Tag Archives: brush

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

Pothole and Sandstone Valley

December 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pothole in a sculpted sandstone valley

A group of us, all photographers, gathered on this morning outside of the town of Escalante. We had arrived from various points around the American West including California, Utah, Arizona with a plan of spending a few days photographing somewhat remote areas of Utah canyon country. After exchanging greetings we headed out to the spot where we would camp for the next few days, where we set up and settled in. After a bit of mid-afternoon wandering around in the area around camp, we decided that it was time to locate a place to shoot in the evening.

One member of the group — sort of our unofficial leader, in that he lives in the area — suggested a spot a few miles north of our location, so we loaded up a few vehicles and headed that way. This place is a wonderland of sinuous sandstone formations, including large flat areas, ridge tops, gullies, potholes, twisty valleys and more. Although we were only there for a few hours, it is the sort of place where one could photograph many times and still find new subjects. After starting out together and photographing some of the more obvious features in the area, we split up and headed off in different directions. As high clouds muted the late afternoon light I saw this rock-bound landscape of curving sandstone heading off towards the west.

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

Streamside Foliage, Autumn Color

November 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful autumn foliage along a Utah stream at the base of sandstone cliffs

This photograph includes several things that attract me. For one thing, the subject is visually very complex — and I enjoy the challenge of trying to create a coherent composition from such subjects. For another, it includes several visual elements that I like a lot. One is the juxtaposition of foliage and red rock, which is found so frequently in the Southwest. Another is the state of the fall color transition here — it is at the interesting point where there are still quite a few green leaves, but where the transition is unmistakable. On top of that, the varied foliage includes a wide range of original colors, from bright green (and the autumn hello) of the main trees to the blue-green and dusty colors of the smaller plants at the bottom of the frame.

This little vignette is found along the Virgin River in Zion Canyon, where the river provides water along its course to support a lot of rich vegetation. More specifically, here the river makes a curve at the base of a very tall section of sandstone cliff, a bit of which is seen beyond the trees. The cliff is so high and the canyon so deep that little direct sunlight makes it down to this spot, and instead there tends to be a lot of beautiful soft light.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

East Carson River, Autumn

October 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall colors along the canyon of the East Carson River, California

Aspens are most certainly not the only sources of autumn color in the Sierra Nevada. There are many bush-like plants that can be quite colorful, such as the willows that may line high elevation creeks, and in the lower places along rivers cottonwood trees produce beautiful color just a bit later than the aspens.

This photograph was made along a section of the East Carson River not far from the tiny town of Markleeville in Alpine County, one of the least populated areas in the state. In this general area there is a transition from the higher country around the Sierra crest toward the high desert east of the range where rivers like this one end up. As I drove up the highway alongside the East Carson it was still early morning and shadows filled the bottom of the river canyon, where colors came from brush, cottonwoods, reflected blue sky and warmer colors reflected from higher canyon walls.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Thicket, Eastern Sierra

October 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall color in a dense aspen thicket along an eastern Sierra creek

The exact location of this grove probably doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t seem necessary or even useful to reveal it here. With just a bit of looking about you can find many groves that are equally interesting all over the Sierra Nevada at this time of year, but especially on the east side of the range. I had seen this grove from a distance in the past, and once or twice before had thought to approach it on gravel roads. In fact, it is possible that I actually did visit or drive past at some point in the past. But for no particularly logical reason, on this trip I spotted it again from a distance and decided to go there and poke around.

In addition to its relative inaccessibility and lack of popularity, this grove has a couple of other things going for it. Many of the Sierra aspens tend to be somewhat small and not always straight. Such trees do have a special charm and I photograph them all the time. However, to be honest, sometimes California aspen photographers can be just a bit jealous of those groves of giant, straight and tall trees that seem to be more common in some other western states. This grove has those trees — tall and straight and towering above. In also has one of the densest examples of undergrowth that I’ve seen in the Sierra. My initial idea was to walk deep into this grove in the late afternoon as the light diminished, but I quickly figured out that this wasn’t likely given the dense bead of overlapping fallen tree trunks, thick brush, and thorn plants. So instead of trying to get through that jungle, I changed my mind and decided to make it the subject of the photograph instead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: brush

Pothole and Sandstone Valley

Streamside Foliage, Autumn Color

East Carson River, Autumn

Aspen Thicket, Eastern Sierra

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