Tag Archives: gully

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Red And White Strata

March 30, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Returning from Utah last fall we decided to make a detour up toward Red Rock Canyon State Park. I’ve driven through/past this park many times while traveling to and from Death Valley National Park, and every time I’ve passed through I have promised myself to stop… eventually. Eventually continued for more than ten years, aside from a brief pause at a road side pullout, so it was about time to make a visit. The terrain is striking, not looking anything at all like other areas nearby. The fluted and eroded structures and occasional layers of red rock bring the Utah geology to mind, though in a considerably less intense form.

We only had a short time there since we had started our day back in Zion National Park. Arriving in the late afternoon we took what seems like the main driving loop in the main part of the park, and followed it back up to a campground which was almost completely deserted on this late-season date. We found these formations along the upper edge off the campground. At first the very soft light — from high clouds — and the subtle colors almost made me wonder if photographs would be worthwhile, but eventually I figured out how to “see” this light and the subdued colors.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Red Rock, Dusk

March 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dusk light on sandstone formations, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

On our first day in this part of southern Utah last October we settled into our primitive camp, hung out for a while, and then headed off to an area of beautifully formed sandstone in the late afternoon, where we planned to do our evening photography. When we arrived the sun was still well above the ridge to our west but its light was intermittently muted by thin clouds that softened the contrasts between light and shadow. For perhaps a couple of hours we worked this landscape of carved red rock, with its gullies, ridges, sand-filled flats, holes and every curving shape and texture you can imagine.

There was much to see, and after I photographed the most obvious subjects I continued to look and began to see less obvious features. As the sun dropped behind the ridge and shadows stretched across this area I first felt a kind of urgency to make photographs while the light was still good. I continued shooting right into the post-sunset dusk hour, when color came to the thin clouds and washed this landscape, already red from rocks and blue from haze, with intense reddish-purple light. I made a series of photographs in this area above a carved sandstone gully, and soon it was too dark to shoot any more. I/we looked up from our cameras, enjoyed the quiet for a few moments, then put on headlamps and found our way across rocks and back to where we started and then drove back to camp.

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: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Erosion Gullies, Waterpocket Fold

November 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Eroded gullies at the base of cliffs along the east side of the Waterpocket Fold Valley, Utah

The Waterpocket Fold is a huge geological feature of Utah that essentially defines Capitol Reef National Park, creating the deep valley along its east flank, the uplift that created the high ridge that runs the length of the park, and the many exposed edges of rock strata found all over the park. Its westward-trending uplift is also a reason why you may be challenged to get a traditional golden hour spectacular western sky photograph from along the west side of the park — the land continues to trend upward to the west there.

It is easy to overlook the feature if you are within the intimate landscape of many of the popular portions of the park, where you may be more attracted to washes and canyons and trees and nearby cliffs. But if you head down the east side of the park — on a long gravel road — the immensity of this feature becomes very obvious. This photograph was made from a high point in this part of the park, at a location that sits on the edge of this big valley and offers views to the north, east, and south. Here the view is straight across the valley toward the base of the tall ridge on the opposite side, below which there are steep gullies in the material that has eroded from the faces above, a bit of which is visible at the top of the frame.

And, yes, it is a double post day.

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

Panamint Mountains, Spring

May 8, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Cloud shadows pass across valleys of spring-green high desert plants in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park

I like to think of this photograph as one that may offer a more truthful presentation of the character of Death Valley. As photographers, almost all of us to looking for the extraordinary—momentary instances of astonishing light, brilliant color towering clouds, dramatic light, and more. And, of course, there is nothing remotely wrong with that. It is these things that draw us to these places and which drive our search once we get there. We will often put up with, sometimes patiently and sometimes not, hours or days of what some call “blah” light in order to be able to photograph brief instance of something atypically powerful. But we must be aware that what we find and show in this brief slices of time is often special precisely because it is unusual.

A few years back I started thinking more about my relationship with the landscape of Death Valley and the surrounding terrain. I had been focusing on the extraordinary—and I still do—and on the way to such places I often passed through other areas, sometimes without taking the time to think about what I was seeing in those moments. I think that it was partially out of frustration that I arrived at the idea of trying to see these subjects more clearly and try to figure out how to photograph them. After all, I knew—at least once I stopped to think about it—that my love of this places was not limited to just the unusual and extraordinary moments, but that it also included midday quiet in the heat and subtle colors of sage country, a series of simple overlapping ridges, a bit of rock. And once I recognized this I started to think that these things, and not just sunrises and sunsets and impressive formations and unusual clouds, might make worthy subjects if I slowed down and tried to understand them. And this is one of those photographs. There is no single, impressive subject in this frame. Instead we have the almost uniform pale green of the arid mountain plants on an early spring day after rain, when the plants produce a subtle but surprising green coloration that varies as the land alternates between gullies and the tops of low hills and clouds from a cleaning storm move across the landscape.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: gully

Red And White Strata

Red Rock, Dusk

Erosion Gullies, Waterpocket Fold

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