Tag Archives: sandstone

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

Sandstone Formations, Morning

June 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light illuminates fins, towers, cliffs and ridges in Arches National Park, Utah.

After the better part of a week photographing in Utah in early April, the day came to start the long drive back to California. But on the last morning I rose very early and made one last trip up from Moab into Arches National Park to photograph in the morning light. I started up on the ridge around the Windows area, looking for suitable sandstone formations to frame the setting full moon. (Still not sure whether or not the photographs of that subject are going to be share-able or not – we’ll see!) From there I headed back toward the Petrified Dunes area from which a panoramic view of many subjects is available – the towers and spires and arches up on the ridge near the Windows, the La Salle Mountains in the distance, and the huge sandstone formations down in the Wall Street area.

This photograph includes a more distant view of the latter area. Most often I think we view these features from close up, and look up at them from below. And when we are close to them we are more likely to consider one or perhaps a couple of them at once. However, from this elevated and more distant vantage point, the individual features and formations are seen more clearly as part of the larger landscape. From front to back there are first some isolated sandstone features standing alone and apart. Beyond them are the walls of the, well, Wall Street area, which are largely intact but have eroded away in some areas. Next there is a narrow canyon, in shadow in this photograph, and beyond that a wider and more solid wall running down from left to right. This one is thicker and there is a bit of a plateau on top where it appears that plants grow. Then there is yet another valley, another ridge, and the sequence continues on beyond the upper edge of the photograph.

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

Turk’s Head, Green River, Evening Haze

June 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Green River curves past Turk’s Head in evening haze, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

Just to the west of the “Island in the Sky” area of Canyonlands National Park, the Green River flows though deep and rugged canyons on its way to the confluence with the Colorado River. The river and its tributary streams have cut thousands of feet down through the layers of rock, exposing plateaus and steep canyon walls and more sandstone than can be believed. At Turks’ Head the river winds through a very large S-curve that widens the lower part of the canyon.

I had begun shooting the evening light at the Green River Overlook somewhat earlier on this evening, and by the time I made this photograph the direct light was almost gone – a bit of it is still hitting the cliff faces at lower left and glancing across the tops of nearby flat areas. It was a rather hazy evening, which is part of what attracted me to this spot – I love shooting into or across back-lit haze which can almost glow in the right light and which can also enhance the sense of distance in the scene. Of course, most of the “glow” was gone by this time, and the result is something a lot more subtle with the most distant terrain above the far end of a tributary canyon almost disappearing into the distant haze.

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

Tree and Sandstone Cliff

May 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree grows from a crack in the face of a redrock sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

If this photograph looks familiar, it may be because it is! A few weeks back I posted another photograph of more or less the same subject but in landscape orientation rather than portrait orientation. There are, no doubt, many examples of interesting trees growing out of surprisingly small cracks in the faces of sandstone cliffs in Zion and other similar areas, but I spotted this one in the “Big Bend” area of Zion Canyon, where I had stopped to photograph some spring cottonwood trees along the Virgin River.

I love the juxtaposition of the rich greens of the tree with the reds and browns of the sandstone cliffs. In many ways, these are two of the main colors of this part of the Southwest – with the addition of the blue of the sky. That palette of green, red, and blue is everywhere. And there is actually a bit of the blue here, too. The interesting coloration of the dark areas of the rock seems to be partly the result of reflections of the blue light from the blue sky that was above and behind my camera position.

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

Spring Cottonwoods, Zion Canyon

May 27, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

New spring leaves appear on cottonwood trees along the Virgin River in Zion Canyon, Zion National Park.

I encountered this scene a short distance up the trail from the Temple of Sinawava area in Zion National Park, in the area below the start of “the Narrows.” Here the canyon of the Virgin River becomes quite narrow, eventually narrowing so much that the river often spans its entire width. These young trees, which were just beginning to show their spring leaves, are in along a slightly wider section where the river curves, and just be flooded during times of high water. Beyond, the river and the canyon twist right, left, and then back to the right again between the steep sandstone walls.

I’m always intrigued by trying to photograph these scenes of very dense foliage in which the frame ends up filled with a huge amount of detail. It is a challenge to try to create anything like an effective composition out of this complexity, and I think it is even more difficult to make such photographs “work” in the small presentation necessary for sharing on the web.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sandstone

Sandstone Formations, Morning

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Turk’s Head, Green River, Evening Haze

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Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Spring Cottonwoods, Zion Canyon

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

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