Tag Archives: leaf

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

Red and Yellow Leaves, Sandstone Wall

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Red and Yellow Leaves, Sandstone Wall
Red and Yellow Leaves, Sandstone Wall

Red and Yellow Leaves, Sandstone Wall. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brilliant red and yellow autumn leaves of oak and red leaf maple against a backdrop of layered and fractured sandstone, Zion National Park

I suppose that I have to be honest and admit that the main reason for making this photograph was the absolutely ridiculous and gaudy colors in this little bit of red rock canyon. You can find red trees in this area, and you can find yellow trees, but it isn’t often that you (or I, anyway) find this combination of leaves, packed so tightly together, and against the intense color of the sandstone wall.

We had probably driven past this spot a few times before we finally came back and pulled over and photographed it. I can’t speak for the others in my group, but in some ways it is almost a bit embarrassing to point a camera at something so colorful and photograph it… just because it is colorful. Compositionally it was a very tricky thing to shoot. The only feature that brings much relief to the shades of red, yellow, and orange is the single arching crack leading up from right to left.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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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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

Single-Leaf Ash, Green and Yellow Leaves

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Single-Leaf Ash, Green and Yellow Leaves - A single-leaf ash in a narrow sandstone-walled canyon begins its autumn transition from green to yellow, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
A single-leaf ash in a narrow sandstone-walled canyon begins its autumn transition from green to yellow, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Single-Leaf Ash, Green and Yellow Leaves. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 24, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single-leaf ash in a narrow sandstone-walled canyon begins its autumn transition from green to yellow, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Now, coming back to this photograph quite a while after I made it, I distinctly remember that the gradient from yellow to green of these leaves caught my attention when I saw this small plant growing out of a crack in the water carved sandstone of this canyon wall. I’m often attracted by dark trunks and branches like those on this specimen, especially when they are seen against a background such as this pink sandstone with the patches of darker, lichen-covered rock.

The photograph was made in the same canyon in this national monument where I made a number of other photographs on this same very productive day – productive despite the difficult weather conditions, which were cold, windy, and a bit cloudy. Deep in the canyon and against this canyon wall, the best light is often that from completely clear daytime sky, since that sort of light reflects the best off of the canyon walls and carries with it the warm colors of the rock. Given that this was a tremendously windy day, the lack of leaf blur in this photograph indicates that it was made in a slightly sheltered area of the canyon and, no doubt, by waiting to shoot between the gusts.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

One Green Leaf

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One Green Leaf - One green leaf on a bed of brown and tan autumn leaves in a desert wash, Capitol Reef National Park
One green leaf on a bed of brown and tan autumn leaves in a desert wash, Capitol Reef National Park

One Green Leaf. Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. October 26, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One green leaf on a bed of brown and tan autumn leaves in a desert wash, Capitol Reef National Park

My two October trips to photograph in Utah extended my ongoing education about the place, and one of the locations (but not the only one!) about which I had and still have the most to learn is Capitol Reef National Park. When I first was there in April of 2012, my encounter with this park was perhaps shamefully superficial, though my excuse is that we were only passing through on our way to another place. All I saw of the park was the short highway drive that passed by the Fruita District as it passes through the park – the rest of the park beyond this small bit remained a complete mystery to me. In October I was there twice. On the first visit I was in the area enough to start to get a bit of a feel for the place, though I mostly still stuck to the most popular and accessible areas, with the addition of a bit of hiking and a long drive on gravel roads down the less-visited side of the park. On the second visit I learned and saw a bit more – enough to convince me that there is much more to this park and that it is a place I want to return to.

Although there is no evidence of this in the photograph, this shot was made in a short slot canyon in an out-of-the way area of the park. We drove there on a very cold morning and heading into the canyon while the temperature still hovered around freezing. There was no one else there at all, and we barely even saw anyone else on the long drive to get there. The little canyon itself was quite beautiful and full of interesting surprises – juxtapositions of glowing red-orange walls and shaded blue-purple walls, brilliantly colorful gambel oak leaves, large sandstone faces and walls, and more. As I investigate a place like this I try to let my eyes roam beyond the first things I see, and try to also see smaller things that could easily be missed. Here I happened to look down at my feet – sometimes a good thing to do! – and see that the floor of the stream bed was in places carpeted with oak and other leaves that had recently fallen, and this batch of brown and tan leaves held one that was still green.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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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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: Pacific Northwest

Japanese Maple Leaves

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Japanese Maple Leaves - A small branch of a Japanese Maple tree.
A small branch of a Japanese Maple tree.

Japanese Maple Leaves. Portland, Oregon. July 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small branch of a Japanese Maple tree.

Japanese maple trees are ubiquitous in the gardens of Portland, Oregon, and during out early July visit to that town I had plenty of opportunities to photograph them. Here I decided to shoot a very small portion of a tree close up. I had been walking through this garden and focusing of larger views of whole trees and groups of trees and surrounding subjects, but when I walked past a small group of taller trees I noticed small twigs with a few leaves growing from the otherwise bare lower trunks and thought they might make interesting subjects themselves, especially in the very soft light in the shade of the taller trees.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.