Tag Archives: canyon

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

Dried Mud, Canyon Light

July 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dried canyon mud illuminated by reflected canyon light, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

There are at least two stories in this photograph. The first one can be read directly from the materials, patterns, and colors of the photograph. The location is the bottom of a wash, a shallow canyon that is often dry but which may flood during rain. When water flows everything is rearranged. Sand settles to the bottom, a fine silt may lie on top, and eventually the layers dry in this warm climate. The dried silt contracts and splits then curls into odd shapes — here some of the silt has formed small tubes and all of it has rolled up and separated from the underlying red sand. On a sunny day like this one the light strikes canyon walls high above and bounce among them, picking up the color of the red rock and softening. The red light that suffuses the scene is contrasted by a slight bluish tint that comes from blue sky vaguely reflected on smoother parts of the dry silt.

The second story involves a group of a half-dozen photographers and friends. After a rather lazy morning of breakfast and coffee and conversation, we finally set off on foot down the wash that passed by our camp. As we walked the canyon narrowed and before long rocky walls began to rise on both sides — a common story in this terrain. Rounding a bend we caught sight of… dry mud. What happened next would probably perplex or amuse any non-photographers who might have happened by. In this grand landscape of towering walls and deep valleys, we spent the next half hour earnestly bent over tripods, carefully and repeatedly photographing… dried mud.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

Creek, Bend in the Canyon

June 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Arch and Canyon

June 19, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large arch above a Utah sandstone canyon

I have been down this canyon a couple of times now. The walk begins in what might seem like an inauspicious place in rather plain terrain. Soon the route drops below the level of the plateau and enters the upper portion of a shallow canyon. Continuing to walk into this canyon, the walls soon rise higher and the canyon narrows and twists. Before long the expected sandstone walls appear.

As is usually the case, we followed the course of the creek along the bottom of the canyon, alternately walking in it, walking next to it, or cutting over higher ground between bends in its course. Places like this are full of distractions, and stops are frequently to photograph water seeping over rocks, trees with fall colors, arrangements of rocks and pebbles, reflections and always the sandstone canyon walls. Eventually we reached a familiar personal landmark along the route where we stopped to photograph, eat, and talk. A short distance beyond and the around another bend, and a path led up to a high point, from which there was a view through this arch back into the canyon.

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

Sculpted Canyon Rock, Plant

June 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone plant grows in a crack in sculpted Utah canyon sandstone

These canyons feel isolated from the rest of the outside world. In the narrow sections, the only view of the familiar world may be a small strip of sky directly overhead. The tall canyon walls, which may be only feet apart, block any view of the surrounding terrain, and the focus of my attention narrows down to the section of the canyon where I find myself, the walls where I stand a some short distance ahead before the canyon twists out of sight.

Not only are we visually cut off from the outside, but we are also isolated acoustically. No sound makes it down into the bottoms of the canyons from the above. In the canyon there may be the sounds of quietly flowing water, and perhaps the tinkling sound of water dropping over rocks. A bird may sing. The sound of my footsteps echoes between the walls. In this spot, daytime sunlight high above bounced between the canyon walls, diffusing until a wash of soft red-tinted light reached the canyon bottom. Horizontal layers had eroded at varying rates, a jagged crack cut the canyon wall vertically, and one plant grew in the crack.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: canyon

Dried Mud, Canyon Light

Creek, Bend in the Canyon

Arch and Canyon

Sculpted Canyon Rock, Plant

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