Tag Archives: cliff

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

Sandstone Detail

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Sandstone Detail
Detail of a section of a Utah sandstone rock face.

Sandstone Detail. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a section of a Utah sandstone rock face.

Remarkable things happen to the light deep down in the recesses of narrow sandstone canyons. The light is rarely direct, more often bouncing many times among red canyon walls. As it does, it softens, diffuses, and picks up the colors of the red rock. At the same time this landscape is open to a band of blue sky — what I think of as a giant blue light panel — and this color becomes part of the mix, though this light can follow a more direct path and fill in shadows. When you stop to consider what it really looks like, it almost seems unreal.

We were deep in such a canyon, spending a day heading deeper and deeper into it as it cut into the landscape. By the point at which I made this photograph, that band of blue sky was increasingly narrow and we encountered less and less direct sunlight.

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: Utah

Sandstone Cliff, Morning Light

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Sandstone Cliff, Morning Light
Detail, sandstone cliff in morning light, Arches National Park.

Sandstone Cliff, Morning Light. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail, sandstone cliff in morning light, Arches National Park.

While I often refer to this part of the world as “red rock country,” in truth the rock is rarely actually red, and its coloration changes radically depending on when and where you see it. In deep canyons it can become, in objective terms, almost purple. At sunset or sunrise it edges far into the warm portion of the spectrum, varying on gold, orange, or yellow. In flat light the intensity of the color diminishes. In some places colors on the surface of the rock are striking — either from material that coats it or the variations between old and new sections.

As I work on photographs I often have several open on my computer at once, with some of them staring back at me for weeks as I put off final decisions about how to interpret them. Recently there have been mostly photographs of this red rock country, and looking at those together has reinforced just how varied these colors are. This section of a cliff face at Arches National Park was photographed in very early morning light that shone at a low angle almost directly onto the the rock, and this light reveals details of the face that might not otherwise be seen with such clarity.

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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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

Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Tree and Sandstone Cliff
A solitary tree against red rock sandstone cliff at Capitol Reef National Park.

This is yet another photograph where I’m pretty sure where I made it but willing to admit to a bit of uncertainty. My recollection, reinforced by examining the imagines just before and after it in my chronological record, is that I made it in a canyon at Capitol Reef National Park, and probably in a location that isn’t particularly hard to access. I’m always intrigued by the wild color contrasts in this part of the world, perhaps even more so having the largely gray Sierra Nevada as my home range!

I”ve been to Capitol Reef a few times now, though not yet enough to know the part the way I know places like Yosemite where I’ve probably spent something approaching two years of my life in total. One thing that fascinates me about Capitol Reef — among may fascination-worthy features — is the contrast between the relatively small front country section with its lovely campground and easy road access and the much larger and much more remote sections of the park that are not nearly so easy to get to.

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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

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

Autumn in the Canyon

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Autumn in the Canyon
A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage deep in the canyon of the Escalante River.

Autumn in the Canyon. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage deep in the canyon of the Escalante River.

In my previous post I mentioned something about the experience of wandering down canyons such as this one, in particular the seductive nature of the continuous pattern of “next bend,” straight section, and the next “next bend” — and the difficulty of resisting the lure of exploring just one more twist of the canyon. On this. day I ran into that temptation as your pre-set turn-around time arrived… and passed… and we continued through a couple more of these bends.

This was one of the earlier bends, a point where we came back down to the stream after passing over some higher ground in a straight section. Here we had to wade to cross the stream since the route now followed the opposite bank. After crossing I climbed up a bit to place this colorful cottonwood tree in a composition that included the canyon beyond, and as I photographed a string of horses forded the stream.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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