Tag Archives: leaves

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

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone

April 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn leaves lie on the sandstone in a high country creek bed, Zion National Park

Every so often I decide to dig back through my older file archives from previous years, and I almost always discover photographs that I had forgotten, that perhaps didn’t resonate at the time, or were part of batches of images that I someone never quite finished reviewing. This is one of those. It comes from a lengthy autumn trip to various places in Zion with a group of friends back in 2012.

I made this photograph in Zion National Park, but it could have been made in uncounted numbers of places in Utah — it has the basic ingredients: patterned and worn sandstone plus leaves. This scene is as I found it, a small vignette of leaves, some in colors matching those of the sandstone and couple yellow enough to stand out from the background.

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.

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

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

Sandstone and Singleleaf Ash

February 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A singleleaf ash tree stretches across red sandstone wall, Utah

I love the stunning sandstone landscapes of Southern Utah — a world of canyons intimate or huge, smooth red sandstone walls, the force of water, juniper trees, flatlands and mountains, and the thought-provoking presence of people who lived here before we came. When I return to my California landscapes from Utah they always seem a bit… gray. I made this photograph on a visit a bit more than four years ago, when I joined several photographer friends to explore places from Zion National Park to Capitol Reef National Park, spending time in some of the stunning national monument lands in between. I made this photograph in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a place that surely is deserving of national park status.

Back in 2012 during this visit, I thought about how my country had the foresight to protect such quintessential American landscapes and hold them in trust for all Americans today and long into the future. It did not even cross my mind that they might soon again be in danger. But they are, including this very place, now described by self-serving politicians intent on taking the land that we own and giving it away to private interests as being “places where no one goes” or places that are just empty desert. This is, of course, nonsense and only a liar or worse could make such a claim with a straight face. Once again, it appears that it will be time to have to try to re-save these places.

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

Autumn Tree, Broken Branches, Ground Fog

January 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree with autumn leaves, surrounded by broken branches, with thinning ground fog below

When we think of Yosemite Valley the first things that come to mind are likely to be towering cliffs, waterfalls, peaks, domes, and other monumental things. The Valley is a place built on a grand scale, but more subtle surprises await if you are there at the right time. Especially between late fall and early spring, when the conditions are right beautiful ground fog frequently appears in meadows, drifting back and forth and gradually thinning as the morning warms.

On this morning I intended to be in the Valley early, but other things distracted me on my way there from Oakhurst (including fog in another valley!), and I arrived in the Valley a bit later than planned. At that point I had more or less written off my plan to go fog-hunting, so I was thrilled to catch the very tail end of the morning fog in a few spots here and there. This tree, a somewhat well-known elm, was just out of the fog that still lay across the surface of the meadow beyond.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: leaves

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone

Boulder Mountain Aspens

Sandstone and Singleleaf Ash

Autumn Tree, Broken Branches, Ground Fog

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