Tag Archives: license

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.

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

Red Rock Vista

November 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees and brush and red rock stretching toward the horizon

This was a day of travel and establishing a new “home base” with a different group of friends. It began at a national park campground, involved a bit of driving on paved and unpaved roads, and ended at a rustic “camp site” close to 50 miles out on a gravel track. We arrived and spent a bit of time settling in, getting our camp for the next few days organized, and later each of us spent a bit of time wandering the nearby hills and “tuning up” our vision for the coming photographic work.

That evening we wanted to photograph something, but at this late hour and following a somewhat busy day our goal had to be a bit modest. So we loaded ourselves into vehicles and drove back up the road a bit to a spot with impressive red rock hills and walked up onto the sandstone slabs. There was much to see and photograph, and the light varied between overcast and that nearly perfect light that shines through thin clouds late in the day. As we climbed higher into these hills I stopped at this spot to take in the long view across curved sandstone terrain toward the farther reaches of the valley, as early evening sun slanted across rocks and vegetation.

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

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

November 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage growing in sculpted sandstone terrain

The subject of this photograph is a sort of invisible icon. Let me explain. The location is not a very popular one by the usual standards. It isn’t easy to get to many places in this sprawling national monument. Things are not signed. There are no “photo spot” signs. The great majority of roads are unpaved and some are quite rough. You won’t find campgrounds with running water and flush toilets. Stores are few and far between. (While part of me is certain that its attractions deserve national park status, and frustrated that certain local politics will likely prevent this in the foreseeable future… another part of me thinks that the relative obscurity of national monument status may also have some benefits.)

Yet, there are places that seem to draw folks who love this land and are willing to search things out a bit. This particular sort of landscape of swooping, curving sandstone shapes, deep water pockets, and the occasional cottonwood tree is not that hard to find, and if you look around a bit you can find many, many examples. On this evening we photographed in soft light created by high clouds, and I decided to find a different angle on this lone cottonwood — one that would include it in a receding sequence of layers of sandstone formations.

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

Sunrise, Capitol Reef

November 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn clouds about the peaks of Capitol Reef National Park

Finding sunrise light like this is a matter of getting up very early, making some decent pre-dawn guesses about what may happen later, finding a good location… and a whole bunch of plain dumb luck. Oh, and persistence helps, too — if you are out there a lot you will inevitably increase the odds that you’ll encounter the very special light. But no one can call up a small cloud centered above a ridge lit by first light that also turns the distant clouds shades of pink and purple.

Our primary plan on this day was to take a rather long drive down the east side of the park, though the ultimate goal was a bit fuzzy — it could have been a slot canyon I know of or it could have been a higher location that I had visited before. We started out in near darkness from our campsite, crossed the park, and then started south. As dawn approached, it was immediately obvious that the sky was just about to do something amazing, so we quickly found a spot with a panoramic view in most directions, stopped the car, grabbed cameras and tripods, and hurried to find compositions that might make use of this light. Since most of the interesting geological features seemed to be a good ways off, I put a very long lens on my camera and focused on small distant details. For a very brief moment, just as the first light began to gently wash over the high peaks of Capitol Reef, this intense color came to the clouds and one small cloud became visible against the lighter background.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: license

Erosion Gullies, Waterpocket Fold

Red Rock Vista

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

Sunrise, Capitol Reef

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