Tag Archives: sculpted

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

Pothole and Sandstone Valley

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Pothole and Sandstone Valley
Pothole and Sandstone Valley

Pothole and Sandstone Valley. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 23, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pothole in a sculpted sandstone valley

A group of us, all photographers, gathered on this morning outside of the town of Escalante. We had arrived from various points around the American West including California, Utah, Arizona with a plan of spending a few days photographing somewhat remote areas of Utah canyon country. After exchanging greetings we headed out to the spot where we would camp for the next few days, where we set up and settled in. After a bit of mid-afternoon wandering around in the area around camp, we decided that it was time to locate a place to shoot in the evening.

One member of the group — sort of our unofficial leader, in that he lives in the area — suggested a spot a few miles north of our location, so we loaded up a few vehicles and headed that way. This place is a wonderland of sinuous sandstone formations, including large flat areas, ridge tops, gullies, potholes, twisty valleys and more. Although we were only there for a few hours, it is the sort of place where one could photograph many times and still find new subjects. After starting out together and photographing some of the more obvious features in the area, we split up and headed off in different directions. As high clouds muted the late afternoon light I saw this rock-bound landscape of curving sandstone heading off towards the west.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

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Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock
Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock

Autumn Cottonwood Tree, Sculpted Rock. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 23, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage growing in sculpted sandstone terrain

The subject of this photograph is a sort of invisible icon. Let me explain. The location is not a very popular one by the usual standards. It isn’t easy to get to many places in this sprawling national monument. Things are not signed. There are no “photo spot” signs. The great majority of roads are unpaved and some are quite rough. You won’t find campgrounds with running water and flush toilets. Stores are few and far between. (While part of me is certain that its attractions deserve national park status, and frustrated that certain local politics will likely prevent this in the foreseeable future… another part of me thinks that the relative obscurity of national monument status may also have some benefits.)

Yet, there are places that seem to draw folks who love this land and are willing to search things out a bit. This particular sort of landscape of swooping, curving sandstone shapes, deep water pockets, and the occasional cottonwood tree is not that hard to find, and if you look around a bit you can find many, many examples. On this evening we photographed in soft light created by high clouds, and I decided to find a different angle on this lone cottonwood — one that would include it in a receding sequence of layers of sandstone formations.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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

Solitary Plant and Sculpted Rock

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Solitary Plant and Sculpted Rock
Solitary Plant and Sculpted Rock

Solitary Plant and Sculpted Rock. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary box elder with autumn foliage grows at the bottom of a wash below water-sculpted rock walls, Zion National Park

Near the start of my late-October, 2012 photographic foray back to Utah with my friends Charlie and Karl, we spent a day – our first in Utah – mostly trying to “work” the various subjects along the Mount Carmel Highway across the high country of Zion National Park. This is, of course, a country full of all sorts of varied and interesting sedimentary rock layers that have been tilted and eroded in wonderful ways, and at this time of year the trees were beginning to take on fall colors.

At one point we dropped down from the road and wandered into a wash that first attracted our attention by means of the very brightly colored red maples. Once in the way, we started to investigate it a bit more, and we soon found a short slot canyon section where the walls were vertical and water had eroded these walls into curves and alcoves. This particular alcove seemed like it might be the site of an intermittent waterfall or seep, and this single tree was growing at its base just above the creek bed.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.

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

Slot Canyon Walls

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Slot Canyon Walls - The sculpted walls of a narrow and curving slot canyon, Zion National Park
The sculpted walls of a narrow and curving slot canyon, Zion National Park

Slot Canyon Walls. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The sculpted walls of a narrow and curving slot canyon, Zion National Park

On the first non-travel day of my most recent Utah visit, since we were passing through Zion National Park on our way to points beyond, we decided to spend the better part of the day shooting there. For a few reasons, including that it was a bit early for fall color there, we chose to not go to Zion Canyon, but to instead spend the time along the Mount Carmel Highway that cuts through the park from west to east. Our object was to photograph the wide range of interesting subjects found there: sandstone of all shapes, textures, and colors; trees, both evergreen and those with fall foliage, and more.

We ended up spending most of the day along this route. An observer might have wondered a bit about us. We would drive slowly along the road in one direction, frequently slowing down and pulling over, looking around a bit, then either getting back on the road or piling out and heading off in various directions – either up into rocks or down into a wash or canyon. Eventually we worked our way to one end of the road’s passage through the park… and we turned around and headed back. We did this loop several times. Why? First, things that you might miss while driving one direction become easier to see when you head the other way. Second, and perhaps most important, light is not a static thing. It changes in may ways – intensity, color, angle, direction, what it strikes and what it misses – as the day goes on, so while the <i>landscape</i> might have been, arguably, “the same,” the <i>lightscape</i> was in constant flux. I made this photograph in a short section of slot canyon, contriving to find a point of view from which almost nothing but the twisting and overlapping forms of the rocks would be visible, along with just a bit of foliage.

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.