Tag Archives: print

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

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata

May 19, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An autumn tree grows from a precarious crack in sandstone strata, Capitol Gorge

I’m often fascinated by places where the huge and ancient strata descend under (or ascend from, depending upon your point of view) the flat earth. In the bottom of this canyon, there is a section where, as we walked further into it, the strata angled down quite steeply. Given what I understand of the geology of Capitol Reef, it should be no surprise to find such a feature here.

Another thing that continues to amaze me is the seemingly impossible places in which life springs up. Here this small tree (perhaps a single-leaf ash?) seems to be doing OK in a very tiny crack in solid rock and a few feet up the canyon wall from the wash at the bottom. The pink color comes both from the rock itself and the light reflected down into the canyon, bouncing off of other rock faces high above.

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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

First Light, Red Rock Cliffs

May 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light shines on plants along a red rock ridge at the base of a cliff-lined amphitheater in the Kolob Canyons area of Zion National Park

This photograph was made in the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park, a less-developed area of the park, accessed by a dead-end road and with virtually no services aside from a small ranger station near the entrance. Being a good distance from the main, popular destination of Zion Canyon, far fewer people seem to visit this area. We visited on a very cold fall morning, arriving well before the sun light had worked its way down into the canyons.

In may places there are very tall cliffs to the east, and sometimes, as here, they form amphitheaters of red rock. As we came to this part of the canyon, the sun had risen high enough that some of its light was able to find a way down into the canyon and begin to pick off ridges, aretes, and bit of vegetation – though the main cliffs still remained in shadow.

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

Creosote Shadows, Morning Tracks in Sand

May 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A clump of creosote brush casts a morning shadow across tracks in the sand, Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park

While reviewing some old raw files near the end of 2012, I went back to some Death Valley photographs made during the past few years. I came upon this photograph that I had more or less forgotten. I wonder if at the time I was distracted by other photographs that appealed to me more, or if I perhaps just wasn’t sure how to treat it at the time. In any case, it still surprises me – even though I should know better by now – that I find photographs that I like among images that I thought I had finished with several years ago!

Looking through the other photographs that were part of the series that this one comes from, I recalled that I had gone out into dunes in Death Valley before dawn to photograph pre-dawn, dawn, and early morning conditions. As I often do, I approached these dunes by a roundabout route, not only to make the walk a bit easier but also to avoid other photographers and to have a better chance of finding sand that had not yet been tracked up by other human visitors. This small clump of creosote was growing in shallow sand, and its roots had slowed the windblown sand enough to create a very small hill. In turn, this let the low angle sun cast a shadow that led downhill into lower sand and which crossed the tracks of some wildlife that had passed this way the night before.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dogwood Branch, Whirlpool

May 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A gentle whirlpool on the surface of the Merced River behind a hanging dogwood branch with spring blossoms

I have photographed dogwood blossoms quite a few times before, but I had never quite gotten around to trying my hand at the “dogwood over water” photographs that are so popular and which can be so beautiful. However, on this early May 2013 visit to Yosemite Valley I made that one of my loose goals during a single day of shooting. Fortunately for me, this was a great year for dogwood blossoms and I managed to arrive at what must have been just about the perfect time. Too early, and the flowers can be sparse and perhaps a bit green; arrive too late and they can be quite worn our, with brown spots and holes. But during my brief visit I think I saw them growing more thickly on the Valley trees than I remember from past visits, and many of them were still in great shape.

I found a steep section of river bank not far from a bridge – and the bridge provided some shade and softer light on the water. This branch was hanging right down over the edge of the water, with a bit of bridge and tree shadow darkening the smooth water in this section of the Merced River. The main challenge with this subject is, perhaps surprisingly, the combination of the need for somewhat long exposures and the difficulty of getting perfectly breeze-free conditions right above the water. Even on a relatively still day, over the river the air is likely to be moving, and it doesn’t take much movement to blur exposures of a quarter second or longer. I wait for still moments, I try to shoot near the apex of the branch movement, and I may make quite a few exposures, knowing that many of them will not be sharp enough. Luck was with me on this one though. Not only is the branch still, but right at this moment an attractive round “mini-whirlpool” formed in the water behind the branch and interrupted the darker water with a bit of reflected blue sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: print

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata

First Light, Red Rock Cliffs

Creosote Shadows, Morning Tracks in Sand

Dogwood Branch, Whirlpool

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