Tag Archives: crack

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

Open Book

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Open Book
A sandstone cliff meets the bottom of a Utah red rock country wash.

Open Book. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sandstone cliff meets the bottom of a Utah red rock country wash.

My virtual journey back through Utah continues. Since opportunities to go into the field are limited right now I am instead digging back though tens of thousands of raw files in my archives. I have always recognized that I leave some photographs behind as I move on to the next thing — and sometimes I’m not just not yet ready to “see” how a photograph will work. For years I’ve made these return visits to the old files, most often with an end-of-the-year traverse of that year’s images before moving on. This time I’m starting back in 2012 and working my way forward slowly.

I made this photograph in the first slot canyon that I ever visited. You might wonder how I managed to get to 2012 without visiting this kind of terrain. It is a long story, but for some reasons I’ve explained elsewhere I simply didn’t get to Utah and the Southwest until about a decade ago. Shame on me! As we walked into this canyon I really had little idea of what to expect, but I was entranced. This bit of sandstone cliff wall sat immediately next to the sandy bottom of the wash, and the color of the diffused light warmed as it bounced down from above between the canyon walls.

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

Edges

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A conjunction of striated sandstone in a Utah canyon.

Edges. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A conjunction of striated sandstone in a Utah canyon.

I photographed this somewhere in Utah, almost certainly in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and I’m pretty sure I remember which little canyon I was walking through… but I can’t say that I recall the exact spot. We had driven to a rather out-of-the-way location, wandered up a shallow stream, and entered a lovely, quiet, light-filled canyon full of the usual twists and turns.

The canyon presented a veritable feast of photography — plants, reflections of sky and canyon walls in the water, sand, red rock walls, and more. Given the narrowness of the canyon, the subjects all belonged to the “intimate landscape” genre, and it was rare to have a view of anything more than a few yards away. And everywhere the star of the show was there light reflected down from above and bouncing off the sandstone canyon walls.

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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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.

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

Red Rock Face

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Red Rock Face
Detail of a sandstone face, Capitol Reef National Park.

Red Rock Face. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a sandstone face, Capitol Reef National Park.

Many times when I have photographed in red rock country I find myself looking for other subjects that work with the sandstone to produce compositions — juxtapositions of features, trees, a bit of sky or clouds, water, light and shadow, and all of the other things that are part of the experience of this Southern Utah landscape. But at times it strikes me that the rock itself can be the entire subject. This is one of those photographs.

These masses of sandstone are remarkable on their own. They may first seem somewhat undifferentiated, but a closer look in the right light — in my view, the shaded light in canyons is ideal — reveals remarkable variations and detail. The color of the rock varies greatly depending upon time of day and, especially, the color of reflected light bouncing between anyone walls. Cracks and imperfections mark the rock even on the smoothest sections. And an infinite variety of markings combine on the surface — internal irregularities, color differences where the surface has been disturbed, and everywhere vertical lines formed by seeping and flowing water.

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.

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

Fractured Sandstone Cliff, Plants

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Fractured Sandstone Cliff, Plants
Plants grow in cracks in a sandstone cliff, Zion Naitonal Park.

Fractured Sandstone Cliff, Plants. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Plants grow in cracks in a sandstone cliff, Zion Naitonal Park.

One unanticipated result of the pandemic restrictions on travel has been that I’ve had plenty of time to start digging through my archive of photographs made over the years. In some cases I have “discovered” photograph files that I had originally left behind, either because I didn’t understand how the image could work at that time or because I simply got distracted by other things and moved on. In addition to finding these “lost files,” the process of revisiting old work has caused me to rethink my original presentation of some photographs that I thought I was done with. This is one of those photographs.

The subject is in Zion National Park, where it is easy to find all sorts of interesting things along the red rock canyon walls. As I looked at my first take on this photograph, done eight years ago, I felt that I wanted to interpret it a bit differently. This version is cropped a bit more tightly, and I’ve handled the dynamic range of the scene a bit differently, perhaps retaining a bit more of the feeling subjects shaded by tall cliffs.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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