Tag Archives: monument

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basalt Columns, Lichen, Autumn Plants

October 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn plants and lichen lend color to basalt columns, Devils Postpile National Monument

Quite honestly, this photograph was at least partially the product of laziness! We were recently in the eastern Sierra Nevada for a few (more) days of autumn color photography. We had driven up late the previous day, and by the time we got settled in to our lodgings the idea of getting up again at “oh-dark-thirty” to head out and make dawn photographs was not appealing. Rather than overtly cop out, we sort of agreed to maybe not set alarms and instead just sort of see when we might wake up. Needless to say, on the morning after a very long drive that ended late at night… we did not get up at the crack of dawn! In fact, we wandered out for breakfast at perhaps 7:30 or so, and only then returned to our room to get ready for photography.

With no prior planning at all, we made a more or less spontaneous decision to visit Devils Postpile National Monument, which was convenient to our lodgings at Mammoth Lakes. I’ve been in that area many times, but always in conjunction with backpacking trips, and most of those simply headed out from Agnew Meadow. We finally got down there in the middle of the morning. It turns out that this is actually a very good time to photograph this geological structure, as the sun is behind it, producing beautiful soft shaded light on the details of the basalt columns. To make a series of photographs from which this image comes, I used a very long lens, which allowed me to isolate and compose photographs out of small areas of the much larger wall of basalt columns. (Update — December 2015: Patty Emerson Mitchell reminds me that I almost left my camera in the car on this morning, claiming that I was really just there to let her see this location!)

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

Cottonwood Trees and Redrock Canyon, Autumn

July 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brilliantly colorful autumn cottonwood foliage winds down a Utah red rock canyon

After four days of photography and camping in the far reaches of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, I came out to civilization and spent a night at Boulder Mountain Lodge. (Not my usual thing, but I had an appointment to meet someone there — and it was quite a fine visit!) Arriving a bit early, I decided to head out on a nearby road just to see what I could see.

I knew this road a bit from traveling it in the past — I was looking forward to red rock cliffs and some cottonwood color. But I was not prepared for the intensity of the autumn cottonwoods in this little canyon. The effect was a combination of arriving at the peak moment of color for these trees, and the fact that the light was slightly softened by some high clouds. The result was one of those colorful scenes that you imagine but rarely actually find, with the tree winding down the canyon and around the far bend.

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

Cottonwood Tree, Sandstone Pothole

July 8, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cottonwood tree with fall foliage stands in the bottom of a sandstone pothole.

Coming upon one of the large and deep sandstone potholes is a strange experience. There is something almost spooky about them. At first there is no obvious explanation for how such a thing could come to be. (It involves water and wind and long periods of time.) There is something strangely attractive about them and you want to get closer and closer to the edge. But this is a very dangerous proposition. The incline of the rock increases quickly and then quickly becomes vertical. It is a long ways down — perhaps as much as twenty feet. And anyone falling into such a pothole would not only be injured by the fall but would find it virtually impossible to get out without help. (There are stories of people finding dead animals that had fallen in and died there.)

There is positive magic about these formations, too, especially when a beautiful cottonwood tree grows within one of them, creating a kind of magical garden cut off from the rest of the world. We came to this area late in the day, climbed up onto VAST sandstone slabs, picked a route across the terrain, and arrived at a place where there were several of the potholes, many of which were home to cottonwood trees full of autumn foliage.

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Two Men, Trafalgar Square

July 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two men sitting atop a public monument in Trafalgar Square, London

The main appeal of Trafalgar Square for me, I think, was the people. The variety of visitors was surprising, including locals, international tourists, people just passing through, folks staking out a space in order to spend some time, and so forth. In many places the square contains crowds of people.

It seemed that these two fellows had discovered a way to find a small measure of solitude in this busy urban scene, namely to climb up on the monument and sit about the crowd.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: monument

Basalt Columns, Lichen, Autumn Plants

Cottonwood Trees and Redrock Canyon, Autumn

Cottonwood Tree, Sandstone Pothole

Two Men, Trafalgar Square

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