Tag Archives: grove

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

Autumn Color, Escalante River

December 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood tree fall color below sandstone cliffs along the Escalante River, Utah

This is another photograph made on our second attempt to photograph this area during the last half of October, 2012. The first time had been a day that was a beautiful one in many ways, but a photographically problematic one in others – with cold, very strong winds, clouds, and even a bit of rain. So nearly a week later we found ourselves back in the same general area and we decided to give it another try. This turned out to be a good decision, as all of those factors that had impeded photography the first time were now gone, and we had beautiful light, good fall colors, almost no wind.

There are many things that appeal to me about photographing in this kind of country. The rock itself is high on the list, for its range of intense colors along with the fact that it is the source of the many beautiful and compelling canyons that are found here. The fall foliage is another factor. After my Sierra Nevada colors have mostly gone (at least on the east side where the aspens grow) the low elevation colors of oak, maple, box elder, and cottonwood reach their peak. Other plants produce their own unique and sometimes subtle effects – such as the widely varied coloration of the tamarisk plants, which can include everything from black and gray through blue to yellow, red, and even purple. But above all is the quality of the light in these places, especially when it bounces down from high rock faces to light the depths of narrow canyons, taking on the coloration of the higher rocks, softening the lighting below, and often producing a glowing effect that must be seen to be believed. The light in this photograph is such light, reflected from a very large and sun-lit face to the left of my camera position.

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: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Wildlife

Trumpeter Swans, Trees

December 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two trumpeter swans fly thorugh trees along the edge of the Skagit River, Washington

I was in the Seattle area over the past few day, taking care of some business, but I unexpectedly found myself with a free day on Monday – planned activities were cancelled, flight didn’t leave until Monday night. Fortunately, there is no shortage of things to see and do in that part of the Pacific Northwest, at least if you don’t mind clouds and rain – and I don’t. So I headed up to Skagit Valley, which I had visited once previously, when I spent a day photographing migratory birds there last winter.

I figured I might again see trumpeter swans and snow geese, and I was not disappointed. There were fewer geese this year – though one spectacular flock – but more trumpeter swans. Since this trip had not been primarily about photography, I did not bring the gear I would usually use for photographing these birds, and the longest lens I had was a 70-200mm zoom. This meant that I could not photograph the birds from any appreciable distance, though I was on the lookout for large flocks that might let me do this. (That didn’t quite happen.) So I had to adopt a different approach. As I watched the swans, I figured out that hardly more than a few minutes would go by before one or two or perhaps a few more would make their long, shallow take-off and then fly at a low elevation to another likely spot. So I moved into some likely spots and shot from inside the car so as to make myself a bit less visible. Eventually a few of the birds flew almost directly over the car, or at least passed near by. These two were flying along a row of trees on the bank of the Skagit River.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

November 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

An aspen grove along North Bishop Creek in late afternoon light.

While I like huge, expansive groves of aspens, I also like small, isolated groups, especially when set against the background of what I think of as sage brush country. This group of trees is actually part of a long, thin grove that stretches along a small dirt side road up in the Bishop Creek drainage. The grove and the road are on my “must visit” list for my annual aspen-chasing trips to the eastern Sierra, so by now I’ve learned a lot about the “personality” of this particular spot. Like a number of other spots to which I return each year, you might not notice anything spectacular about this grove – but by means of repeated visits I have learned where to look for certain little subjects: a creek that flows past boulders beneath colorful trees, a particular thick grove of very thin-truck trees, groves of trees that seem barely taller than I am.

I made this photograph in what might seem like unlikely lighting conditions. It was late afternoon, and the trees were back-lit. The sun was close to dropping behind the very tall ridge that lies above and beyond the border of the photograph, so the light was angling across the several background ridges running down into the valley, and lighting their upper edges. And, of course, the leaves glow when the light come through them from behind.

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

Aspen Grove, Old Road

November 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

An old dirt road winds into the heart of an aspen grove in full autumn color, Dixie National Forest, Utah

This is another of the “could have been anywhere” photographs, both because little scenes like this can be found all over the American West and because it is a scene that I simply happened to notice while passing by. So, the specific location is most certainly unimportant, though I’ll say that it was along a gravel road running through a section of the national forest in roughly the Zion/Cedar City area, a road that we had turned up more or less randomly and then explored for perhaps a couple of hours before turning back. The goal of that little drive had been to get into or as close as possible to some extensive forests of colorful aspen trees that we had seen from a distance. We succeeded.

There is something evocative on a number of levels about a simple scene like this one – with factors including the literal and subjective aspects of the changing season, the image of the small road disappearing into the grove as it wanders off to an unknown place, and the light of autumn filtered through the golden canopy of aspen leaves. If you don’t pay careful attention when you are there you might miss it, but the golden color suffuses the entire understory when the light is just right. (Photographers and painters may notice this sort of thing more than most people, since we/they are used to dealing with the otherwise blue coloration of the shadow light.) This sort of scene is extremely transitory. While we can permit ourselves to believe that both the green time of summer and the snowy time of winter are relatively permanent, no such illusion is possible during the brief span of literally a few days when the aspen color comes to these groves – they are different every day, and sometimes you can literally see the color going away as the wind blows down the leaves.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grove

Autumn Color, Escalante River

Trumpeter Swans, Trees

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

Aspen Grove, Old Road

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