Tag Archives: red

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

Zion Canyon, Virgin River, Spring

April 29, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Virgin River flows through Zion Canyon near Weeping Rock, Zion Canyon National Park, Utah.

On this morning we were back in Zion Canyon, following the Virgin River up the Valley to various locations. While it was still quite early we had walked up to the base of Weeping Rock, deep in the shaded area in the center of this photograph, and photographed there in the quiet shade. Then we moved a short distance up this part of the canyon where it makes a rather sharp series of turns and stopped an a place where there were visits up, down, and across the Virgin River and along the huge sandstone cliffs in all directions.

Looking around, I saw that there were some scattered clouds that were moving across the sky and alternative shading and lighting various portions of the landscape, and creating some dramatic effects, especially when the light came from behind the group of cottonwood trees along the banks of the river below me. The skeletal forms of the trees’ trunks were still clearly visible and, when the light was bright enough, they cast mirror-image shadows on the new grass below. The tops of the trees were fringed by new leaves, and these glowed brightly in the backlight coming from above the far cliffs above Weeping Rock. There was just enough haze in the air, amplified a bit by backlighting, to suggest the distance and massive size of the dark cliffs.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Utah

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon

April 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.

During out April Utah visit we drove from Zion National Park to Moab, where we would visit Arches and Canyonlands National Park. We debated whether to take the quick and efficient route or the slow and scenic route from Zion to Moab… and of course the slow and scenic route won out. This took us on a range to sometimes-twisty two-lane highways, starting with the Mt. Carmel road through Zion, then up through the Dixie National Forest, past Red Canyon and then Zion, across the drainage of the Escalante, through part of the Capitol Reef National Park, and finally taking a long, lonely road north to highway 70. There was a lot to see along this route – too much, actually, for the single travel day we had allocated to it.

On a trip filled with surprises – this was my first visit to Utah in a long, long time, and my first time photographing there – this day was filled with more than its share. Among them was the drive up Red Canyon. Being focused on the well-known national parks and monuments I had completely overlooked this place – but it turns out to be a wildly colorful place of brilliant red cliffs and towers, many very close to the highway as it ascends the canyon. I made this photograph very close to the beginning of the red rock country as we arrived from the west.

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

Pines and Sandstone

April 19, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunlit pine trees against shaded sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah.

This was probably one of my first photographs on my recent trip to Zion National Park (and other Utah locations) in early April. After arriving in the general area of the park in the middle of the afternoon, we decided that we should see the “high country” along the Mt. Carmel Highway that heads up and east from the main Zion Canyon and Virgin River area. While almost everything in Zion is fascinating, I find this higher elevation terrain especially intriguing – with its combination of swirling and curving sandstone shapes, carved waterways, and various kinds of vegetation. At first it was hard for me to understand how I might photograph this country, but the more I looked the more I at least started to “see” it.

Of course, I like to photograph trees like these anywhere! Although when I stopped I first photographed some sandstone formations to the left of these trees, I had noticed the trees and thought about the possibility of shooting them with this backlight against the shaded sandstone cliffs, with their red tones altered a bit by the reflected blue light from the open sky.

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

The Watchman and the Virgin River, Morning

April 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The virgin River curves towards the Watchman in early morning light, Zion National Park, Utah.

The peak in the upper portion of this photograph, The Watchman, with the curve of the Virgin River in the foreground is, as I understand it, one of the iconic photographic subjects of Zion National Park – perhaps being roughly equivalent to a photograph of Yosemite’s Half Dome from the Sentinel Bridge in The Valley. The funny thing, though, is that while I had seen this view of this subject many times in the photographs of others, I actually had no idea where it was or that I would see it when I visited Zion National Park earlier this month. I had somewhat intentionally avoided doing any real research about the places I would photograph, preferring instead to just confront them for what they are, unaffected as much as possible by previous notions about what I “should” photograph.

So, as we rode the shuttle bus into the park from the town of Springdale in the afternoon and crossed a bridge over the Virgin River before heading up into the canyon, I looked to my right and thought, “Oh, it is that view!” I have heard the stories and have seen the pictures of hordes of photographers lined up on this bridge, specifically to shoot this scene with fall colors and at sunset. (You can see a couple of examples by photographer and friend Gary Crabbe here.) I generally don’t seek out the icons, though I most certainly will photograph them if a) I haven’t photographed them before and/or b) there is something unusual or different about the conditions when I’m there. Although I did not stop and get off the bus to photograph the scene on that first evening, in the back of my mind I considered stopping if it looked interesting the next morning. And, in fact, as we took the shuttle back into the park very early the next morning – starting before sunrise, actually – it seemed like it might be worth hopping off after the bridge and taking a look. I was more encourage when we got there, both by the interesting soft dawn light and the lack of any other photographers on the bridge. So, there you go – I now have a photograph of the Watchman and the Virgin River, too! :-)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: red

Zion Canyon, Virgin River, Spring

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon

Pines and Sandstone

The Watchman and the Virgin River, Morning

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