Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 29, 2012. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Cottonwood trees, in various stages of fall color, beneath a tall sandstone cliff along the Escalante River, Utah
There is a little bit of a story behind this photograph. We had visited this canyon area almost a week earlier when we first arrived in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area, but the results had not been quite what we had hoped. We were imagining clear and sunny skies reflecting colorful light down into canyon depths, warm temperatures, still air, and more. Instead we got partial clouds, freezing cold temperatures, and high winds! All of these factors had turned out photographic plans into an extremely difficult challenge. We made it up our canyon to about this point, but the winds were too strong and we were perhaps too cold to stick around. But I had noticed this group of trees at different stages in the transition to fall color and backed by huge boulders and a massive cliff of sandstone.
Nearly a week later we had some extra time and we decided that a second try at this location might be worthwhile. In contrast to that earlier visit, now it was warmer, sunnier, and less windy. We made it to the same portion of the canyon – and a bit further, too – and now found that photography was a lot more possible than it had been only a few days earlier. The color and light on this little scene might need some explanation. The cottonwood trees were, indeed, exhibiting color variations from yellow/gold, through golden brown, and even some still-green leaves. The light came from out of the frame to the right, where a very large and tall sandstone cliff was in full sun and reflecting warm colored light down into this shaded section of the canyon. The color of this light was very surprising. You can see a bit of what was going on by looking at the large boulder behind the trees. The surface facing my camera position appears blue, partly because it was in shadow and partly because that is close to the actual color of this rock. But if you look at the left side of this rock, where a large surface faces that sunlit cliff, it has taken on a color that is almost the same as that of the tree!
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.
