Tag Archives: bend

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Sagging Building, York

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Sagging Building, York
“Sagging Building, York” — And old building with apparenlt serious structural issues, York, England.

York’s old town is known for “The Shambles,” an old area of narrow and sometimes-curving streets lined with very old shops and businesses. (The appearance in places is “Harry Potteresque,” something that shops are now promoting.) They seem to take pains to maintain the very old and slightly off-kilter appearance of the shops, but this particular building is a standout!

And, no, your screen is not melting. This building actually looks like this, leaning precariously to one side, with the walls of the lower floor appearing to be badly distorted and cracked. I did not enter the building, nor could I find a name for it (though the sign says that ghost tours meet there), but I can only hope that there is some interior reinforcement not visible from the street! (Someone suggested that the building is actually solid, and that it was designed to look this way. I have not been able to confirm that.)

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Canyon Bend

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Canyon Bend
Contrasting warm and cool colors in a narrow section of a desert canyon.

Canyon Bend. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Contrasting warm and cool colors in a narrow section of a desert canyon.

During my hikes up and down this canyon I made quite a few photographs of these lovely narrows. I camped at the mouth of the canyon, and this made it possible to hike up twice — once late in the day and again the next morning. The appearance of a narrow canyon like this one depends so much on the nature of the light, and that was almost completely different during the two visits.

Several things intrigue me about this particular narrows. Sections of it are quite angled, with the wall on one side slanting away and on the other side overhanging the bottom of the canyon substantially. In other words, you don’t look straight up to see the narrow band of sky, but instead you look off to one side a bit. I assume that this is a partially due to erosion following natural lines of weakness in the geology and partly due to the tendency of moving water to undercut a side of the canyon. Of even more interest to a photographer, the color of the light in this canyon and others like it is quite variable. In the darkest section the only light comes from the very blue sky, and the light here is quite blue. (I actually toned it down a bit in the photograph.) However, where the light comes in a bit more directly or perhaps through a wider gap the color is much warmer, as we see on the far wall beyond that gap in this photograph.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

The Last Leaves

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The Last Leaves
The last autumn leaves on trees and bushes above sculpted rocks along a bend in the Escalante River.

The Last Leaves. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last autumn leaves on trees and bushes above sculpted rocks along a bend in the Escalante River.

Fall is my favorite season. I’m not really a summer person — too hot! — but the warm early autumn days are just about perfect. I love winter, too, and part of the appeal of fall is the certainty that winter, the time of “interesting” weather is coming soon, too. And as fall moves on toward winter the first of the Pacific cold weather systems begin to arrive, and snow begins to arrive in the Sierra.

Before that happens, though, we go through the autumn color season. In recent years I have discovered that I can stretch it out for months. For me it begins with a few early changes by the beginning of September in the Sierra which culminate a month later with the spectacular aspen color. Then the color works its way west across the range and down into the westside valleys, before it finally begins to peak in November nearer the coast. There’s still a bit left in December… and sometimes even later. I photographed this scene deep in the canyon of the Escalante River along a rocky bend where the final colors of the season were just about spent.

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: The Southwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

Creek, Bend in the Canyon

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Creek, Bend in the Canyon
A small stream bends and twists its way along the bottom of a deep sandstone canyon

Creek, Bend in the Canyon. Utah. October 24, 2014. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small stream bends and twists its way along the bottom of a deep sandstone canyon

We spent the morning hiking down into this deep sandstone canyon, following its course as it twisted toward its confluence with a larger river below. Leaving behind the high tablelands, we dropped into upper, shallow section of the canon, and continued walking as it twisted and turned and worked its way deeper into the landscape. Finally we came to deeply shaded spot with a rock bench beneath a large overhang, where we stopped and pondered and ate for a while. We split up and each of us did a bit more exploring, but soon it was turn-around time — that point that we determine to be when we need to begin to retrace our steps in order to get back to where we started at a reasonable hour.

Heading back up a route on the return walk always feels different. The trip in is one of discovery, while much of the trip out is one of recognition — passing spots that we remember for a few hours earlier, taking time to pause in places we walked through quickly the first time, making a few detours here and there. While the terrain is the same, the light is not. By the late afternoon the deepest sections of this canyon were largely in shadow, and as we each picked our way back up the creek individually things seems slower and quieter.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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