Tag Archives: monument

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

Box Elder Thicket, Fall

January 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dense thicket of box elder trees along the Escalante River, Utah

Down in the canyons around the Escalante River the terrain varies a great deal. In some areas you might be walking more or less in the stream, perhaps wading up the center of the stream, crossing back and forth across it, rock hopping, and occasionally slogging through very wet sand and mud. In other areas, you might walk through groves of cottonwood or box elder trees of various sizes. Elsewhere you might leave the stream itself and find your way though brush or over and around rocks or slick rock. Sometimes there is abundant vegetation, and in other places you are in a world composed almost entirely of rock.

The river almost continuously twists back and forth and wind around one horseshoe bend after another. These bends seem to me to be important places of transition. On one side you might walk in direct sunlight and be warm. As you pass through the apex of the bend, if you were in the sun you are now likely to pass into shade and the canyon may narrow, perhaps forcing you to cross back and forth across the stream. I found this small clump of box elder trees in such a place. They were quite small – I imagine as a result of growing in an area that could be flooded from time to time – and they grew together densely. It is a challenge to try to make some sort of coherent composition out of such dense and intertwined growth. The interesting side light, reflected from another canyon wall, gave a bit of relief to the thin trunks of the trees, and there are a multitude of relationships to be found among their forms – they are mirror images of one another, or they twist almost in parallel – and in the background is such dense detail that even a very close look at a print shows that there is hardly a place where subjects beyond the trees are visible.

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

Old Cottonwood Trees, Autumn

January 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

This is a photograph that I wish I had seen this way while I was there! On the scene, while wandering into a beautiful section of a big, deep canyon to photograph water, sandstone, and fall colors, I came across these trees (or this tree – they may grow from a common root system) and made the photograph in landscape orientation… and only realized while working on it in post that I really like it in portrait orientation, too. So, yes, this is cropped from a larger original photograph.

I don’t know how others will “see” this, but for me this version recalls a lot of older monochrome photographs of subjects like this from an earlier era – the era in which I first came to be fascinated by photography. Way “back in the day” when I first did photography, with the encouragement and help of my father, virtually all of the photographers whose work inspired me shot black and white. With that in mind, and with my early experience involving how to shoot, develop, and print black and white, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that I still love monochrome. (A number of my personal favorites among my own work are black and white.) In this one I even applied the virtual equivalent of the classic filtering to alter the tonal balance and lighten clouds and foliage and somewhat darken the massive, twisting forms of tree trunks and branches.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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 Detail, Autumn

January 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Close up view of golden autumn cottonwood leaves, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

One of the main reasons we visited this particular canyon at this particular time of year and on this exact day was… fall color from cottonwood trees and a few other contributors. This small group was growing almost directly against the cliff walls alongside the river, and when I was there the cliffs shaded the trees and provided softer, diffused light.

While many of my cottonwood photographs set the trees in their surroundings a bit more clearly, in this one I simply wanted to show the colors and patterns and textures of the trees themselves, so I chose to shoot in tight and exclude anything that was not “tree.” These trees really are this colorful, especially in this light. This presented me with a bit of a challenge while working on the photograph in post. When shooting in the shade, as I like to do with such subjects, the light is often quite blue, since the scene is largely lit by that giant blue light box that we often refer to as “the sky.” Most people (other than photographers) would not notice the blue-ness of the scene while standing there, but it becomes quite apparent when looking at the photograph. In order to make the color balance conform to what we think we see when on the scene, I often choose to warm up the color balance of all or part of the photograph. For example, I might move the objectively blue tones of background rocks more toward gray, if the rocks were that color. But here, if I went to the “objectively gray” point, the color of the trees shifts to be warm beyond belief, so here I left the overall balance a bit on the blue side.

(Note: This photograph was originally posted with the wrong title. The error has now been corrected.)

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

Floating Cottonwood Leaves, Autumn

December 31, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Floating cottonwood leaves nearly obscure the surface of a small pond along the Escalante River, Utah

On our first of two hikes into the Escalante Canyon we had to contend with very strong winds. Wind is usually not the landscape photographer’s friend. Not only does it create some issues for camera stability, but it also sets trees and other foliage in motion, and given the relatively long exposures we sometimes use – especially when shooting down in the bottom of a deep canyon – making motion blur a very serious issue. It is virtually impossible to stop the blurring motion of leaves and grasses and branches. To some extent you might be able to make use of this and “go with the blur,” but that isn’t likely to work with all shots.

However, there is often a silver lining behind such clouds, and one bright spot with wind is that in the fall it drops lots of colorful leaves on the ground and into any water than happens to be lying about. As we worked our way downstream we came to a spot where a small stream joined the main watercourse in a flat area. Because of the flat terrain the water had created some almost still pools in places where faster flows had previously carved out hollows in the sand, and the surface of these ponds was almost completely covered with freshly fallen cottonwood leaves.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: monument

Old Cottonwood Trees, Autumn

Floating Cottonwood Leaves, Autumn

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