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

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff -A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park
A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff. Zion National Park, Utah. April 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Along the Mt. Carmel Road through Zion National Park, the higher elevation areas tend to feature a lot of lighter color sandstone, which I understand may be the remnants of ancient sand dunes. For the most part, these formations tend to be lighter in color than the strikingly red tones of the sandstone cliffs found lower in the park, in the Zion Canyon of the Virgin River for example. These “highland” rock formations have their own appeal, including a wide variety of patterns including beautiful curving shapes.

But that isn’t what you see in this photograph, even though I made it in the highland area. As we rounded a turn at one point, ahead of us and then to the right was a very large and close cliff of red sandstone, and it was still in the afternoon shade. I like shade! Not only that, but in front of this cliff were several large trees that were not only out of the shade but which were also backlit. I like back-light! So we stopped and I photographed those trees. But as I worked on them I also noticed this skeletal and very deal old snag of to one side. I like old snags! Because the rock was in the shade yet lit by reflections from across the canyon, the red tones of the sandstone were intensified. There were a couple of challenges with this scene. The overall luminosity range is not great, the colors are all affected by the reddish glow from the cliff and the light from across the small canyon, and the tonal level of the tree is not that different from that of the rocks. In order to get the tree to stand out at least a bit against the rocks (something that was more obvious on the scene and looking at it in 3D) some work was necessary in post, especially some fine work on the tree itself.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Tree and Sandstone Cliff
“Tree and Sandstone Cliff” — A tree grows from a crack in the face of a redrock sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

After a bit of a break, I’m back with a few more photographs from my early April shoot in various parts of Utah. To recap, this was – believe it or not – the first time I had photographed in that state. It was tremendous to experience what was to me a brand new landscape, especially since I far more often continue to work the wonderful but familiar subjects of California. We began our visit at Zion National Park, spending several days mostly in Zion Canyon along the Virgin River but also getting up to the high country to the east.

I made this photograph on a morning when we visited Weeping Rock, one of the well-known features of Zion Canyon. We may well have been a bit too early in the season, but I ended up more or less stumped by trying to find a way to photograph that feature that pleased me. However, on the walk to and from Weeping Rock I made several photographs of other features in the area that I like a lot. (One was a photo I shared earlier that included a close-up of a branch with new spring leaves.) If I recall correctly, I may have seen this tree growing out of cracks in the massive sandstone walls while at or just below Weeping Rock.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

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Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring - Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.
Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring. Yosemite National Park, California. June 18, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph at the very end of spring last year in the Yosemite Sierra Nevada. Last year was a year that began much differently that this year in California. While this is a drought year, the previous season was one of record precipitation, and the high country opened very late. Even when it did open – in this case the Tioga Pass Road opened on the mid-June weekend when I made this photograph – there was still a lot of snow and ice everywhere, and much of the backcountry was still largely inaccessible. This little bit of water cascading over a boulder is a scene that could have been found in any number of places, but this one was found in a seasonal stream that tumbled down a mountainside along the roadway.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph! The colors are, obviously, very subtle, but they are there and they are, I think, important. In fact, when I was working on the image I thought about producing it as a black and white image, tried it out, and was surprised by just how different it looked when the colors were removed. There are some subtle brown/tan tones in the upper part of the boulder, and the water contains a range of subtle but important tones of blue and green.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Manzanita Plants in Bloom

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Manzanita Plants in Bloom - Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.
Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.

Manzanita Plants in Bloom. Yosemite National Park, California. April 15, 2012. Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.

The manzanita plant and its pink blossoms are ubiquitous in California – and, I imagine, in other places as well. I photographed these on a bit of granite slab in Yosemite National Park in mid-April, just as the (meager, this year) spring snows were melting away and spring growth was starting, at least in this exposed spot that is open to the western sun.

This might qualify as a bit of an “accidental photograph” – a photograph that came about as the result of some combination of finding myself somewhere for some reason, getting distracted by some other thing than what I came for, and then noticing yet another subject while photographing the first distraction! This particular photography day was one of those during which things were “difficult.” I had gone up the Yosemite area for single day, with some ideas about photographing California poppies and redbud in the Merced River Canyon outside the park boundaries. I arrived in that area in the early morning and photographed some blooming redbud plants, but poppies weren’t really an option because they don’t open until they get the brighter sunlight that comes to these parts of the canyon a bit later in the day. So, mid-morning arrived and I sort of felt like I was more or less done for the morning in the canyon, so I drove up into The Valley looking for whatever. I found a bit of “whatever” in the form of some dormant trees along a stretch of the Merced, but then the light went flat, I was tired, and I wasn’t “seeing it” – so I parked the car and took a nap! (This was perhaps necessary given my 3:55 a.m. wakeup time.) A bit later the light was still not inspiring me – hey, it happens. I killed a bit of time by visiting the Yosemite Renaissance show in the Valley, and then driving off to visit another potential subject… that turned out to not work in the light of that particular late afternoon. In case you are starting to think that this sounds like a pretty sad and disappointing story… I’ve learned to be philosophical about it when I run into “blah” conditions or otherwise am just “not seeing it.” I really do understand that the counterpoint to those moments when something astonishingly beautiful happens in the landscape are those other moments when less astonishing things are all that I can find. In any case, after my drive to this other unsuccessful subject, I turned back toward the Valley and as I descended toward Wawona Tunnel I decided to stop at a turn out before the tunnel that provides an impressive view of the Valley. I stopped. The view was impressive… but still not worthy of a photograph. But I looked across the road and saw a possibly interesting little rivulet of melt water running down a crack in a granite slab, so I hoisted my gear and wandered over there to see what I could do with this subject. While photographing this feature, some clouds obscured the sun and made for temporarily poor light so I looked around a bit while waiting for the light to return, spotted thick bunches of manzanita flowers nearby that I had overlooked before, and went over and photographed them in the soft, cloud-filtered light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.