Tag Archives: formation

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Strata and Columns

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Strata and Columns
Strata and Columns

Strata and Columns. Red Rock Canyon State Park, California. October 30, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red rock strata and vertical columns

For years I have passed by California’s Red Rock Canyon State Park on my way to or from other places, most often Death Valley National Park. My winter route between the San Francisco Bay Area and Death Valley almost inevitably takes me south over Tehachapi Pass and then north, where the highway cuts through this state park. Every time I have passed through I have marveled at the beautiful rock formations rising from the desert and thought about stopping… but kept driving, anxious either to get to DEVA or to get home after a long time on the road.

This time we made a plan to stop, booking a motel in a nearby town for the night to more or less force a stop. We made a fairly brief visit, but we did go this time. This visit, although brief, may have finally cracked the door open a bit to the idea of returning and photographing here again. Being unfamiliar with the park I cannot be sure, but I would guess that this formation may be one of its “icons.” It stands in an easily visited location and presents a striking appearance. It also seems to me to tell a bit of a story. One of the first things that got my attention is the way that its thick band of red rock tilts the opposite direction from the similar rock in the sculpted cliffs that stand behind it. It seems to me that this piece must have dropped off the face (probably with a big bang and lots of dust!), landed in the softer material at the base of the cliff, and momentarily leaned toward falling over to the right, but then managed to just keep its balance enough to be locked into this off-kilter tilted position.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Holly, Black Formation

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Desert Holly, Black Formation
Desert Holly, Black Formation

Desert Holly, Black Formation. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert Holly plants grow on a black formation, Death Valley National Park

This area of Death Valley National Park, not far from the popular Zabriskie Point overlook, shares some of the same geology with that often crowded location. However, you don’t have to go too far from that parking lot to find locations where you can be almost alone, especially early in the morning. This area is one such spot—easily accessible but not marked in any sort of obvious way. Yet it is a great place to spend hours looking at geological forms, sparse plants, and spare effects of light and color.

The desert holly plants grow in some of the most arid locations, and often appear to be the only plants that are able to survive where it grows. You might find a plant or two in a rocky wash, growing out of a crack in a rock wall, or on this dark (volcanic?) material. One can only imagine how hot this black earth must get in the heat of the Death Valley summer! Besides often being the only visible living thing in some very stark areas, desert holly also can change its appearance depending upon how the leaves are doing and on where the light comes from. Light from behind the plant can make it take on an almost golden glow.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sandstone Patterns

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Sandstone Patterns
Sandstone Patterns

Sandstone Patterns. Zion National Park, Utah. October 14, 2012. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Complex patterns in sandstone formations at Zion National Park

I’m certainly no geologist, but that doesn’t keep me from being somewhat amazed by the fantastical and convoluted shapes and conjunctions in this little detail of cross-bedded sandstone photographed in the Zion National Park high country. As I understand it, these rocks originated in sand that was laid down, perhaps as dunes, in the distant past. For a variety of reasons, layers that originally tilted one direction ended up butted up against or nudging into layers tilting in radically different directions. My untrained eyes count a number of such layers in this small bit of rock. Overlaid on this are eroding flakes, cracks, bits of vegetation, lichen, and more – and all of it on this intensely colorful Southwest rock.

I am not certain precisely where this bit of geology was photographed, beyond recalling that it was along the Mount Carmel Highway through Zion National Park and that the photograph was made in shaded and diffused light. I am not only intrigued by the disjunct lines and angles of the underlying rock here, but also by odd features such as the big curve running across the middle of the frame and the subtle differences in the coloration of the rock – in places it is quite pink, verging on redness, while in others it is almost somewhat purple.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Devil’s Cornfield

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Devil's Cornfield
Devil’s Cornfield

Devil’s Cornfield. Death Valley National Park, California. March 31, 2011. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light slants across the arrow weed plants of the Devil’s Cornfield area of Death Valley National Park

For the record, while I have no evidence either way regarding the role of the devil in creating this terrain, there is definitely no corn growing in this field! The plant is known as “arrowweed” (or arroweed or arrow weed), and the tall shapes are apparently formed as the sand erodes from around the roots.

This spot is one of several in Death Valley that have been hard for me to see as photographs. (Other “challenges” include the Devil’s Golf Course – which mostly looks like crusty, dried mud to me – and Salt Creek – which I’ve mostly visited at the times of day when the light hasn’t been idea.) I came close once before with a closer view of the plants that revealed their actual color a bit more and which placed them in front of a backdrop of more distant barren mountains. This photograph certainly doesn’t provide a strong center of visual interest, but I like the sense of the plants leading off into the distance, the angles of the blue shadows, and the contrasting warm colors of the plants in near golden-hour light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.