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

Sunset, Chessman Point, Cedar Breaks

October 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

This was my first visit to Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. On my previous trip though Utah we had driven past the roads leading to Cedar Breaks and – doing what one does while driving these days! – we looked it up on the iPhone, and it sounded quite interesting. The descriptions suggested a high elevation bowl with Bryce Canyon-like features that would be open to the west and sunset light. With this in mind, we decided to end our cross-Nevada drive with an overnight at Brian Head, the seasonally dormant ski area where rooms were both relatively inexpensive and quite nice! After checking in we drove on up the road to the National Monument.

The terrain is very interesting and very “not California” to this Sierra Nevada guy. On one side of the ridge is a gently rolling high terrain of alternative forest and meadows, just the sort of place to find lots of deer in the evening and an altogether quiet and peaceful sort of place. On the other side of the ridge, however, things are quite different. The mountain simply drops away to the west, with brightly colored and complex fluted canyons of red rock and soil. Far below and in the distance we could see large groves of aspen trees. A strong wind was blowing up the west-side canyons, but I managed to stabilize things enough to make a few photographs of this spectacular terrain in near-dusk light.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Utah

Aspen Color Explosion

October 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

An almost unbelievable explosion of aspen color in the mountains east of Cedar City, Utah

This impresses me as just about the most ridiculous, over-the-top, unbelievable explosion of aspen color that I’ve ever seen. I visited Utah during the first part of October this year, and I encountered what must be almost peak fall aspen color during the first week of the month in the southwestern part of the state not far from Cedar City and Zion National Park. By the time I arrived the trees at the highest elevations had lost many of their leave, however the show from trees and somewhat lower elevations more than made up for this.

While there were colorful trees everywhere, this particular group seemed unrivaled for the sheet variety of colors packed together in one small area. The specific spot isn’t all that important and, frankly, in many ways the location was otherwise not necessarily the most wonderful example of Utah wilderness. (There were homes not too far away.) We came upon this scene while driving a back-road not far from Cedar City – we were basically just driving around looking for color and hoping we would find some. (Actually, it was hard to avoid seeing aspen color!) While some leaves had fallen from the lower portions of a few of these trees, the color variation was amazing – ranging from yellow-gold through orange and right on to red, with a few still-green leaves thrown in for good measure.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

October 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A dense aspen grove in full fall color near South Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage

I have been returning to this little group of trees for several years now. There are many like it throughout the eastern Sierra, but somehow this group has come to seem like “mine” and I shoot it every fall. There is nothing obviously special about it – it is not some sort of landmark location, and you would easily pass right by it if you happened to be there and look in a different direction. It is up a somewhat obscure little dirt road that goes no where in particular.

At the right moment in the fall season the grove turns completely golden-yellow with the exception of some years when it seems to hold a bit of orange or red, if I recall correctly. I like to arrive in the early evening just as the sun is about to dip behind a nearby ridge and bring soft, shadowed light to this spot. This year I had thought that I might be too early, since I would more typically shoot there perhaps a full week into the month of October, but this has been an early season for aspen color in the Sierra and in a number of other areas of the west as well.

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens

October 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light traverses groves of golden autumn aspen trees, Sabrina Basin

There is a particular spot in the Sabrina Basin from which I can look down into a deeper portion of the valley where the sunlight does not hit the trees until hours after sunrise. When photographing in this area I almost have a ritual I follow: begin just before dawn at a higher location and shoot in the very first morning light, explore this higher area for an hour or more as the light builds, then leave and begin the descent back into that valley – first photographing it from above as the sun begins to top a tall ridge to the east and its shadow moves across the groves of trees in the bottom of the valley, and then working within the valley-bottom groves.

This photograph was made during those moments when the sun first began to rise over that high ridge, and the sun/shadow line began its traverse of the aspen groves that line the bottom of the canyon. Here the light had reached the first trees closet to me and was just beginning to work its way back toward the further groves that were still in deep shadow.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Sunset, Chessman Point, Cedar Breaks

Aspen Color Explosion

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens

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