Tag Archives: red

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

Sandstone Canyon Walls

June 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Detail of a fractured sandstone cliff in a canyon at Capitol Reef National Park.

Over several years and several visits I began to understand Capitol Reef National Park a bit more. (Though it is a big and varied place, and true knowledge of the place — as is the case with any such landscape — comes from longer experience than I yet have.) Understanding comes partly from experiencing a wider range of the park’s geography than that in the most conveniently located places. Visiting during different parts of the year and in varied conditions helps — a sunny spring morning is very different from a freezing late October morning. Finding a few personal spots that feel like familiar friends is part of the process.

The sandstone-walled canyons are all over this part of the Southwest. I distinctly recall the first one I visited, walking into it in the morning, wading up canyon in the shallow stream, winding through its twists and turns as the canyon deepened. More visits taught me that each canyon has is own personality — yet some general features are shared by most of them. Unlike most of my Sierra Nevada world, where one often feels open to the entire sky, in the canyons the world shrinks to what you can see between two twists in the course of the stream that created the canyon. Views of the sky are extremely limited, and your focus soon turns almost exclusively to things that are nearby. There is little wind and usually the quiet is broken only by the sound of water, perhaps some birds, and your own passage. The light bounces among red rock walls and diffuses as it gently arrives from far above.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Sunrise Wave Cloud

April 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A wave cloud develops above Death Valley mountains at sunrise

When it comes to desert skies, it can be hard to find just-right conditions. Often the skies at Death Valley are simply clear, with few or no clouds aside from contrails from passing jets. And when there are clouds during the dawn and dusk hours when color potential is at its greatest, more distant clouds can block the light that would create the bright colors. This is especially true in the evening in Death Valley, where it is not uncommon for there to be thicker clouds in the moister regions to the west at sunset.

The latter situation was in play on this morning. In fact, I had originally planned to photograph south of this location. I had driven there and started to set up in the near darkness, only to realize that a fairly thick cloud deck was not going to clear and that it was going to block the morning light. I had a backup plan, and when I arrived at this spot a good distance to the north there was a break in the clouds. This color comes quickly and doesn’t last long — you more or less have to be ready for it before it is visible, though you may get a hint of developing color from clouds far off and near the horizon. Here a wave cloud is forming over Tucki Mountain, with a few more lenticular clouds out over the Cottonwood Range and beyond.

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

Red Rock, Tree

March 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree grows among eroded sandstone formations, Bryce Canyon National Park

Recently I spent some time going back through older photographs from some visits to the Southwest, notably Utah, a few years back. I suspect that three things provoked me to do this. First, I have found that I’m not always able to completely understand my own photographs right away. Some are obviously “keepers” from the very beginning, but others only make sense after I have not looked at them for a while — so I build this periodic visit to older subjects into my workflow. Secondly, I love the Utah landscape, from its most intimate to its grandest subjects. It is a place I think about a lot, and a place that I would like to revisit often. Third, I’m acutely aware of the existential dangers to this very landscape posed by the ascendance of short-sighted, self-interested, hyper-partisan political forces in Utah right now. As a matter of principle, I have decided to not visit that state until their representatives stop trying to ruin it. (I urge you to consider contributions to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance or other local groups working to protect Utah’s public lands for all Americans, and to join me in boycotting the state for now.)

This photograph comes from Bryce Canyon National Park, a place of great beauties… that I still haven’t quite gotten my mind around. The rugged red formations facing the rising sun certainly present a striking appearance, but working from along the main road and its offshoots I still haven’t found my vision of the place. Oddly, some of my strongest visual recollections of the place are looking back at it from the east and from a great distance. In this photograph a single small tree peeks out from behind some of the sandstone structures.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Late Season Aspen Groves

February 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season aspens with sparse leaves on Boulder Mountain

This wasn’t my first visit to Utah, but it was my first visit during fall. We started in the west, where we knew we might find aspens, and we managed to catch the tail end of the aspen color in the high country around Cedar Breaks National Monument. From there we bypassed the obvious visit to Zion Canyon (that came later, on our homebound trip) and headed east, past Bryce and then Escalante and the small town of Boulder. Past Boulder, in terrain I had not visited before, the road began to climb as we drove on into the approaching sunset.

The first time I had driven past this place it was very early in the spring, and I was stunned by the number of aspen trees gathered in huge groves extending far up the slopes of these mountains. I remember making a mental note to visit them some fall, and this was that return visit. Being accustomed to the schedule of eastern Sierra aspen color, however, we arrived after the prime color — it comes earlier here in Utah. But in some ways, the few scattered trees with their wild late-season colors turned out to be more dramatic. What we thought might be a quick drive over Boulder Mountain to Torrey turned out to take a long time as we kept stopping and photographing these trees until there was no light left.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: red

Sandstone Canyon Walls

Red Rock, Tree

Late Season Aspen Groves

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