Tag Archives: grove

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Fall Color, River Canyon

March 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees and other fall color along the bottom of a river canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

I made this photograph a few years back on a beautiful autumn day when a small group of friends walked down a river canyon, exploring and photographing the river, the vegetation, and the rocky walls. Direct sunlight does not reach the bottom of these canyons most of the time, especially during the times of the year when the sun’s path is lower in the sky and the daylight hours are shorter. Instead, the light strikes the upper walls, bouncing back and forth, diffusing and picking up the color of rocks and fall leaves as it makes its way downwards. If you look, you can see it in this photograph — in the glow on the canyon wall, the saturated colors of the leaves, and the light making its way into shadows.

Such canyons are wonderful places to go if you want to be cut off from the rest of the world. The landscape above the canyons is often relatively bare, perhaps dry and flat with occasional junipers. But none of that flat land world is visible once you are down in the canyon, where cottonwoods and brush spring up along the creek and every bend promises something new an interesting.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cliff, Trees, Snow

March 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A band of trees at the snowy base of the face of Half Dome

Very early on two late February mornings, I was up and out the door well before sunrise, walking though shallow snow and sub-twenty-degree air to a nearby meadow to photograph that start of the Yosemite Valley day. On both occasions, my main strategy was to look upwards toward the cliffs and use a long lens to pick out small scenes that might otherwise be missed in the immensity of the scene.

Eventually the sun came up and light broke over the upper rim of the Valley, gradually working its way down the steep walls, first on the north side and eventually on the south side where I was focusing my attention. But it would be a long time — probably noon at least — until the direct light made it to this spot at the base of Half Dome. The low contrast and blue tone of the light along with the banks of snow reinforces the frigid feeling of this scene, with a row of straight and tall trees managing to make a living on this ledge at the bottom of the giant face of the mountain.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Boulder Mountain Aspens

February 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season aspen groves, Boulder Mountain

These beautiful aspen groves stretch great distances up the hillsides in this area of Boulder Mountain in Utah. The road from Boulder to Torrey passes across an open section as it rises from Boulder, and here there are expansive views, uninterrupted by other kinds of trees. I had first seen this area during a spring visit, and this autumn visit was something of a follow-up.

I suppose that we actually arrived too late for the peak color, and it is clear that many of the trees further up the slope have lost virtually all of their color. On the other hand, the juxtaposition of the bare hillside and the bare upper groves with the scattered end-of-season color in the foreground trees only makes their color that much more striking.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Late Season Aspen Groves

February 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season aspens with sparse leaves on Boulder Mountain

This wasn’t my first visit to Utah, but it was my first visit during fall. We started in the west, where we knew we might find aspens, and we managed to catch the tail end of the aspen color in the high country around Cedar Breaks National Monument. From there we bypassed the obvious visit to Zion Canyon (that came later, on our homebound trip) and headed east, past Bryce and then Escalante and the small town of Boulder. Past Boulder, in terrain I had not visited before, the road began to climb as we drove on into the approaching sunset.

The first time I had driven past this place it was very early in the spring, and I was stunned by the number of aspen trees gathered in huge groves extending far up the slopes of these mountains. I remember making a mental note to visit them some fall, and this was that return visit. Being accustomed to the schedule of eastern Sierra aspen color, however, we arrived after the prime color — it comes earlier here in Utah. But in some ways, the few scattered trees with their wild late-season colors turned out to be more dramatic. What we thought might be a quick drive over Boulder Mountain to Torrey turned out to take a long time as we kept stopping and photographing these trees until there was no light left.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grove

Fall Color, River Canyon

Cliff, Trees, Snow

Boulder Mountain Aspens

Late Season Aspen Groves

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