Category Archives: Photographs: Utah

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

Bend in the Canyon

March 31, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sharp curving bend in the bottom of a Utah canyon

In many ways this is a bend in the canyon much like probably many thousands or other bends in this and other canyons. In places the courses of these canyons seem to wobble back and forth, turning right and then left and then right again as they trace their way down into the deeper sections of such canyons. In this spot the canyon narrowed and steepened just a little bit, and the creeks almost filled the bottom of the rocky section of the canyon around the bend. The nearly vertical canyon walls towered hundreds of feet above and no direct sunlight made it down here while I walked through.

These spots form their own little worlds, cut off from the flat country surrounding the canyons high above, and far from entry and exit points above and below. They are quiet places — at least during the good weather times when I tend to visit — and they are sonically isolated from the rest of the world, too. It is possible to walk slowly down such a canyon, picking your way along and through the creek, stopping frequently to look and perhaps photograph… and completely forget that outside world.

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

Red Rock Hills

March 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Red rock hills rise from the surrounding terrain, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

I made this photograph in a spot where the ubiquitous flat terraces, covered with lots of dry country plant life, run into the edge of smooth sandstone surfaces which then rise abruptly into hills and valleys and low summits. We went to this place in the late afternoon — it and a nearby area were to be the location for our evening shoot. We parked our vehicles, got out, loaded up camera equipment, and headed toward these hills.

At this point the light was rather subdued for this time of day. High, thin clouds muted the intensity of the light and reduced the otherwise stark contrasts between shadows and subjects in the sun. This generally softens the appearance of the landscape and, to some extent, warms the light a bit. In the lower part of the frame a few hardy plants still manage to eke our a living on the rocks, but just beyond, as the rocks begin to rise up more steeply, almost nothing grows.

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

Red Rock Panorama

March 26, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening glow on red rock landscape, Utah

I acknowledge that this color is pretty wild. This is partly a result of the way the camera sees in diminishing twilight, with colors saturating in surprising ways. The photograph was among the last couple I made on this evening when we continued photographing so late that it was about to become tricky finding our way back down in the near darkness. It is also the result of wild color in the sky — a bit of which you can see on the clouds in the upper portion of the frame — that fell on rock that is already quite red.

We had spent perhaps a couple of hours photographing in this terrain, focusing on the sensuous shapes of the curved sandstone, the odd cottonwood tree with fall color leaves, and bits of the surrounding landscape. It was a productive evening, working a group of six of us exploring, at times together, and times in smaller sub-groups, and sometimes alone. I didn’t really want to stop, since this isn’t the kind of location that I can easily return to — but eventually the light faded and our work was done for the day.

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

Desert Canyon Creek

March 25, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sky and sandstone reflect in the surface of a desert canyon creek

I can’t say that I’ve yet spent enough time in these Utah canyons to fully understand their cycles, but it seems to me that there must be an ongoing back-and-forth between forces that heap sand into them and the forces that move that sand away. Whether the canyons are dry or wet when I visit, the effects of water are evident everywhere. Low places hold it long after the flow has stopped, and they can be deep pools or bowls of mud. The passage of water is recorded in dry form in ripples in sand and desiccated mud. And when the creeks flow, their banks often have terraces cut into the deposited sand when the water was at varying depths.

This bit of creek bed was at the base of a short drop below a small cascade, and it must have collected sand during some period of greater flow. The water was flowing sedately and quietly when we were there, yet the evidence of its ability to cut into the bottom of the canyon is clearly visible. The light had a blue-purple coloration here under the overhand of a large cliff, and the golden reflections in the mud and water are from plants and sunlit cliff faces high above.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Utah

Bend in the Canyon

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Red Rock Hills

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Red Rock Panorama

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Desert Canyon Creek

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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.