Tag Archives: cliff

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

Kolob Terraces Area, Sunset

December 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunset on the valleys, ridges, and cliffs of the Kolob Terraces area of Zion National Park

The photographs in the series from which this image comes were my last of the day. We had explored this high and slightly less crowded area of Zion National Park in the afternoon (after exploring another less busy area in the morning) and started heading back down in the early evening. With red rock, fall colors (there were still a few aspens and other trees with autumn colors), open and well-lit terrain, and lots of beautiful red rock, there was plenty to see as the light color warmed.

We had just made a stop that I suspected would be the last of the day, pausing there to photograph evening light on a meadow. We loaded the equipment back up and started down the road, planning to head out, but we soon came around a bend and saw this wild and beautifully lit scene of valleys and cliffs and peaks laid out in front of us. We stopped right there and, if I recall correctly, I pretty much set up my camera and tripod right in the roadway, working quickly before the light disappeared completely from the lower slopes and the valley.

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

Cliffs, Trees, and Morning Light

December 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light highlights trees high on sandstone cliffs in Kolob Canyon

The Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park is less visited than the areas near Springdale, Utah. It is a significant drive away, and the park service has (wisely?) left it relatively undeveloped — a very small visitor center, no restaurants, just a road into a very beautiful area with a lot of trailheads.

We visited this area on a fall morning when the light was just coming over the tops of the tall cliffs to the east and backlighting some beautiful atmospheric haze. Photographing these juxtaposed rock faces and buttresses with a long lens, not only was distance telescoped but the haze softened the scene even more than it otherwise might and muted the colors a bit. There is a lot of small detail in this scene, but most of it is suppressed, with the exception of the thin edges of light on the rock and the backlit trees.

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

Trees and Cliffs, Morning

December 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on red rock cliffs and trees

Zion National Park, especially to a California Sierra photographer, is an almost ridiculously colorful place. One California friend describes Zion Canyon (which is not where this photograph was made, by the way) as “Yosemite Valley in Technicolor.” Another friend, a California landscape photographer, points out that somehow the Sierra looks “so gray” when one returns to their after photographing in Utah. And the color contrast is even more striking in the fall when the red rocks are not the only source of intense color — there are also the wild colors of autumn leaves, the deep blue of the sky, and the greens of pinyon pine and juniper.

I’m always a sucker for photographs of trees and mountains lit from behind, and I knew in advance that such an opportunity might arise when we went to this slightly less popular canyon in the early morning. In fact, I even rephotographed a few subjects that I had shot on the previous visit, partly because the conditions were different this time and partly because I think I understood them better on the second visit. This ridge sits below a much larger — monumental, actually — sandstone cliff at a bend in the canyon. As the sun rises above the much higher canyon rim it begins to cast light obliquely across this buttress and the single tree that grows on top of it.

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

Calf Creek Canyon

November 30, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall colors along Calf Creek in the bottom of Calf Creek Canyon, Utah

Anyone who has spent much time in this part of Utah probably knows this view along highway 12 between Boulder and Escalante. They (you?) probably also remember this section of the road well, too, since it follows a rather remarkable route as it drops to the Escalante River from plateau country to the west, rises up a narrow canyon from the Calf Creek and Escalante River confluence, and then runs along the top of a thin bit of high country between very deep canyons.

I drove it more than once on a recent visit, but only stopped to photograph on the final traverse after leaving Boulder to head west and meet family at Zion. It was morning, and I had more time than I needed for the drive, especially since I wanted to arrive in Zion at an hour when the light would be good along Mt. Carmel Highway. As I looked down from the road into the Calf Creek drainage I simply had to stop and make a few photographs. The light was slightly softened by high clouds and the fall color of the cottonwood trees and other foliage along the creek bed was at its peak. A bit of haze accentuated the distance as the canyon and its complex geology meandered toward its meeting with the Escalante a few mile further on.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: cliff

Kolob Terraces Area, Sunset

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Cliffs, Trees, and Morning Light

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Trees and Cliffs, Morning

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Calf Creek Canyon

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

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