Tag Archives: creek

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

Small Tree and Pink Rock

November 10, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small tree with yellow autumn leaves grows from a crack in pink sandstone, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

The narrow canyons and slots of South Utah, which I’m just coming to know, are full of surprises at every turn. The “turns” are a literal source of the surprise, since you can’t generally see far up or down the canyons and each turn literally does reveal things that were not visible a moment before. As you progress up (or down) the canyons, the nature of the rock constantly changes as you pass through layers of angled strata of rock – smooth and deep red one moment, pale and broken another, and then light pink or gray. The incline of the canyon changes, as does its width – one moment you are walking on a veritable sidewalk, smooth and wide, and the next you are trying to find your way over rocks and boulders, walking up the middle of a stream, trying to avoid deep and sucking sand, squeezing through a slot, or looking for a higher route around an impassable section. The canyon might be rocky and seemingly devoid of plant life… or you might have to squeeze your way among trees and bushes.

This small canyon presented most of these variables at one point or another. Most of the time we were acutely aware of the stream in the canyon, as our route was in, around, or across the water almost constantly. Here a few small bushes found cracks in the rocky walls with sufficient soil to survive, and the light from far above bounced back and forth between the high canyon walls, picking up the reddish color of the sandstone.

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

Sandstone Patterns, Dried Plant

November 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A dried plant and sandstone patterns in a southwest desert canyon, Utah

I was in Utah twice this fall, most recently with my friends Charlie and Karl to photograph a range of desert canyons and similar terrain. I’ve written before that I’m very new to photographing Utah, having seriously shot there for the first time only this past spring. But I’m trying to make up for lost time! Overall, I have spent something like a total of more than five weeks there this year! Yes, I like shooting in Utah. :-)

On the previous visits, I went to quite a few of the well-known locations – largely the national parks – and began the process of getting to know and understand that place a bit. On the most recent visit I was fortunate to be traveling with people who have shot there for decades, and I benefited from their long experience. Getting a bit more off the beaten track, we barely touched national parks – passing through Zion and visiting some remote areas of Capitol Reef. Instead we poked into a range of little canyons and valleys and so forth that don’t have the prominence of the parks. The specific locations are perhaps not that important since the state seems to be filled with similar places. This was my first real experience with the intimate desert canyons and river/creek courses that carve deeply into the landscape, where midday light bounces and reflects into the deep landscape in ways that are utterly unlike the California locations where I most often photograph.

This photograph was made in such a place, the first narrow canyon that we visited. Parking in an inauspicious spot along a gravel desert road, we dropped into a wash and wandered upstream, soon entering a narrow canyon as the sandstone walls rose beside us. Before long the canyon was narrow enough that we had to continually cross back and forth across the creek or simply wade straight up its course. As the canyon narrowed, direct sunlight no longer made it down to the creek – instead the light reflected from the higher cliff faces and bounced down into the canyon, toning the light red from the sandstone surface. In this photograph the cliff and two large pieces of sandstone contain angled strata and reflect the light in various ways as a small and seemingly dead plant sits in a crack in the rock.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

November 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

An aspen grove along North Bishop Creek in late afternoon light.

While I like huge, expansive groves of aspens, I also like small, isolated groups, especially when set against the background of what I think of as sage brush country. This group of trees is actually part of a long, thin grove that stretches along a small dirt side road up in the Bishop Creek drainage. The grove and the road are on my “must visit” list for my annual aspen-chasing trips to the eastern Sierra, so by now I’ve learned a lot about the “personality” of this particular spot. Like a number of other spots to which I return each year, you might not notice anything spectacular about this grove – but by means of repeated visits I have learned where to look for certain little subjects: a creek that flows past boulders beneath colorful trees, a particular thick grove of very thin-truck trees, groves of trees that seem barely taller than I am.

I made this photograph in what might seem like unlikely lighting conditions. It was late afternoon, and the trees were back-lit. The sun was close to dropping behind the very tall ridge that lies above and beyond the border of the photograph, so the light was angling across the several background ridges running down into the valley, and lighting their upper edges. And, of course, the leaves glow when the light come through them from behind.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

October 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A dense aspen grove in full fall color near South Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage

I have been returning to this little group of trees for several years now. There are many like it throughout the eastern Sierra, but somehow this group has come to seem like “mine” and I shoot it every fall. There is nothing obviously special about it – it is not some sort of landmark location, and you would easily pass right by it if you happened to be there and look in a different direction. It is up a somewhat obscure little dirt road that goes no where in particular.

At the right moment in the fall season the grove turns completely golden-yellow with the exception of some years when it seems to hold a bit of orange or red, if I recall correctly. I like to arrive in the early evening just as the sun is about to dip behind a nearby ridge and bring soft, shadowed light to this spot. This year I had thought that I might be too early, since I would more typically shoot there perhaps a full week into the month of October, but this has been an early season for aspen color in the Sierra and in a number of other areas of the west as well.

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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Tag Archives: creek

Small Tree and Pink Rock

Sandstone Patterns, Dried Plant

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

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