Tag Archives: gossips

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

Three Sisters, Sheep Rock

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Three Sisters, Sheep Rock
The Three Sisters, Sheep Rock, and other red rock formations, Arches National Park.

Three Sisters, Sheep Rock. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Three Sisters, Sheep Rock, and other red rock formations, Arches National Park.

There are so many things bound up in photographs like this one that it would be possible to write a book about it. This was my first visit to this landscape and, as such, it was part of the rare experience of being in a place that I did not know at all. It also raises questions about the value of photographing icons — hint: there is some, but it is complicated. It is a photograph I made some years ago, bringing up the value of revisiting photographs that were originally left behind or perhaps interpreted differently. It brings up the questions about what landscape photographers do when the landscape is inaccessible.

I made the photograph during perhaps my first hour or two in Arches National Park. For someone who read Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” decades ago, this visit was a long time coming. And, aside from that book, I came with few preconceptions about the park, and I had not researched before arriving. Consequently, as we drove in late the first afternoon I had almost no idea of what I would see. I was amazed.

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

Sandstone Towers, Early Evening

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Sandstone Towers, Early Evening - Early evening back-light on sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park
Early evening back-light on sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park

Sandstone Towers, Early Evening. Arches National Park, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening back-light on sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park.

I made this photograph within minutes of entering Arches National Park for the very first time. I have written before that this was my very first time photographing in Utah – yes, embarrassing, but true! The downside of this is that I now really wish that I had taken the time to travel here much earlier. But the upside is that I had the rare experience of encountering a completely new and, for me, unanticipated landscape for the first time.

Before departing for Utah – where we visited a veritable smorgasbord of locations – I had done almost no research beyond figuring out where the nearest lodging was. In fact, even once we were in the state I was still figuring out how to get from one location to another. There are perhaps several reasons for this approach, but one was that I do not necessarily want to go to a new place with overly strong ideas about what I should photograph nor about how I should photograph it. I prefer to get there, look around, try to get the “feeling” of the place, and begin making the photographs that I see. We arrived in Moab late in the day and checked into a motel. There was still some light left so we figured we should go somewhere… and Arches is very close! So the decision was made, and off we went. By the time we reached the Park Avenue area not far from the entrance I was stunned by what I was seeking. (It helped that we arrived at the beginning of “golden hour,” but I digress…) There were huge sandstone walls, thin fins of rock, tall towers, some with boulders perched on top – this seemed about as close to an “impossible landscape” as any I have seen. Frankly, it was overwhelming. We passed Park Avenue and drove ahead a bit to where the view opened up to this astonishing panorama, at which point we pulled out and I began making photographs, including this one that includes towers and fins backlit by the late afternoon light under thin clouds.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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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