Tag Archives: print

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

Canyon Walls, Reflected Light

November 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

On this day I visited — though just barely — an area of slot canyons in southern Utah. I rarely do much advance research when I plan to photograph in a new area, generally preferring to discover the place for myself. This has both advantages and disadvantages. I certainly make my share of missteps and sometimes miss spectacular locations on my initial visits. On the other hand, when I come with few preconceptions I am free to make my own relationship with these places and perhaps I am forced to look a bit more carefully at what I see.

I had a vague plan to visit an area where there are some fairly well-known features, though I did not plan to visit the most popular of them, preferring to avoid the need to special permits and the attendance line-waiting. So I got a map (one without a lot of detail) and figured out where to find a gravel side road to a place with a name I had heard of, and I headed that direction. I parked at another place with a name that sounded familiar, loaded up and started walking down a valley with a good size wash. Soon the walls closed in on both sides and I entered an area of slot canyon. There is much to see and feel in these canyons, but my attention is often focused on the light, which does astonishing things when it bounces down between higher red rock canyon walls. As I came to this spot I was taken aback by the intensity of the brilliant blue tones when open sky reflected on the shiny surface of the rock, contrasting with the intense reddish tones of red rock illuminated by red reflected light, and creating almost sensuous forms in the rock walls.

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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

Forest, Granite Bowl

November 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on forests and a glaciated granite bowl, Yosemite National Park

Large slabs of nearly unbroken granite, left behind in the wake of ancient glaciers, are a prominent and characteristic feature of the high country of Yosemite National Park. There is granite all of the Sierra, but this granite often seems to me to be more intact, and rather than encountering fields of broken rock it is common to come across these beautiful structures of exfoliating granite, often still with areas of smooth and reflective glacial polish. Scattered trees have taken hold in surprisingly thin cracks.

This bowl is in such a characteristic place, in the bottom of a great river canyon, just where it begins to become narrower and steeper. The area clearly shows the effects of glaciation, from the smooth rock in the canyon bottom to the sculpted domes and faces above. I have photographed in this bowl before on several occasions, and despite shooting there many times I continue to find new ways to see it every time I visit.

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

Autumn Morning, Fremont River Valley

November 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn morning light and clouds above the valley of the Fremont River

Technically this location is actually just outside of Capitol Reef National Park, but its close enough. The plan on this morning was to make a journey down the east side of the park to a somewhat more remote area, so we started out rather early. After passing through the park and starting the drive to our eventual destination we quickly realized that a fairly unusual and spectacular sunrise was underway, so we found the first available location from which to take advantage of the situation.

This was most definitely not a blah blue sky morning! A variety of clouds filled a good portion of the sky in several directions, though light was able to pass through gaps in the clouds to the east. Above the peaks of Capitol Reef to the west the sky was generally darkened by high clouds that briefly took on rosy dawn colors before fading. To the north were lenticular clouds, some lined up in formations that reminded me of California’s “Sierra wave” clouds. When I saw these clouds and this light, the obvious question was what to put in a photograph that included them — so I quickly wandered over the a high point above the valley of the Fremont River from which I could photograph across the sunlit valley to include the spectacular clouds and darker peaks in the distance.

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

Dry Mud and Sand

November 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dry and curled layer of mud atop red sand in the bottom of a Utah canyon

It might be amusing for “normal people” to encounter a group of photographers in the bottom of a narrow Utah canyon, where the photographers might be found clustered attentively and enthusiastically around… dry mud. That was the case here, as a group of use suddenly halted our progress down a small (though much larger later on) canyon to set up tripods, fit just the right lenses, and spend about a half hour making photographs of mud.

However, as is often the case in landscape photography, it turns out that even dried mud may have a lot more going on than a casual glance would suggest. For people who are not particularly conscious of their “seeing,” it would be easy to walk past and think, “that curled mud is very interesting” and not pay much more attention to it. However, a bit of time spent in these narrow canyon walls teaches you to become alert to the possibility that you might be missing certain things. One bit of visual magic in these canyons happens during the middle part of the day, when the sun directly strikes the red rock canyon walls and reflects this red-saturated light down into the bottom of the canyon. Once you train yourself to see past what your visual system tells you it is seeing (brown mud) you can begin to see the intensely red coloration of this light and even begin to notice that there is a blue component where direct light from the open sky reflects off of some surfaces. And then, you may also find yourself intently focusing on making a photograph of a small patch of dry and cracked mud sitting atop red sand.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: print

Canyon Walls, Reflected Light

Forest, Granite Bowl

Autumn Morning, Fremont River Valley

Dry Mud and Sand

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