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

Backlit Trees and Sandstone, Afternoon

December 10, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon sun back-lights trees and brush in the sandstone high country of Zion Naitonal Park, Utah

I love this “sea of sandstone” country from the higher elevations of Zion National Park, especially early or late in the day when the low angle sun catches the tips of the needles and leaves of the trees and bushes. The rock formations have a combination of sculpted large features and rough and angular small features that I like as well.

Several times this year I had the opportunity to spend good portions of days along the Mount Carmel Highway through the park. Between the well-known tunnel and the east border of the park, the surroundings are filled with this sort of landscape: small canyons, deeply worn stream beds, knobs of stratified red sandstone, and trees and plants managing to grow anywhere they can get a bit of soil on this rocky terrain. As I travel this road it seems that juxtapositions of these components are constantly forming, sometimes so quickly that I don’t have time to stop. However, because I have been over this road quite a few times now, I’m beginning to understand a bit more where and when to look. The idea here was to line up a couple of almost parallel hill structures, each topped by backlit trees, against the backdrop of shadowed and stratified rock.

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

Hanging Branch with Yellow Leaves, Sandstone Wall

December 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A branch covered in yellow autumn leaves hands over a dark sandstone wall, Zion National Park

This is another photograph made in a short slot canyon in the high country of Zion National Park. At this point, it may be clear that I have a bit of an obsession with plants in front of rock of various sorts, and I was intrigued by this bundle of branches covered with yellow fall leaves that was dangling down onto the rocky wall of sculpted sandstone in this canyon and the way that the branch shapes were juxtaposed with the horizontal patterns in the rock and the diagonal fracture dropping from left to right.

It is easy and so tempting to focus on the beautiful red-toned rock, but there are many other colors to see as well. They range from the nearly white sandstone found in some layers, through intense yellows, and all the way to nearly black, especially where lichen or moss grows on the rock. The surface of the rock in this scene is very complex. Not only is the underlying striation visible, but various sorts of lichen have added color and texture – including the lighter blotches near the bottom of the frame and the slightly more subtle red spots lining portions of the fracture.

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

Three Bighorn Sheep

December 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three bighorn sheep grazing in an area of sandstone slabs, Zion National Park

I have been fascinated by the bighorn sheep since an experience I had many years ago in the eastern Sierra Nevada. I was on my first solo backpacking trip – oddly enough, this first solo was a two-week trip! – and I was hiking up into a slightly more remote area not far from Rae Lakes. In typical climbing mode, I was trudging up a steep, rocky trail with my head mostly down, and not paying complete attention to my larger surroundings. All of a sudden I heard a tremendous clattering of rocks very close by, perhaps no more than a couple dozen feet away, and having no idea what would cause such a thing my response was mild panic. I quickly looked up and saw three bighorns very close to me, apparently as surprised by me as I was by them. I immediately began to drop my pack so that I could get to my camera, envisioning a photograph of these noble-looking creatures against the background of this rocky slope. I quickly removed the pack, grabbed my camera, and rose back up to make a photograph… only to see the rear ends of the departing critters perhaps a few hundred yards away on the steep talus slope.

The circumstances of this photograph were much less dramatic, I must admit. While driving along the Mount Carmel Highway over the high country of Zion National Park we simply looked up and saw a small herd or a dozen or more of the animals right above the roadway. I knew they were in the area since earlier I had heard rockfall far above the road, looked up, and seen two of them grazing very high on the slope. But to see such a large group this close was a bit of a surprise. Since I was traveling light on this trip I did not have my longest lens, so I worked with what I had and settled in to see what might develop. The larger group clustered around a bush a bit too far up the slope – and they were apparently not intrigued with the idea of posing, as they stood around with their butts pointing in my direction! One or two of them separated from the main group and soon this group of three made its way down across the sandstone to some brush a bit closer to me.

Tongue in Cheek

The Only “Wow” Lens

December 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

From time to time, and perhaps more often than necessary, the forumtography question concerning lenses that produce a “wow” factor (and perhaps even a “3D effect!”) arises and leads to great long discussions about which exotic and expensive lenses will make any photograph into a classic.

There is only one such lens.

The only true “wow” lens, as any proper lens connoisseur knows without asking, is the 1956 39.5mm Heptagon Mega L v. 58 B (Czechoslovakia model) with the German manual extender modification screw attachment and the maximum f/1. 39 aperture and the unique crank-operated tilt-shift mechanism that was carved from ebony wood. The optical spatial construction of the crystalline substructure was temporally modified by skilled yet enigmatic craftsmen under the tutelage of the original optical specialists of the Third Order, each of whom spent at least 14 years mastering their art while performing menial manual manipulations and modifications of modular componentry that had been properly aged and then conditioned in alpine ice caves in order to ensure optimal thermo-stable meta-optical stability and compound image purity in the sub-atomic and meta-cognitive domains, with both affective and psycho-motor orientation.

The ineffable and subtle purity of the drawing power of this legendary optic can turn any photographer into a Cartier-Bresson, an Adams, or an Avedon, as the case may be. Although unbeknownst to the general population and only shared among the elect who have been chosen to experience the technical, aesthetic and spiritual perfection of the Heptagon optic and who are sufficiently suggestible, this is actually the primary causal factor behind the creation of virtually all truly great photography during the past 100 years. Some have come close, but none have achieved greatness without it. Why, the effect is simply magical. All I can say is…

… wow.

Note: If you are a new photographer looking for serious advice about lens selection for your DSLR, you have probably figured out by now that this article doesn’t provide it. (Actually, in an intentionally satirical way, it does address an important question about the eternal hope that magical lenses will lead to magical photography.) In any case, I think some might find the following earlier post useful: Beginner Question: What Lenses Should I Get?

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Backlit Trees and Sandstone, Afternoon

Hanging Branch with Yellow Leaves, Sandstone Wall

Three Bighorn Sheep

The Only “Wow” Lens

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