Tag Archives: red

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

Evening, Near Fruita

November 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I had just arrived at Fruita (pronounced “Fruit-ah”) at Capital Reef National Park in the afternoon, after driving from near Kanab via a long gravel back road. After meeting a friend here and setting up camp it was late afternoon, and there was just time to head out and do some brief photography nearby before the day ended. We had an idea about heading into one of the west side canyons that are accessible by the popular (mostly) paved road, but we didn’t get nearly that far before we saw this beautiful evening light. Actually, we were probably not even a quarter-mile from the campground!

The light in this part of the park often poses a bit of a challenge late in the day. While one might look for late golden hour sun on these west-facing sandstone cliffs and peaks, the land rises from here toward the west, causing the sun to disappear from this area earlier than you might expect. But we got lucky, as broken clouds softened and warmed the light as the last sun touched these rocks just as we arrived at this spot. It is the kind of place I might usually drive past, as it is almost too obvious of a photographic location. However, I readily admit to stopping at iconic locations when the light is special, as it surely was on this evening.

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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

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

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

November 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage growing in sculpted sandstone terrain

The subject of this photograph is a sort of invisible icon. Let me explain. The location is not a very popular one by the usual standards. It isn’t easy to get to many places in this sprawling national monument. Things are not signed. There are no “photo spot” signs. The great majority of roads are unpaved and some are quite rough. You won’t find campgrounds with running water and flush toilets. Stores are few and far between. (While part of me is certain that its attractions deserve national park status, and frustrated that certain local politics will likely prevent this in the foreseeable future… another part of me thinks that the relative obscurity of national monument status may also have some benefits.)

Yet, there are places that seem to draw folks who love this land and are willing to search things out a bit. This particular sort of landscape of swooping, curving sandstone shapes, deep water pockets, and the occasional cottonwood tree is not that hard to find, and if you look around a bit you can find many, many examples. On this evening we photographed in soft light created by high clouds, and I decided to find a different angle on this lone cottonwood — one that would include it in a receding sequence of layers of sandstone formations.

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

Sunrise, Capitol Reef

November 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn clouds about the peaks of Capitol Reef National Park

Finding sunrise light like this is a matter of getting up very early, making some decent pre-dawn guesses about what may happen later, finding a good location… and a whole bunch of plain dumb luck. Oh, and persistence helps, too — if you are out there a lot you will inevitably increase the odds that you’ll encounter the very special light. But no one can call up a small cloud centered above a ridge lit by first light that also turns the distant clouds shades of pink and purple.

Our primary plan on this day was to take a rather long drive down the east side of the park, though the ultimate goal was a bit fuzzy — it could have been a slot canyon I know of or it could have been a higher location that I had visited before. We started out in near darkness from our campsite, crossed the park, and then started south. As dawn approached, it was immediately obvious that the sky was just about to do something amazing, so we quickly found a spot with a panoramic view in most directions, stopped the car, grabbed cameras and tripods, and hurried to find compositions that might make use of this light. Since most of the interesting geological features seemed to be a good ways off, I put a very long lens on my camera and focused on small distant details. For a very brief moment, just as the first light began to gently wash over the high peaks of Capitol Reef, this intense color came to the clouds and one small cloud became visible against the lighter background.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Strata and Columns

November 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

For years I have passed by California’s Red Rock Canyon State Park on my way to or from other places, most often Death Valley National Park. My winter route between the San Francisco Bay Area and Death Valley almost inevitably takes me south over Tehachapi Pass and then north, where the highway cuts through this state park. Every time I have passed through I have marveled at the beautiful rock formations rising from the desert and thought about stopping… but kept driving, anxious either to get to DEVA or to get home after a long time on the road.

This time we made a plan to stop, booking a motel in a nearby town for the night to more or less force a stop. We made a fairly brief visit, but we did go this time. This visit, although brief, may have finally cracked the door open a bit to the idea of returning and photographing here again. Being unfamiliar with the park I cannot be sure, but I would guess that this formation may be one of its “icons.” It stands in an easily visited location and presents a striking appearance. It also seems to me to tell a bit of a story. One of the first things that got my attention is the way that its thick band of red rock tilts the opposite direction from the similar rock in the sculpted cliffs that stand behind it. It seems to me that this piece must have dropped off the face (probably with a big bang and lots of dust!), landed in the softer material at the base of the cliff, and momentarily leaned toward falling over to the right, but then managed to just keep its balance enough to be locked into this off-kilter tilted position.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: red

Evening, Near Fruita

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

Sunrise, Capitol Reef

Strata and Columns

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