Tag Archives: nature

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

Autumn Leaves, Layered Sandstone with Diagonal Crack

April 6, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small plant with yellow autumn leaves grows from a diagonal crack in wall of layered sandstone, Zion National Park

I’ll start off by admitting that I now don’t recall exactly where I made this photograph on this day when we visited Zion National Park. I’m virtually certain that it in the high country along the Mt. Carmel Highway that crosses the park from east to west, but where on that highway I’m not certain. Of course, some crack in the rock with a bush growing out of it hardly is likely to be an iconic, named location!

What I do recall is that we spent a good portion of this first trip’s first day in Zion along this road, and to some extent driving back and forth along it a few times, watching for new subjects as the day’s light evolved. At times a cliff that had been in sun earlier in the day would be in shadow later, so we had a choice to photograph in soft light or harsh. All along this roadway there were the usual interesting subjects – sedimentary rock formations of all sorts and all colors – but also at this time of year the fall color show was beginning. I believe that this little vignette might have been down in one of the washes or slot canyons that we dropped into in search of this color.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trees and Marsh, Fog

April 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A clump of trees on a foggy morning and their reflection in the waters of a Central Valley marsh

I made this photograph on New Year’s Day 2013, while on a little “goose chasing” adventure to California Central Valley wildlife refuges. A group of like-minded folks decided that there would be no better way to start the new year than to gather before sunrise along the edges of San Joaquin Valley marshes to hear the pre-dawn chorus of migratory birds and then spend the day photographing them.

As almost always seems to be the case out there, the atmosphere and light continued to evolve in all sorts of interesting ways as the day wore on. Dawn come with high clouds that were broken in a few spots and with fog below. Eventually the light penetrated the high clouds and began to light up the refuge – but the light remained soft and luminous as the fog wasn’t quite done with us yet. We took a midday break, and when we returned we again had overcast, but sunset colors came through near the end of the day. While circling the area looking for geese and other critters I stopped at one point to photograph these trees growing from the marshy land against a background of haze and a bit of fog.

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

Gambel Oak Leaves, Autumn

April 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Brilliantly colored autumn colors of Gambel Oak leaves, Capitol Reef National Park

This is a very different view of the autumn gambel oak leaves than another that I recently posted. That other photograph showed the perhaps more typical brown or tan phase of fall oak leaf color. This one, on the other hand, shows a particularly colorful specimen of these leaves, caught at perhaps just the right moment and in the right light in a canyon of Capitol Reef National Park early one late-October morning.

The angle from which you view these leaves matters a lot, as it often does with autumn leaves in general. The nature of the ambient light also makes a big difference. And did I mention the timing!? If you can get a bit of back-light behind the oak leaves, what might otherwise be a bit dull can begin to glow. And the soft, diffused lighting in this deep canyon setting allowed the light to fill in the shadows. These particular specimens possess very interesting color and shape patterns: there is an interior still-green section on many of the leaves that is just beginning to edge towards yellow-gold, and it is surrounded by brilliantly red and orange leaf edges. When I shoot in deep shade – and these plants were deep in the shade of this small canyon – I often find that the photograph seems unnaturally blue, given that most of the light is either direct or reflected blue sky. In most cases, in order to get a color balance that reflects what the eye saw – and our visual system compensates for the blue saturation – I have to alter the color balance a bit and move it away from this artificial-seeming blueness. However, in this case, if I adjusted far enough to neutralize the blue that you can still see on the more-or-less gray branches and twigs, the color of the leaves would probably defy belief!

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

Juniper Tree, Towers at Base of Sandstone Cliff, Evening

April 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

I made this photograph midway through a trip of about 11 days that took us to a number of locations in Utah. Every such trip seems to have a sort of arc that includes the initial excitement and expectation of heading out into the world to photograph, a settling in period, perhaps a lull in the middle followed by a reconnection to the work, a sense that the trip is ending and there is too much left to do, and the final trip back to the “real world.” This photograph was made near the end of the “lull,” and might have marked the transition back to rededication to the work. On this mid-trip day, we had found ourselves perhaps a bit without direction and one of the members of the group had not been feeling well. At a low point in our energy but perhaps feeling that we should at least carry on and act like we were working, we went to a nearby area of the park in the evening.

At first we had no clear goal in mind, though we sort of stopped and looked around at a few spots, but without really making any serious photographs. Eventually we headed up into a large canyon, first photographing the walls near the start of the canyon and then photographing the canyon itself a bit as the light began to fade. This work went OK, but it didn’t seem to be quite “clicking.” But eventually, in my experience, you get to the point where you sometimes simply accept this as part of the work, trusting that if you keep looking and keep seeing you will eventually find what you are looking for – and that this is far more productive and useful than packing it up when it isn’t working. (Though, to be fair, there are a few times when packing it up and going and having a nice dinner can be a reasonable option!) In any case, we loaded up the vehicle and began to drive back out of the canyon. Looking up at the surrounding canyon walls, we were surprised to find some very unusual post-sunset light. During normal light these canyon walls look very dark and have the intensely “red” quality of the iconic Utah sandstone. But somehow this light seemed to have drained the color from the rocks, creating a de-saturated and almost slightly metallic effect. We quickly stopped an piled out with cameras and tripods and began shooting, and it seemed to me that the connection had been made once again.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: nature

Autumn Leaves, Layered Sandstone with Diagonal Crack

Trees and Marsh, Fog

Gambel Oak Leaves, Autumn

Juniper Tree, Towers at Base of Sandstone Cliff, Evening

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