Category Archives: Photographs: Utah

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

Red Rock, Tree

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Red Rock, Tree
A tree grows among eroded sandstone formations, Bryce Canyon National Park

Red Rock, Tree. Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. October 6, 2012. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tree grows among eroded sandstone formations, Bryce Canyon National Park

Recently I spent some time going back through older photographs from some visits to the Southwest, notably Utah, a few years back. I suspect that three things provoked me to do this. First, I have found that I’m not always able to completely understand my own photographs right away. Some are obviously “keepers” from the very beginning, but others only make sense after I have not looked at them for a while — so I build this periodic visit to older subjects into my workflow. Secondly, I love the Utah landscape, from its most intimate to its grandest subjects. It is a place I think about a lot, and a place that I would like to revisit often. Third, I’m acutely aware of the existential dangers to this very landscape posed by the ascendance of short-sighted, self-interested, hyper-partisan political forces in Utah right now. As a matter of principle, I have decided to not visit that state until their representatives stop trying to ruin it. (I urge you to consider contributions to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance or other local groups working to protect Utah’s public lands for all Americans, and to join me in boycotting the state for now.)

This photograph comes from Bryce Canyon National Park, a place of great beauties… that I still haven’t quite gotten my mind around. The rugged red formations facing the rising sun certainly present a striking appearance, but working from along the main road and its offshoots I still haven’t found my vision of the place. Oddly, some of my strongest visual recollections of the place are looking back at it from the east and from a great distance. In this photograph a single small tree peeks out from behind some of the sandstone structures.

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 and Amazon.
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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: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Boulder Mountain Aspens

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Late season aspen groves, Boulder Mountain
Late season aspen groves, Boulder Mountain

Boulder Mountain Aspens. Dixie National Forest, Utah. October 6, 2012.© Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late season aspen groves, Boulder Mountain

These beautiful aspen groves stretch great distances up the hillsides in this area of Boulder Mountain in Utah. The road from Boulder to Torrey passes across an open section as it rises from Boulder, and here there are expansive views, uninterrupted by other kinds of trees. I had first seen this area during a spring visit, and this autumn visit was something of a follow-up.

I suppose that we actually arrived too late for the peak color, and it is clear that many of the trees further up the slope have lost virtually all of their color. On the other hand, the juxtaposition of the bare hillside and the bare upper groves with the scattered end-of-season color in the foreground trees only makes their color that much more striking.

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 and Amazon.
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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: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Late Season Aspen Groves

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Late Season Aspen Groves
Late season aspens with sparse leaves on Boulder Mountain

Late Season Aspen Groves. Dixie National Forest, Utah. October 6, 2012. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late season aspens with sparse leaves on Boulder Mountain

This wasn’t my first visit to Utah, but it was my first visit during fall. We started in the west, where we knew we might find aspens, and we managed to catch the tail end of the aspen color in the high country around Cedar Breaks National Monument. From there we bypassed the obvious visit to Zion Canyon (that came later, on our homebound trip) and headed east, past Bryce and then Escalante and the small town of Boulder. Past Boulder, in terrain I had not visited before, the road began to climb as we drove on into the approaching sunset.

The first time I had driven past this place it was very early in the spring, and I was stunned by the number of aspen trees gathered in huge groves extending far up the slopes of these mountains. I remember making a mental note to visit them some fall, and this was that return visit. Being accustomed to the schedule of eastern Sierra aspen color, however, we arrived after the prime color — it comes earlier here in Utah. But in some ways, the few scattered trees with their wild late-season colors turned out to be more dramatic. What we thought might be a quick drive over Boulder Mountain to Torrey turned out to take a long time as we kept stopping and photographing these trees until there was no light left.

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

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

Cedar Breaks, Evening

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Cedar Breaks, Evening
Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

Cedar Breaks, Evening. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. October 5, 2010. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

This was only my second photography trip to Utah — the first had been not long before this when we visited in spring. (When I was very young, my family used to drive through Utah on trips between California and the Midwest, but I was hardly aware of the landscape.) This time we aimed for autumn, leaving the eastern Sierra at the beginning of October and heading across Nevada (not the usual route!) to western Utah and staying near Cedar Breaks National Monument for a few days at the start of our visit.

I did not know much about Cedar Breaks, and one thing that surprised me was the abrupt break between the wildly colorful and sculpted pink rock of the canyon and the flat and relatively plain high country to the east. A road travels along this boundary, and it took me a while to figure out how to photograph the area — the high flatlands seemed plain and the canyon dropped away into the western light. But that light from the west turned out to be the key. Near the end of our visit we were along the southern edge of the chasm late in the day when high, thin clouds softened that light from the west, and from here, rather than photographing straight into it, I could focus on the textures and colors made visible by the light sweeping across from the left.

As you consider this beautiful scene, also consider that such areas in Utah are currently threatened by radical anti-environmental Utah politicians who seem hell-bent on giving away our shared public lands to special interest extraction industries. It is simply astonishing that people who live in a place of such beauty could be so blind to it. Consider supporting the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in their work to defend these treasures.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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