Tag Archives: national

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

Autumn Color, Canyon Walls

July 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn color foliage marches up the lower slopes of Zion Canyon, Utah

I was in Zion three times during October this year – it is a long story how that happened! On the final occasion, we were passing through the area on our way back to California at the very end of the month, having stayed the night before in Kanab and having a plan to stage the next day’s long return drive from St. George, Utah. The drive between those Kanab and St. George is not all that long, so we figured we would see what Zion might offer up as we passed through. Since we had photographed the high country along the Mount Carmel Highway earlier in the month, and since the fall color was rumored to be starting in Zion Canyon, we decided to head there in the morning. (In the end, we finished up here a bit sooner than we might have, so we ended up driving well past St. George, but that’s a different story…)

The height of the Zion Canyon color typically comes a bit later than this, so we figured that we might not see the very best color – but Zion is sort of like Yosemite in that there is something to see no matter what. After many days of shooting, this was one of those days when energy was at a bit of a low ebb. We started out in the upper end of the canyon, where we found some colorful red maples, but I don’t think any of use were necessarily quite “seeing it” at this point. So we moved down that canyon a bit, looking for whatever might turn up, and hoping for a bit more color that we were seeing. One of the last places we stopped to shoot was in this area from which features such as the Great White Throne and The Organ are visible. Here we were a bit more inspired, since there was a variety of things to see: the Virgin River, the flats along the river in the bottom of the canyon, a decent amount of developing fall color, towering rock walls, and evolving light. As I poked around along the river bottom I saw that some very colorful trees were visible up high along the base of the steepest cliff walls.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Automobile Graveyard

July 6, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of old automobiles abandoned and left to decay in a gully at an old desert mining site

I have passed this old mining site quite a few times, looked up at it, and kept going. On this morning I had a bit of extra time so I decided to pause and poke around a bit. Certain obvious signs of the presence of an old mine are clear from nearby, but a bit more exploration revealed a more extensive than expected site – as is often the case. Although an old gravel road headed into the area, I decided to first walk up the road, partly to avoid nasty surprises while driving and partly so that I would see a bit more – which is typically what happens when I’m on foot rather than inside my vehicle.

The gravel road twisted up a small gully and soon reached an area that revealed views of quite a bit more mining evidence than I had suspected. I’m certain that if I had continued to explore that I would have found even more, but I’ll save that for another visit. I often have this feeling that these sites should be much older than they really are, and I’m still somewhat surprised to find that some of them were electrified. The surprise at this location was the number of not-really-that-old vehicles that had been abandoned. They are decades old, but I’m guessing that they might date to roughly the WWII era or even a bit later which, in the grand historic scheme, isn’t all that long ago. Several of these vehicles had been abandoned, somewhat oddly, in the bottom of a wash that must flood at least occasionally, considering the amount of gravel that swamped their undersides. The back of this one was open, so I positioned my tripod just outside the car and shot through it toward the other abandoned vehicles. (If you find and explore such places, please be extremely careful to leave things as they are. The effects of our individual disruptions are cumulative and accelerate the destruction and eventual disappearance of these sites.)

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

Sandstone Patterns

July 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Complex patterns in sandstone formations at Zion National Park

I’m certainly no geologist, but that doesn’t keep me from being somewhat amazed by the fantastical and convoluted shapes and conjunctions in this little detail of cross-bedded sandstone photographed in the Zion National Park high country. As I understand it, these rocks originated in sand that was laid down, perhaps as dunes, in the distant past. For a variety of reasons, layers that originally tilted one direction ended up butted up against or nudging into layers tilting in radically different directions. My untrained eyes count a number of such layers in this small bit of rock. Overlaid on this are eroding flakes, cracks, bits of vegetation, lichen, and more – and all of it on this intensely colorful Southwest rock.

I am not certain precisely where this bit of geology was photographed, beyond recalling that it was along the Mount Carmel Highway through Zion National Park and that the photograph was made in shaded and diffused light. I am not only intrigued by the disjunct lines and angles of the underlying rock here, but also by odd features such as the big curve running across the middle of the frame and the subtle differences in the coloration of the rock – in places it is quite pink, verging on redness, while in others it is almost somewhat purple.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky

July 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three Ross’s geese directly overhead against blue morning sky

These Ross’s geese obligingly flew directly over head against a blue sky and in morning light… and, no, they did not drop any, uh, payload on me. (That has happened. It comes with the territory. Someone told me that somewhere in the world – Europe? – it is considered good luck to get “bombed” by a goose. I could write much more on this topic, but I’ll restrain myself. You may thank me later! ;-)

In any case…a difficulty when shooting birds passing overhead is that the light source is often higher than the bird, thus putting the parts of the bird facing the camera into shadow. But in very early or very late light – near sunrise or sunset – the sun is so low that it can cast light on the undersides of the birds, as in this photograph. When shooting this critters as they pass overhead in flight, while I can and do think about their positions in the frame and relative to one another, in the end I have to take what the birds give me. There is a lot that I cannot control about this kind of photography. It comes down to being observant, being able to work quickly and intuitively, and a whole bunch of luck regarding the birds, the light, and the weather.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: national

Autumn Color, Canyon Walls

Desert Automobile Graveyard

Sandstone Patterns

Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky

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