I hope you have a wonderful holiday and a great new year! (And, yes, this photograph is the kind of scene I think of during this season in California.)
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
A bright yellow autumn cottonwood tree in a valley below red rock cliffs, Kolob Canyon
I have visited these trees — and this tree — in Zion National Park’s Kolob Canyon area before. I’m familiar with this beautiful little valley that runs up toward the head of a canyon bounded by red rock cliffs, and shaded from the early morning sun. Each time I have visited it has been a bit later in the morning when direct light was still blocked, but when ambient light began to fill in the shadows a bit.
A creek runs up (or down, depending on your perspective!) this little canyon, and it is lined with vegetation, notably including cottonwood trees. Higher up there are conifers, whose green color stands out against the red of the Utah rock. Further along the canyon narrows, twists around turns and disappears from sight. Although the colors might have been even brighter few days before this visit, I like the way that the colors of the foreground tree contrast with the more skeletal shapes of the bare and nearly bare plants beyond.
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
Canon recently released the successor to their venerable 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens, the new EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens. I have relied on the older model for some time now… but my copy of the new lens arrived a few days ago. Now that I have used it for a day of wildlife and landscape photography I would like to share some first impressions
First, a few technical details. The new lens covers essentially the same range as the older model — a focal length range of 100mm to 400mm and a variable aperture range of f/4.5 (at 100mm) to f/5.6 (at 400mm). Both lenses use a zoom mechanism that extends at longer focal lengths. However, there are some technical differences:
Cloudy sky at sunrise above the high country of Capitol Reef National Park
This photograph came from a particularly productive morning shoot near Capitol Reef National Park. We had decided to get up early and head down the east side of the park along a lengthy gravel road, with the eventual goal of either exploring a slot canyon or going up high on the ridge to the west of the water pocket fold valley. We drove east through the park in pre-dawn darkness, but as we left the park and started to head south the sun was just coming up. It soon became apparent that a special sunrise might be in store for us, so we quickly found a place with some broad views and stopped and got out.
The morning conditions were a bit unusual and quite special. To our west the sky was darkened by some slightly ominous looking clouds — the sort that seemed to have the potential for bringing rain later in the day. Far to the east there appeared to be enough breaks in the cloud cover to allow some dawn sunlight through, and we hoped that the foreground peaks of Capitol Reef might be lit against this darker sky. In fact, that is precisely what happened very soon after we arrived. I chose the vertical format for this photograph, minimizing the size of the brilliantly lit slopes ascending toward the peaks, so that I could emphasize the ominous quality of this dark sky.
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
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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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.
