Tag Archives: gold

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

Autumn Maple Tree, Slot Canyon

June 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The red and gold leaves of an autumn maple tree against the lichen-covered and layered sandstone walls of a slot canyon, Zion National Park

When we passed through Zion National Park about a week and a half from the end of October, it was mostly too early for fall color in Zion Canyon, but things were starting to get interesting in the high country along the Mount Carmel Highway, where we spent most of a day looking for and photographing fall color, red rock, canyons, and much more. It seemed to me that the predominant sources of autumn color here were maples, and some of them were quite brilliant.

This tree was growing along a wash at the bottom of a red rock canyon which in places took on the appearance of a slot canyon. Between the tree, with its golden-yellow, oranges, greens, and bits of red, and the cliff, with shades of brown, white, red-orange, and even blue and purple, it is hard to think of very many colors that don’t make an appearance here. I of course liked the colors of this tree, but I also found the water-sculpted steep canyon walls to be interesting, with their folded shapes, lichen, and brighter color where the underlying rock could show through.

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

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff

May 20, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunlight reflected from nearby canyon walls illuminates an autumn cottonwood tree in front of a fallen sandstone monolith and vertical cliff face.

I may be repeating a story I’ve previously told, but here goes. Earlier during my late-October visit to Utah we had wandered into this area, only to be largely stymied by clouds, cold, absurdly strong winds, and even a bit of rain. It was a bit disappointing, in that we had really looked forward to visiting this portion of the Escalante River, and when we started out in the early morning and saw a lot of beautiful fall color we thought we were in for a good day of shooting. Although that day was not a complete loss, it wasn’t what we hoped for – and by the end of the day we were struggling against very strong winds and cold.

Fortunately, nearly a week later we found ourselves back in roughly the same area of Utah, and as we considered the next day’s possible shooting locations the idea of giving this spot a second try came up. After considering that alternatives of trying a new location or going back, we decided to go back. It was a good decision! Where the first visit had been cold, cloudy, windy and even a bit damp, the second visit brought warmer conditions, almost completely clear skies… and most important, nearly windless conditions. (At one point we were cautiously admitting to one another that we had made exposures of foliage that lasted as long as a couple of seconds!) Near one large bend in the canyon there was a spectacular abundance of “targets” – brilliant cottonwood and box elder trees, beautiful canyon walls of various colors, fallen leaves, and more. On the previous visit we had all looked at this little scene of a large fallen section of the canyon wall with golden cottonwoods growing all around, and then pretty much continued on since the trees where being whipped around by the wind. But on this second visit the wind was calm, and light was reflected into the scene from sunlit sandstone walls to our left.

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

Fall Aspen Color, Boulder Mountain

April 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brilliant autumn aspen color on Boulder Mountain, Utah

I produced a lot of photographs in the state of Utah in 2012. Although I had not photographed there before (as astonishing of an omission as that seems!) I think I did a pretty good job of making up for lost time. I made three visits to the state, one in spring and two in the fall, and spent a total of about 35 days on the road to, from, and within Utah. I plan to go back!

On that first spring visit we drove over the shoulder of Boulder Mountain between the Escalante and Torrey areas before the new spring foliage had yet come to the extensive aspen groves found in that area. Being an aspen aficionado I could imagine what these slopes must be like in the fall when the foliage changes, and we made a plan to try to pass by here again in the autumn. Not being completely familiar with the seasonal patterns in this part of the country, we might have been just a bit late for peak Utah color – in general we saw brilliant aspen color in many places, but it had already passed at the higher locations, and we soon learned that the cottonwood color comes a bit later in the month. So when we left the town of Boulder to follow the road up and over the Boulder Mountain area, we had a combination of some brilliantly colorful groves at the lower and perhaps middle elevations and higher groves that had more or less completely dropped their leaves. That is the scene in this photograph, made in early evening light on a day when there were some high clouds – and the shockingly colorful foreground trees are backed by the bare trunks of winter aspens higher up the slopes of the mountain.

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

Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon

April 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees, in various stages of fall color, beneath a tall sandstone cliff along the Escalante River, Utah

There is a little bit of a story behind this photograph. We had visited this canyon area almost a week earlier when we first arrived in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area, but the results had not been quite what we had hoped. We were imagining clear and sunny skies reflecting colorful light down into canyon depths, warm temperatures, still air, and more. Instead we got partial clouds, freezing cold temperatures, and high winds! All of these factors had turned out photographic plans into an extremely difficult challenge. We made it up our canyon to about this point, but the winds were too strong and we were perhaps too cold to stick around. But I had noticed this group of trees at different stages in the transition to fall color and backed by huge boulders and a massive cliff of sandstone.

Nearly a week later we had some extra time and we decided that a second try at this location might be worthwhile. In contrast to that earlier visit, now it was warmer, sunnier, and less windy. We made it to the same portion of the canyon – and a bit further, too – and now found that photography was a lot more possible than it had been only a few days earlier. The color and light on this little scene might need some explanation. The cottonwood trees were, indeed, exhibiting color variations from yellow/gold, through golden brown, and even some still-green leaves. The light came from out of the frame to the right, where a very large and tall sandstone cliff was in full sun and reflecting warm colored light down into this shaded section of the canyon. The color of this light was very surprising. You can see a bit of what was going on by looking at the large boulder behind the trees. The surface facing my camera position appears blue, partly because it was in shadow and partly because that is close to the actual color of this rock. But if you look at the left side of this rock, where a large surface faces that sunlit cliff, it has taken on a color that is almost the same as that of the tree!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: gold

Autumn Maple Tree, Slot Canyon

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff

Fall Aspen Color, Boulder Mountain

Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon

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