Tag Archives: north

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

Red Strata

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Red Strata
Overlapping ridges of red strata in the Utah backcountry.

Red Strata. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Overlapping ridges of red strata in the Utah backcountry.

Our plans for this day in Southwest Utah were a bit vague. Initially I had in mind perhaps three or four possible destinations, but recent rainfall (which leads to mud, with its pluses and minuses) convinced me that perhaps a drive on a long, isolated backroad might make more sense than a foray into a deep and narrow canyon. Besides, I knew of at least one canyon along the route that was less likely to be muddy, being a bit wider and shallower. So off we went.

One thing about a couple of photographers driving through a fascinating, beautiful place is that… there are a lot of stops. By the time we got to a decent turn-around point on this drive we realized that it was late enough in the day that we probably wouldn’t have a lot of time to explore on foot on the way back. I made a guess that a particular section of narrow canyon might be easily accessible from our route, though I couldn’t be sure since I had not previously visited that canyon. We stopped, walked a bit, and quickly realized that the entry was a bit more complex than we had in mind. We tried another canyon entrance with similar results — given more time we could have gone in, but time was the one thing we didn’t have. But along the route on the way in I had noticed this impressive are of impressively red and impressively eroded strata, and we had time to stop and photograph it before heading on.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

The Last Leaves

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The Last Leaves
An aspen tree with a few remaining autum leaves, against a cliff face wtih snow.

The Last Leaves. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen trees with a few remaining autumn leaves, against a cliff face with snow.

The Sierra Nevada experience of the past year-and-a-half or so has been… strange. Everything has changed since our world was turned upside down in March of 2020, and my ability to visit and photograph my favorite mountain range has not been an exception. During the first summer we saw many locations simply shut down, and I didn’t really get into the Sierra until the very end of that summer — but only for very brief visits and one aborted pack trip that I had to cancel as a result of the intense wildfire smoke. By last winter I was again able to more comfortably get to non-Sierra locations including Death Valley, where it was possible to work in relative isolation, but the Sierra remained difficult to access. I got up there a few times later in the season, but it wasn’t until this fall that I felt that I was beginning to reconnect with this landscape.

In mid-October we put together an actual road trip. It began with a couple of nights in the Eastern Sierra before continuing on to Southwest Utah, another location that I hadn’t been to in far too long. This brief autumn Sierra visit (which followed another visit a week earlier) was a bit later than usual, and we ended up visiting a few places that I usually overlook… and heading to a few “old friends” even though they were past their prime. I made this photograph in one of those places, a location where the colors are usually spectacular a bit earlier in the season. I knew that wouldn’t be the case this time, so we went there a bit later in the day after photographing more promising morning subjects. We arrived, made a quick stop, and I spotted this small group of trees in the shadow of a cliff. They were nearly at the end of their color transition and most of the leaves were gone, but those that remained glowed in the bit of light arriving over the top of the cliff.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Oak Tree, Red Rock

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Oak Tree, Red Rock
A twisting oak tree beneath red rock towers, Zion National Park.

Oak Tree, Red Rock. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A twisting oak tree beneath red rock towers, Zion National Park.

The title simplifies the content of this scene — there are actually several kinds of trees here, and the contrast between the lighter trunk of the foreground tree and the dark shape of the more distant tree is part of what attracted me to this scene. Other elements included the twisting shapes of the trees and the contrast between the bright green of the leaves (which are close to beginning their autumn color transition) and the red Utah sandstone.

The nature of light is almost always a key factor in photography, but it plays out in very special ways in the red rock canyons of the Southwest. As I have written previously, the typical photographers’ schedule (shoot very early and rather late) is upended in canyons. We often try to find the softer and warmer light of the very early and late hours of the day, but in these canyons the tall walls often keep the subjects in the soft shadow light much of the day, and direct sunlight reflected off the canyon walls can provide that warm color to the light. (To those used to having a midday break between morning and evening photography, this can be exhausting!) This photograph was made during those essentially middle-of-the-day hours, and the soft light illuminates and colors the scene.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley

White Mountains, Autumn Storm

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White Mountains, Autumn Storm
An autumn storm drops snow on the summit of the White Mountains.

White Mountains, Autumn Storm. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An autumn storm drops snow on the summit of the White Mountains.

Autumn is fascinating time of transition in the Sierra Nevada. One day it can be sunny a warm, with the landscape filled with the golden and brown tones of fall — perhaps the most inviting form of the Sierra landscape. The next day something resembling winter sweeps in, the wind rises and the skies turn gray, and snow falls among the peaks. While summer is the time of easy access to most of the range, I’ve always had a great fondness for autumn in the Sierra — it is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year there.

We had ascended high on the giant fan at the base of the range above Bishop, looking for new perspectives and for aspen groves a bit more off the beaten track. The previous day and night had brought an early weather front through the range, closing some of the passes, and laying down a few inches of snow on the highest regions. From our position we looked back across foothill formations and the Owens Valley toward the immense White Mountains, a range that is just as high as the Sierra, where new snow coated the cloud-covered peaks.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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