our campsite, crossed the park, and then started south. As dawn approached, it was immediately obvious that the sky was just about to do something amazing, so we quickly found a spot with a panoramic view in most directions, stopped the car, grabbed cameras and tripods, and hurried to find compositions that might make use of this light. Since most of the interesting geological features seemed to be a good ways off, I put a very long lens on my camera and focused on small distant details. For a very brief moment, just as the first light began to gently wash over the high peaks of Capitol Reef, this intense color came to the clouds and one small cloud became visible against the lighter background.

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

Canyon Reflections

November 10, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflections of canyon and sky in the muddy bed of a canyon stream

I was almost tempted to title this “More Mud.” But I didn’t, even though canyon mud is a very interesting subject throughout this area of the Southwest. I had been in one south Utah location for a few days and it was time to travel to different area to meet up with a friend. Rather than taking the paved roads I decided to follow about 50 miles of gravel back roads — the mileage was shorter but the time was longer. Better yet, this route took me past several interesting sites that I wanted to explore a bit.

One of these is a little canyon that I first visited a few years ago with friends. In fact, this spot was my very first time in one of these deep and narrow canyons, and I recall that the entire experience was foreign to me on that first visit — from walking up the middle of a shallow running stream, to shooting in midday so as to get the best reflected light, and including the new and unusual (to me) sights and sounds of this part of Utah. So I figured that it might be fun to make a brief stop on this drive and wander back up the canyon for an hour or two. The canyon has many attractions, but one is that its regularly running steam keeps the canyon floor mud damp and reflective. Another is that the high walls in some sections can reflect some lovely bright colors down onto the water and the mud. After hitting my turnaround point, as I retraced my steps back down the canyon I paid special attention to the textures and reflections in the mud, and I was excited to find this spot that combined the red sand, the deep blue reflection of sky, the golden reflection of a bit of the canyon walls, and the warm light reflected down into the canyon.

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

Canyon Walls, Reflected Light

November 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light reflected from blue sky and sunlight canyon walls illuminates the lower reaches of a Utah slot canyon

On this day I visited — though just barely — an area of slot canyons in southern Utah. I rarely do much advance research when I plan to photograph in a new area, generally preferring to discover the place for myself. This has both advantages and disadvantages. I certainly make my share of missteps and sometimes miss spectacular locations on my initial visits. On the other hand, when I come with few preconceptions I am free to make my own relationship with these places and perhaps I am forced to look a bit more carefully at what I see.

I had a vague plan to visit an area where there are some fairly well-known features, though I did not plan to visit the most popular of them, preferring to avoid the need to special permits and the attendance line-waiting. So I got a map (one without a lot of detail) and figured out where to find a gravel side road to a place with a name I had heard of, and I headed that direction. I parked at another place with a name that sounded familiar, loaded up and started walking down a valley with a good size wash. Soon the walls closed in on both sides and I entered an area of slot canyon. There is much to see and feel in these canyons, but my attention is often focused on the light, which does astonishing things when it bounces down between higher red rock canyon walls. As I came to this spot I was taken aback by the intensity of the brilliant blue tones when open sky reflected on the shiny surface of the rock, contrasting with the intense reddish tones of red rock illuminated by red reflected light, and creating almost sensuous forms in the rock walls.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: The Southwest

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

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Sunrise, Capitol Reef

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Canyon Reflections

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Canyon Walls, Reflected Light

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.