Tag Archives: park

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

Juniper Forest and a Wash

July 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Juniper trees on red rock soil next to a shallow canyon

My recollection of this afternoon is that we set out down the west side of the park without a particular plan in mind. Eventually we photographed in a deep canyon with tall sandstone walls, but at times we were challenged by trying to find interesting subjects. The light was harsh, but it was also interrupted in awkward ways by clouds — occasionally producing interesting patterns of light and shade, but also sometimes killing the interesting light.

In this area the land slopes down from west to east, following the contours of the underlying strata. For this reason, well before the end of the day the light is already coming across this gently rising terrain at a low angle relative to its incline. Here that light is sweeping across a landscape of red rock, juniper trees, and the beginnings of a small red rock canyon.

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

Juniper and Striped Sandstone

July 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A vertically striped sandstone cliff behind a juniper tree

My recollection is that we had driven into this deep canyon at Capitol Reef late in the day, and that we stopped to photograph as we began to head back out of the canyon not long before sunset. Because of the late hour, although it was still daytime, the light was blocked here by the very tall walls of this narrow canyon.

We stopped here largely because of the remarkable vertical stains on the smooth sandstone walls. In many places this layer of sandstone is almost monolithic, but here the staining produced sharp vertical lines and broke up the otherwise solid features of the rock. Near the base of the cliff a few boulders stood, and on the higher areas right next to the cliff a few trees managed to grow.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Shoreline, First Morning Light

July 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light comes to the forested shoreline of a Sierra Nevada backcountry lake

Near the end of the summer of 2014 I ventured into the Yosemite backcountry with a group of friends and photographers for a week of landscape photography work, first at a somewhat isolated lake and then near a more popular location. Although I’ve been a backpacker for years, accustomed to slogging along with a big backpack carrying all of my own gear, on this trip we were supported by pack train. In fact, we had stupendous support. All of our non-photographic gear was packed in to the first location. A few days later a pack train returned and moved our gear to the next location. (Meanwhile we hiked a cross-country route to get there, following a trajectory that stock could not use.) And finally at the end of the trip the packers came back again and schlepped our gear back out to civilization. I think I could get used to this — though I still very much enjoy the quiet and slow pace of self-contained backpacking.

We were at the lake for three or four days, long enough go venture beyond the obvious things that one sees when first arriving at a place. We had time to return to subjects and reconsider them a few days later, possibly in different light or at a different time of day. We were also able to push out boundaries outward a bit from the lake itself, climbing a few of the nearby promontories. And, always, we had the luxury of rolling out of sleeping bags before dawn, walking a few steps to the lakeshore, and beginning the day’s work. This photograph was made not more than five minutes from camp as the first light began to work down to lake level.

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

Southwest Sky

June 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning clouds above the landscape of Capitol Reef National Park

On this October morning we were up early, but not quite early enough — though it turned out fine in the end. We awoke before sunrise, with a plan to head down along the east side of Capitol Reef National Park along the Waterpocket Fold. We hoped to be a good distance down this route when the sun rose, but we got up later than expected. We were far from our goal when the dawn arrived.

Our location was, in some ways, not the spectacular sort of place that we had envisioned for sunrise. However, there were absolutely beautiful clouds to our north, and the dawn light’s color could probably make any subject look good. So our immediate goal became quickly finding any place that looked like it might have photographic potential — and to find it NOW! Within a few minutes we found a short side road, drove a short distance to a hilltop, parked, and piled out of the vehicle, more or less already in the act of setting up tripods and cameras. We had only a few moments on special light on the clouds before it began to fade to daytime light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: park

Juniper Forest and a Wash

Juniper and Striped Sandstone

Shoreline, First Morning Light

Southwest Sky

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