Tag Archives: blue

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

Sandstone Tower, Fruita District

February 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sandstone tower stands above the Fruita District orchards in early evening light, Capitol Reef National Park

These sandstone plateaus and mesas seem characteristic of this front-country area of Capitol Reef National Park, and they are perhaps the most striking visual icon of your approach to the park from the town of Torrey, Utah, to the west. The Fruita District is the most accessible area of the park, being right alongside the main east-west highway that passes through the park. It features some picturesque sites and sights that are enough to make almost anyone pull over and look, including the old orchards that apparently gave the area its name and the accessible petroglyphs on low cliffs that run along the road. (Although this portion of the park is quite accessible once you are out here and driving across Utah, most of the park is anything but easily accessible, and getting to other places within its boundaries can involve some very long drives on some fairly bad roads, plus some hiking. I’m fine with that! ;-)

I made this photograph late in the day, after we had done a bit of exploring along the main tourist route into the park, the largely paved road towards Capitol Gorge and other nearby points. Late in the day I happened to spot this little conjunction of creek and fall-color tree and green grass and red rock cliffs as we were about to leave the park.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Utah

Room for the Big Deep Bend

February 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

At about the time I made this photograph, we were staying in Torrey, Utah for a few days. Instead of doing the obvious thing and heading east to visit Capitol Reef National Park again, we headed west towards points unknown but including the Fish Lake area. We passed through small towns whose lives seemed more divorced from the tourist trade than others we had been through along route 12, and eventually turned off the main highway to head up to Fish Lake. It turned out that, at least partially as a result of my decision to not do too much research ahead of time, we had missed the main fall color season there and that, in fact, the whole place was pretty much shutting down for the season. We poked around a bit here before reversing direction and heading back to highway 24.

Rather than end our exploration quite so soon, we continued on along highway 24, soon turned off into the Valley where Koosharem is located. I cannot recall now what drove the decision to go there – perhaps the unusual name of the place or maybe the possibility of getting to mountains on the far side of the valley – but there we went. We initially pretty much drove right through Koosharem and on out into the country on the other side of town, but we soon stopped and decided that this was not the direction we really wanted to go. We turned around and headed back towards Koosharem. This time a few things caught our attention, including the plain architecture of certain buildings in the town and the surprising – to us, anyway – appearance of this antiquated looking, though clearly kept up, sign on the side of this building next to a leave littered parking area that also held an ATV and some sort of small trailer. I wondered about this sign and the advertising copy it contained, and I later found out that Scowercroft and Sons was a fairly large manufacturer of clothing centered in Ogden.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Reeds and Reflected Sky

January 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Reeds and blue sky reflected in the surface of a San Joaquin Valley pond

This image could serve an example of how puzzlement, patience, and good luck can lead to a photograph. I have looked at precisely this clump of reeds perhaps a half-dozen times, thought about how I might photograph them, but could not make it work. They grow in a marshy pond in a San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuge, near a spot where I almost always stop at least once each time I visit. The usual reason for stopping at this precise spot has little or nothing to do with these plants, and more to do with the wildlife that might be around or with the interesting light that often appears here at certain times of the day.

When I have stopped here to photograph those other things, or perhaps just to look around, I have noticed the reeds and wanted to photograph them, but remained puzzled about how to make the photograph work. It may seem odd that such a simple subject would be challenging, but it is hard to find a sight line to one clump that isn’t interrupted by others, the water is often a bit stirred up by wind and birds, and getting the right reflections and light on the water is a challenge. But each time I think about it, and I had even tried a few previous photographs. But this time I had some luck on my side. First, it was a very calm and still morning, so the surface of the water was almost glass smooth, with just very subtle ripples. Second, the morning fog and haze distinctly muted what could otherwise be an overpowering blue in the reflection from the sky. (I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t even go back to my vehicle to get a tripod to make this shot, instead just shooting it handheld.)

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Davenport Bluffs, Dusk

January 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dusk light on a series of bluffs marching south from Davenport, California

This photograph comes from early December, 2012, when I attempted to join a group of folks on a “photowalk” in the Santa Cruz, California area. I was originally supposed to meet up with them at Henry Cowell park (for photography of redwoods), but missed that mid-morning rendezvous due to my own scheduling issues. I knew they would be heading over to the area near Davenport, just up the coast from Santa Cruz, a bit later in the morning. So I headed over there… and ended up eating my lunch along in a restaurant about 100 yards north of the restaurant where they were all meeting! Then I somehow missed the next rendezvous almost directly across the street, and instead ended up on nearby coastal bluffs to do my photography.

This photograph was the last one I made that evening, well after the sun had set. It was quite dark by this point, so much so that after I finished and packed up it was becoming difficult to see the path back to my car. Exposures were getting quite long – this one was, I believe, about 30 seconds long, and I had been successively opening up my aperture in order to keep the exposure time down to a reasonable half-minute. Often some of the most interesting and evocative light can come after sunset, sometimes well after sunset. The light softens and diffuses, as it comes from large areas of the sky and not from the point source of the sun. The colors change, heading toward blue but also including other subtle tones such as the pinks seen in the clouds in this photograph. And the longer exposures allow me to create a sort of fantastical effect by letting surf and spray blur out over the long exposures. (For a night photographer like me, such images also raise interesting questions about where the boundaries between “night photography” and just plain photography lie.)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: blue

Room for the Big Deep Bend

Reeds and Reflected Sky

Davenport Bluffs, Dusk

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