Tag Archives: north

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

Cottonwood Trees and Red Rock Cliffs

Image Leave a comment
Cottonwood Trees and Red Rock Cliffs
A small grove of tall cottonwood trees beneath a red rock cliff, Zion National Park.

Cottonwood Trees and Red Rock Cliffs. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small grove of tall cottonwood trees beneath a red rock cliff, Zion National Park.

Because Zion National Park is so popular, especially the main Zion Canyon along the Virgin River, the Park Service has instituted a shuttle system to carry visitors in and out and from place to place within the canyon. Like all such systems, it has it flaws — hard to get a seat going into the park early in the morning or late in the day leaving, hard to schlep camera equipment in and out — but on balance I think it is a good thing. I’ve been in Zion when the place was crawling with cars — cars on the roads, cars parked everywhere, cars waiting for parking spaces. The bus system improves on that, and I think the inconvenience is worth it for the most part.

We took a very early shuttle all the way up to the entrance to the narrows, the last stop on the route. My photographer instincts said, “Get there early!” These instincts are good, and there is a lot of interesting work to be done in the soft morning light. But photographing in these canyons isn’t the same as photographing, for example, in the open spaces of the Sierra or the desert. In red rock canyon country, the best light often comes later in the morning and well before sunset, when the sun is high enough to directly strike the red canyon walls and reflect that soft, warm light down into the lower reaches of the canyons. With this in mind, we took our time after photographing below the narrows, and rather than getting back on a shuttle we started walking down canyon, enjoying the variety of reflected light… and we repeated the process once again later in the day. I first saw this group of trees very early in the morning, and I made a point of coming back to them later in the day when I knew the reflected light would appear.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Four Trees, Owens Valley And The Sierra

Image Leave a comment
Four Trees, Owens Valley And The Sierra
Four Owens Valley trees in evening light, against the shadowed backdrop of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

Four Trees, Owens Valley And The Sierra. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Four Owens Valley trees in evening light, against the shadowed backdrop of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

Our recent travels ultimately took us to Utah, but we began with an obligatory visit to the Eastern Sierra Nevada. It doesn’t really seem like autumn until I have renewed my acquaintance with the autumnal transformation of the aspen trees. I had been up there a week earlier, so this was a shorter visit, but it gave us enough time to do a bit of exploring, visiting some spots that we don’t typically visit.

On our final evening before continuing to the east we decided to do a bit of wandering in Owen’s Valley, and our random ride eventually brought us to this spot just as the last sunlight was coming over the Sierra crest and angling across the Valley. We had headed out this direction for an almost entirely unrelated reason, but once there this row of four trees distracted us, and we quickly worked the light before it was gone. (This was one of those landscape-photography-as-action-photography moments — that shadow line was approaching quickly as I made my exposures, and before long the trees were no longer in the sun.) From this vantage point the immensity and abruptness of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra is clear — the wall of peaks, here embellished with a trace of autumn snow, towers above Owens Valley.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Towers and Shadows, Sunrise

Image Leave a comment
Towers and Shadows, Sunrise
Red rock towers cast shadows on a cliff face in sunrise light, Zion National Park.

Towers and Shadows, Sunrise. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red rock towers cast shadows on a cliff face in sunrise light, Zion National Park.

We have not visited Utah since before the 2016 election. I love Utah’s diverse and beautiful landscape, but once the state joined in the process of dismantling public lands I felt that the ethical — though painful — choice was to stay away until things were once again set right. Earlier this month we made it back and I can report that the state is as beautiful as it was before… and that I’m very glad to have been able to return. To a Californian, used to the mostly-gray landscapes of my beloved Sierra Nevada, the technicolor landscape of Utah is a revelation.

This photograph is another intuit combines planning and dumb luck. We got up a bit later on this morning. There was no need to catch the first shuttle into the canyon since our plan was to drive to higher country. This particular subject was on my list of sunrise possibilities, but when we arrived at the spot where I thought I could set up I could not find a place to pull over. That turned out to be good luck, as a few minutes later I figured out that a more elevated perspective was possible a bit further up the road. We found a place to pull over just. before the sun/shadow line reached the pinnacles, and I worked quickly to set up as the light continued to descend. I made a series of exposures starting with the first glimmer of direct light on the highest tower, and then I kept photographing as the light moved lower on the face, projecting the shadows of the ledge and towers on the cliff wall.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Tree, Red Rock, Morning Light

Image Leave a comment
Tree, Red Rock, Morning Light
A lone tree in morning backlight against a backdrop of red rock formations, Zion National Park.

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

A lone tree in morning backlight against a backdrop of red rock formations, Zion National Park.

We recently managed to get away for our first long road trip in a very long time. We started in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where the annual autumn aspen color show was well underway. From there we headed to Utah — which I have not visited since before the previous presidential administration — where we spent several days photographing in Zion National Park. From there we moved on to spend some time on one of the less-travelled Utah backroads before heading south for a very quick visit to the North Rim of Grand Canyon. (The story of that part of the trip is a bit too long to relate here. Perhaps later…)

Our visit to Zion was divided roughly into two sections. We spent the first part of the visit exploring and photographing sections of Zion Canyon on foot. Then we spent a day in the “high country” along the Mount Carmel highway, an area with an infinity of photographic opportunities that change with the light throughout the day. That is the area where I made this photograph of a solitary tree standing atop a sand stone formation in the brilliantly bright morning back-light.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.