Tag Archives: red

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

Escalante River Canyon Bend

Image Leave a comment
Escalante River Canyon Bend
The Escalante River rounds a bend as it descends.

Escalante River Canyon Bend. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Escalante River rounds a bend as it descends.

If this photograph looks familiar, that may be because it is the landscape orientation presentation of a scene I shared a few weeks ago. The Escalante River and the remarkable national monument (which we hope is soon restored to its original boundaries) through which it flows are beautiful. This beauty takes many forms — the quiet of a river bend deep in the canyon, the dry and almost. barren uplands from which the canyon is invisible, and a few grand and open scenes like this one.

Much of the canyon is difficult to access, and walking to and through it is ideal. But on this day we were driving between Escalante and Boulder, and when we crossed the river here clouds were breaking up the sun and alternating bands of light and shadow were moving across the early autumn landscape.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Cliff and Trees

Image Leave a comment
Cliff and Trees
Trees and brush at the base of a sandstone cliff along the Virgin River, Zion National Park.

Cliff and Trees. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees and brush at the base of a sandstone cliff along the Virgin River, Zion National Park.

For an autumn photograph there isn’t a lot of autumn color here! Back in 2012 I made two trips to Southern Utah. The pattern of fall color change in Utah, in my somewhat limited experience, is both different than what I’m used to in California and spread out across many weeks and the many climate zones of the state. The first lesson I learned was very early in October: the aspens in Utah change earlier than those in the Eastern Sierra that I know so well. A second lesson was that the cottonwoods and other trees and bushes in the redrock canyon country change next, and they can be spectacular. The third lesson — illustrated here — is that the colors in Zion Canyon apparently change quite a bit later. I haven’t hit the peak there yet, but I understand that it can be as late as the beginning of November.

This visit was barely two weeks into October, and much of the vegetation in Zion Canyon was still quite green. This photograph comes from a very popular and often crowded area just beyond the road-end at the upper end of the canyon, where many begin their walk/wade up the Virgin River. This is, I think, one of those places that is “iconic for a reason.” This section features a relatively flat and wide canyon bottom, full of trees that can benefit from occasional flooding. But for me the massive canyon walls that follow the river’s course are the main show — the sandstone here is massive and nearly vertical.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Light on Red Rock

Image Leave a comment
Light on Red Rock
Sandstone formations in sunlight, Arches National Park.

Light on Red Rock. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sandstone formations in sunlight, Arches National Park.

As I have waded through my 2012 archive of raw images from Utah, made during two autumn trips to the southern part of the state that lasted nearly a full month in total, I am again reminded to the incredibly diverse ways in which the ubiquitous sandstone can be seen. Sometimes, in stark light, the colors are not that striking. In the depths of canyons they can be unbelievably intense. In dawn and sunset light they can become so saturated as to be nearly unbelievable. In shade they can be tinged with blue. And on it goes…

I made this photograph in “normal” daytime light, in a place where the sun beats down without obstruction. I don’t recall for sure now, but judging by the reasonable light levels of the highlights, it may have been a bit overcast. In this location the rock tends to organize into “fins” and fin-like formations, with long walls that are tall and parallel to one another. The nearly overhead light created shadows on the side of the rocks facing me, but each face was also subtly lit by reflections.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Ridge, Sunset Clouds

Image Leave a comment
Trees, Ridge, Sunset Clouds
Weathered trees on a rocky ridge beneath sunset clouds, Yosemite National Park.

Trees, Ridge, Sunset Clouds. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Weathered trees on a rocky ridge beneath sunset clouds, Yosemite National Park.

Today I’ll take a brief intermission between the ongoing stream of the photographs from Utah that I have been finding in the raw file archive… and take a brief side trip back to the Yosemite National Park high country, a place that I’m missing right now. I could get up there — and I hope to in the next month or two — but the logistics are quite complicated at the moment.

This photograph comes from a day of weather a bit like what we’re experiencing in Northern California today — humid, thunderstorm weather. I made the photograph late in the day as the last light glowed pink on dissipating clouds above a ridge with stubborn old trees living on a very rocky ridge.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.