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Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring

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Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring - A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.
A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.

Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring. Zion National Park, Utah. April 4. 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.

I’ve seen so many beautiful photographs of cottonwood (and other) trees against sandstone cliffs, that I was anxious to search out some such scenes when I went to Zion and other Southwest locations in early April. After arriving in the town of Springdale, near the entrance to Zion and the Virgin River canyon, we headed up into the canyon for our first visit. Although I had seen plenty of photographs from the area, I had made a point of not researching any specific locations or shots – I’d rather find my own. As we entered the canyon, a friend’s description of the place as “Yosemite in red” came to mind – though this canyon in Zion has a much smaller and more intimate scale.

From the upper park service tram stop, we continued on up the canyon on the easy trail. If I were evaluating my day based on how far I hiked, it would have been a failure. I hardly ever walked more than a few dozen yards at a time without stopping to look around or scope out some new photographic opportunity. These trees were growing on the opposite side of the river, right up against the vertical sandstone walls, and the lack of direct sun softened the light on these trees and their brand new spring leaves.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Utah

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon

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Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon - Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.
Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon. Red Canyon, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Utah

Cliff, Green River Overlook

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Cliff, Green River Overlook - The canyon of the Green River beyond a band of sandstone cliffs, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
The canyon of the Green River beyond a band of sandstone cliffs, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Cliff, Green River Overlook. Canyonlands National Park, Utah. April 6, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The canyon of the Green River beyond a band of sandstone cliffs, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

I was in this spot primarily to photograph the late afternoon and evening light on the canyons, cliffs, plateaus, and mesas around the Green River. (I’ve recently posted a couple of other photographs of that subject.) One of the many striking aspects of the geology in this park is the sudden cliffs that drop from the edges of large flat areas. The upper portion of Canyonlands park, called the “Island in the Sky” is such a place. It is a large and relatively flat plateau, and if you disregard the more distant surroundings it seems like a prairie or perhaps a high desert grassland. But when you venture to its edges you most often find, on at least three of its sides, that there is a sudden drop off where the river systems below have eroded the surrounding terrain up to the edges of giant sandstone strata. I’m not an expert on the area, but one thing I read pointed out, if I recall correctly, that there is an upper plateau (the island in the sky), a 1000 foot drop, another plateau marked by the White Rim, and then another sudden drop into the depths of the surrounding river canyons.

So this bit of vertical sandstone is the upper portion of part of that first 1000-foot drop-off, in this case with the White Rim plateau and then some additional canyons beyond. Shooting late in the day, I was pointing the camera almost straight into the light – something that I often like to do. This allowed me to capture the faint shadow in the atmospheric haze formed as the light passed between two buttes at the upper edge of the frame. It also created a bit of a challenge in retaining detail in the fully shaded dark-colored cliff face! I was able to capture this in a single exposure that tested the dynamic range of my camera, and then bring back a bit of the cliff detail in post. Now, if I had just had someone stand, or better yet, dance on that cliff edge… Any volunteers for my next visit? ;-)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Pines and Sandstone

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Pines and Sandstone - Sunlit pine trees against shaded sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah
Sunlit pine trees against shaded sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah

Pines and Sandstone. Zion National Park, Utah. April 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.