Tag Archives: sandstone

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest

Slot Canyon Detail

Image October 4, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

There is a lot I could write about this photograph, the circumstances of making it, and how it ended up here today. First off, it is an older photograph, made years ago. I periodically revisit my old raw file archives, and I always discover photographs that I left behind. In this case, someone else’s photograph from the Southwest triggered me to review my older work from Utah, much of which is over a decade old. So far, I’ve rediscovered about twenty interesting Utah images from that period. Stay tuned!

The photograph came from a productive expedition to Utah during the autumn of 2014. I started out traveling and photographing solo, but eventually joined up with others as I worked in the southern part of the state for weeks. Early on that trip I almost randomly ended up at this location. I drove down a dirt road that looked interesting, found a place to park, and started walking down a shallow stream bed. The route entered a canyon that soon narrowed and turned into a slot canyon. It was only later that I discovered that I had been in a bit of a special place.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

The White Stone

Image May 18, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I had a free morning in mid-April, so I headed over to Point Lobos, barely more than an hour’s drive from here. I might have gone on down the Big Sur coast, but road washouts have closed that route for now. So Point Lobos it was! I arrived to gray weather — high fog and not much in the way of interesting, directional light. But eventually the clouds began to pull back toward the coast and soft, directional light appeared.

Point Lobos always rewards a slower pace. There’s a lot to see here, and even more to see if you linger and start to notice things that you might miss by passing through quickly. The edges of this cove are lined with rocky strata that gradually dip into the water. Winter surf pushes all sorts of interesting stuff up onto the shoreline, and I enjoy walking slowly here and seeing what I can find. The small colorful pebbles are everywhere, but the larger white rock was the special find.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Patterns in Rock

Image June 6, 2022 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Complex patterns in rocks along the California coast.

If you are hoping for a scientific explanation of what you are seeing in this photograph, I’m not qualified to provide it. I’ve visited this little area of small geographic wonders at Point Lobos for decades, and much of it remains a mystery to me. I know bits and pieces of information, but far from the whole story.

I find something new every time I visit this spot, even after all of these years. This little vignette impresses me with its variety of features. The underlying rock seems to be some kind of sandstone, in vertically oriented layers that must have been uplifted and distorted at some point. Other rocks are embedded in it, and in this spot there is this odd bit of angular patterns.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Old Cottonwood and Red Rock Cliffs

Image December 10, 2021 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

An old cottonwood tree, changing to fall colors, stands in front ot a red rock cliff face, Zion National Park.

There’s a very good chance that I’ve already said this too many times, but the color palette of the Utah red rock country is simply remarkable. The rocks themselves are astonishingly diverse, ranging from the reddish tones to whites, grays and blacks, and occasionally more exotic colors. The trees and plants, especially as the autumn color change begins, cover a range from grays through greens to yellow, orange, red, and brown. And all of this varies from the bluish tones of early morning and evening through the golden hour saturation and the midday intensity of light. I’ve said it before and I’ll likely repeat myself in the future, but to a Sierra Nevada photographer this can be almost overwhelming.

Early on our second morning in Zion National Park we took a drive that entered the park near Springdale just before dawn. We stopped several times as we began the ascent on the Mt. Carmel highway, first to photograph the intense dawn light and then, a bit later, to photograph this gnarly tree against the backdrop of a shaded canyon wall.