Tag Archives: gold

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

Autumn Trees, Slot Canyon

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Creek, Canyon Light
A stream flows through the lower reaches of a Utah slot canyon, illuminated by lautumn ight reflected from canyon walls.

Autumn Trees, Slot Canyon. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors along a stream in a winding Utah red rock slot canyon.

On this lovely October day we left our lodgings and headed out on a long, quiet gravel backroad, eventually coming to a semi-hidden turn-off where we found a place to park. We loaded packs with camera equipment, switched into shoes appropriate for mud and wading, and headed up a shallow stream through flat terrain. Soon sandstone walls began to rise along the creek, and quickly we were in this intimate winding canyon with its combination of colors of autumn and light reflected on red rock cliffs.

This is the canyon where I stepped in my first quicksand. (Just enough to get my attention!) Once in the canyons, in addition to seeing photographic subjects everywhere, a series of sensory experiences stuck with me. Our voices were quiet as we ascended the stream’s shallow course, and sounds in the canyon were muted, mostly being the gentle sounds of water. The air was still for the most part, and the world outside the canyon disappeared, aside from that thin strip of blue sky straight overhead. At this bend leaves littered the sandy bank where the stream curved around rocks, the water glowed in the light reflected from upper canyon walls, and a few autumn trees stood with yellow leaves.

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

Aspen Groves, Evening

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Aspen Groves, Evening
Autumn aspen groves at dusk on Boulder Mountain.

Aspen Groves, Evening. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen groves at dusk on Boulder Mountain.

With this photograph, I believe I’m coming to the end of the images that came from this October passage along Boulder Mountain back in 2012. It was the second time I visited this area, and like the first visit it was merely a drive through between two other locations. Unlike the first visit, which was in the springtime, I timed this one to coincide with fall colors. (As it turned out, I mis-estimated the date a bit and we arrived for the very tail-end of the colors. ) Like the other photographs of this autumn subject, it was made as the day came to an end.

The distant sky and clouds bring up a subject that always interests me. I’ve lived almost my entire life near the western edge of the North American continent, in a place where the ocean is little more than a half hour away and where the daily weather is affected by it. I’m always aware of this presence. And when I travel I’m equally aware of its absence. Often when I’m in places like the one in this photograph I look west at the end of the day — as this photograph does — and as I ponder how much land lies between me and the ocean I feel its absence.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Broken Boulders

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Autumn Aspens, Broken Boulders
A group of autumn aspen trees grows in jumbled and rocky Eastern Sierra Nevada terrain.

Autumn Aspens, Broken Boulders. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of autumn aspen trees grows in jumbled and rocky Eastern Sierra Nevada terrain.

Aspen trees frequently grow on what we might regard as less-than-optimal soil and terrain, at least in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. While some manage to find a home in canyon bottoms and other places with good soil, many trees live their lives in dry, rocky, and exposed places. Often the trees seem to adapt — perhaps remaining quite small or maybe maintaining more space between them. The trees in this photograph are growing on truly rocky terrain. The trees are rooted in little more than cracks in the granite, and around them are solid rock and a field of broken granite.

Dealing with color when photographing aspens in locations like this can be tricky, especially since I much prefer to photograph them when they are shaded. (Direct sunlight on these trees can be quite harsh.) The light in shadows can be extremely blue, mainly because the main light source is that giant blue light panel we call the say. On the scene, our human visual system adapts and we register the rocks as gray. But the camera is, to an extent, more objective, and the intense blue color of those “gray” rocks is revealed in a photograph. With that we are faced with a subjective, interpretative question: where should be set the colors along the continuum stretching from the objective blue to what we recall in our mind’s eye? Here, as I often do, I shifted the color away from blue to produce colors that are more like what I recall — and even here those rocks seem quite blue to my eyes. Fortunately, there is no one right answer to this question, and I’ve seen effective interpretations that were strikingly blue along with others that used much warmer colors.

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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Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bench and Wall

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Bench and Wall
Postcard from Pandemia: bench and wall.

Bench and Wall. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Postcard from Pandemia: bench and wall.

From the “Postcards from Pandemia” series, another photograph made on one of my neighborhood walk circuits. This route takes me past a location that I knew very well when I was much younger, and when I visit now it evokes thoughts about time — how some things have changed a lot while others have changed not at all.

In normal times I probably have not been able to approach this bench at this time of day without raising suspicions and concerns, especially when carrying a camera and making photographs. But the entire area was empty since the shelter-in-place orders had closed it down.

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.