Tag Archives: deep

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

Arching Cottonwood, Canyon Stream

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Arching Cottonwood, Canyon Stream
An autumn cottonwood tree arches across a stream deep in a Utah slot canyon.

Arching Cottonwood, Canyon Stream. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An autumn cottonwood tree arches across a stream deep in a Utah slot canyon.

There are still a few more photographs in this series from a small canyon in a somewhat obscure part of this Southern Utah landscape. The canyon is a bit of a special place to me, even though visitors might not regard it as being as spectacularly iconic as some better known places. It was the very first such canyon that I ever entered, and for that reason it will always retain a bit of additional magic.

The starting point for entrance is, as is often the case with these canyons, not particularly striking at all. There is a small gravel parking lot, perhaps unmarked, surrounded by mostly dry foliage and some nearby cottonwood trees. You drop down a steep bank to reach a small, slow-flowing stream, then follow it as it meanders through flats. Eventually the walls rise beside you, and before long you are cut off from the larger world.

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

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.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

The Visitor

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The Visitor
An anomalous white rock rests against dark rock deep in a Death Valley canyon.

The Visitor. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An anomalous white rock rests against dark rock deep in a Death Valley canyon.

Desert canyons, especially in an arid place like Death Valley, are refuges from the harsh environment. Not that they are entirely gentle and friendly places, being periodically scoured out by floods and left covered in rocks. But they offer shade, sometimes sources of moisture, and occasional plants. The deepest and narrowest are quiet and still places.

They are transitory landscapes, on time scales that range from annual to much longer. Cut through by flowing water and weaknesses in the rock, they reveal strata from long ago. That flowing water inexorably moves material down from the peaks toward the playa, and almost anything we come across in such canyons will only be there temporarily. I don’t know enough geology to offer too many facts about this rock, but its light color against the surrounding dark rock was striking, as was its upright position.

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: Sierra Nevada

Peninsula, Lake, Morning Light

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Peninsula, Lake, Morning Light
Morning light on a rocky peninsula, reflected in the deep green waters of an alpine lake

Peninsula, Lake, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on a rocky peninsula, reflected in the deep green waters of an alpine lake.

My morning visit to this lake above our basecamp was fortuitously timed. I’d love to take credit for great planning, but I must admit that luck played a big role. I had a plan — it involved heading up that way quite early and then taking the time to ascend a low ridge and walk to the far side of the lake. But none of that happened. While I did get a reasonably early start, I was soon distracted by other subjects along the route to the lake, and I ultimately arrived there later than I had planned. However, my inability to stick to my schedule played to my advantage.

I arrived at the lake’s outlet, a long and narrow channel of still water, to find that the “quiet light” (thanks, Keith Walklet) was still there, so I paused to photograph that scene in soft shadows. Soon I decided to move on and head up and over that low ridge… but I immediately saw another scene that I had to photograph, some lichen-covered rocks along the shoreline. Finishing with this distraction, I now realized that I really had to get moving and climb that ridge. But by now the sunlight was on that ridge, and its reflection was casting lovely soft light back on a rocky peninsula and the boulder-strewn shoreline. So — again! — I stopped to make photographs of this scene. But this one took longer, as the light continued to develop and increase, until sunlight began to illuminate the water itself, building abstractions of light and color and reflections in front of the peninsula. (In the end I never did cross that ridge or go to the other side of the lake!)

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.

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