Category Archives: Photographs: Utah

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Utah

Branch With Spring Leaves, Zion National Park

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Branch With Spring Leaves, Zion National Park - New spring leaves and seeds appear on the branch of a cottonwood tree, Zion National Park, Utah
New spring leaves and seeds, Zion National Park, Utah

Branch With Spring Leaves, Zion National Park. Zion National Park, Utah. April 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

New spring leaves and seeds appear on the branch of a box elder tree, Zion National Park, Utah.

Among the places I photographed on my recent Utah trip was Zion National Park – I place about which I have heard and seen much, but which I had not previously visited. A friend described the Virgin River Canyon in this park as “Yosemite Valley in red,” and this seems like an apt description. I responded differently to each of the parks we visited. Canyonlands was huge and austere. Arches was literally “fantastic,” and elicited the most intense response. But Zion seems like a place that is more subtle, with a lot to see and get to know.

Among the features that seem to me to typify this area are the cottonwood, box elder, red maple, and other trees. During our visit they were just barely beginning to get their new spring leaves – in some places we saw bare trees, in a few we saw trees that had almost a full set of leaves, but for the most part we saw trees that had just a hint of the bright green color of new leaves. One morning we took the short walk to weeping rock in Zion Canyon. While I didn’t quite see photographs in this feature itself, I did spot this box elder branch suspended just about the trail, backlit by morning light and with the faint colors of sandstone cliffs and canyon bottom plants beyond.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Utah

Green River Canyon, Evening

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Green River Canyon, Evening - Soft evening light on the canyon of the Green River as it winds through the desert terrain of Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Soft evening light on the canyon of the Green River as it winds through the desert terrain of Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Green River Canyon, Evening. Canyonlands National Park, Utah. April 6, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on the canyon of the Green River as it winds through the desert terrain of Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

I recently returned from a week in Utah which, perhaps surprisingly, was completely new to me as a photographic subject. More about that in a moment, but first a bit of description of the photograph. This photo was made in Canyonlands National Park in the “Island in the Sky” area, looking west from a high viewpoint above the canyon containing the winding Green River, not far above its confluence with the Colorado River. The “Island” is a high and relatively flat plateau at around 6000+’ of elevation, surrounding on many sides by deep canyons, cliffs, and then several levels of lower plateaus. There are “edges” everywhere, and all of them provide stunning vistas into the vast spaces below and beyond. We ended up at this spot largely due to a photograph I had seen an a park brochure that included a view of receding mesas and canyons in evening light. We scouted it in the middle of the afternoon as we visited several places in this area of the park, and it seemed inevitable that I would end up shooting here at sunset. I was initially imagining a scene with brighter colors from the sunset and the post-sunset sky, but instead I ended up with something that I think I like even more, namely softer light with some haze in the atmosphere and somewhat gentler colors.

As I mentioned above, I have not photographed in Utah before. I had been through the state several times many years ago, but I think we more or less sped through on interstate highways – which don’t tend to follow the most scenic routes – and I had a very limited view of the place. While it is too bad that I waited so long to go there, it gave me the opportunity to have an experience that I don’t have nearly as often in California where I do most of my shooting. Because I live within a short drive of redwood forests, the Pacific coast, and places like Yosemite Valley and the Sierra and visit all of them frequently, I have to admit that I sometimes forget how extraordinary they are. I can drive right past Yosemite’s Tunnel View if the view is just a typical Yosemite Valley view. But on this trip, I more or less intentionally avoided finding out a lot about some of our destinations before we left. Consequently, I had opportunities to be surprised and astonished – like any good tourist! – by things that I was seeing for the first time. For example, I really had no idea what I would see at Arches National Park when we drove into it at just about the “golden hour” – and I was completely stunned by impossible structures and juxtapositions of sandstone columns and arches and towers and cliffs. I just got a quick taste on this trip… but I’ll be back.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Tamarisk

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Autumn Tamarisk - Tamarisk plants with autumn foliage on the banks of a desert stream, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Tamarisk plants with autumn foliage on the banks of a desert stream, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Autumn Tamarisk. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 24.2012.© Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Tamarisk plants with autumn foliage on the banks of a desert stream, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

I photographed these tamarisk plants with autumn colors on a cold and extremely windy day in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument – most likely, if memory serves, during a brief lull in the wind. It was a beautiful and invigorating day – but certainly not one that was conducive to photographing autumn foliage! We did spend the better part of the day in this canyon, but the wind increased and by the end of our work it was almost strong enough to occasionally stop us in our tracks on the hike out… and then it started to rain!

Tamarisk plants can offer some of the most varied colors of almost any plant, though they are often overlooked because they can easily look drab, especially in daytime light, and because their form is not classically tree-like. But depending on the season and the lighting they can have almost every color imaginable: reds yellow, purple, blue, tan, green. This small group of plants was, obviously, sporting brilliant autumn colors. But, in addition, it was lit by the reflected glow of warm colored light coming from a nearby cliff face in full sun.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.