Tag Archives: gravel

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

Zion Canyon, Virgin River, Spring

April 29, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Virgin River flows through Zion Canyon near Weeping Rock, Zion Canyon National Park, Utah.

On this morning we were back in Zion Canyon, following the Virgin River up the Valley to various locations. While it was still quite early we had walked up to the base of Weeping Rock, deep in the shaded area in the center of this photograph, and photographed there in the quiet shade. Then we moved a short distance up this part of the canyon where it makes a rather sharp series of turns and stopped an a place where there were visits up, down, and across the Virgin River and along the huge sandstone cliffs in all directions.

Looking around, I saw that there were some scattered clouds that were moving across the sky and alternative shading and lighting various portions of the landscape, and creating some dramatic effects, especially when the light came from behind the group of cottonwood trees along the banks of the river below me. The skeletal forms of the trees’ trunks were still clearly visible and, when the light was bright enough, they cast mirror-image shadows on the new grass below. The tops of the trees were fringed by new leaves, and these glowed brightly in the backlight coming from above the far cliffs above Weeping Rock. There was just enough haze in the air, amplified a bit by backlighting, to suggest the distance and massive size of the dark cliffs.

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: Utah

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon

April 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.

During out April Utah visit we drove from Zion National Park to Moab, where we would visit Arches and Canyonlands National Park. We debated whether to take the quick and efficient route or the slow and scenic route from Zion to Moab… and of course the slow and scenic route won out. This took us on a range to sometimes-twisty two-lane highways, starting with the Mt. Carmel road through Zion, then up through the Dixie National Forest, past Red Canyon and then Zion, across the drainage of the Escalante, through part of the Capitol Reef National Park, and finally taking a long, lonely road north to highway 70. There was a lot to see along this route – too much, actually, for the single travel day we had allocated to it.

On a trip filled with surprises – this was my first visit to Utah in a long, long time, and my first time photographing there – this day was filled with more than its share. Among them was the drive up Red Canyon. Being focused on the well-known national parks and monuments I had completely overlooked this place – but it turns out to be a wildly colorful place of brilliant red cliffs and towers, many very close to the highway as it ascends the canyon. I made this photograph very close to the beginning of the red rock country as we arrived from the west.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

De Young Museum, Exterior Detail

March 20, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Exterior walls of San Francisco’s De Young Museum.

In early March I was at San Francisco’s De Young Museum for an event associated with the “San Francisco 1964” exhibit of the photography of Arthur Tress, at which Tress spoke to a small group of San Francisco photographers about his work. (Thank you to Adobe for inviting me and the other photographers. The exhibit continues, and San Francisco Bay Area photography fans and others visiting the area should consider a visit to the show.) Unless I’m heading up there for certain musical performance, I almost always take a camera to The City, and I certainly brought one this time. I mainly photographed Tress during his talk, but once it was over and I left the museum I had a bit of time to wander around and shoot the nearby area.

I started in the Music Concourse, a lowered area in front of the museum that features some ominous-looking dormant trees at this time of year. After finishing there I walked back around the museum to head back to my car, and I passed by this “side” wall of the facility near the tower section of the building. The exterior walls are very interesting. They are apparently constructed of some sort of copper panels that have been “dimpled” in a range of ways that evolve across its surface, and it looks like some of the upper level “walls” are more like screens than solid material. As I understand it, the idea was that this metallic surface would “age” and acquire a patina that might make it blend in more with the natural surroundings of the park. (Though it is hard to imagine that tower blending in!) In the soft light on this shaded side of the building the range of colors and tones in the material was striking, ranging from the blacks of dark shadow areas, to the expected reddish copper tones, to all sorts of blueish shades.

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

First Light, Base of Tucki Mountain and the Panamint Range

February 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light on the rugged landscape of the base of Tucki Mountain and the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park, California

This photograph was made from a location a ways up from the bottom of Death Valley, from which I could look directly across at the lower slopes of gigantic Tucki Mountain as the first morning light worked its way down toward the lower ridges and the huge alluvial fan at the base of the mountain. At the moment I made the exposure the light was just beginning to fill this slanting area below the rugged mountains, and the light was softened by morning haze.

Tucki Mountain is a huge peak that almost seems to me to be large enough to count as its own minor mountain range. It rises above Stovepipe Wells, and extends a great distance east, south, and west of there. It is laced with deep canyons and its lower slopes are heavily eroded to reveal tilting and twisting strata. Another large valley lies on beyond the foreground spur ridge in this photograph, and beyond that the Panamint Range rises to its crest at 11,000+’ Telescope Peak.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: gravel

Zion Canyon, Virgin River, Spring

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon

De Young Museum, Exterior Detail

First Light, Base of Tucki Mountain and the Panamint Range

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