Tag Archives: season

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

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff

May 20, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunlight reflected from nearby canyon walls illuminates an autumn cottonwood tree in front of a fallen sandstone monolith and vertical cliff face.

I may be repeating a story I’ve previously told, but here goes. Earlier during my late-October visit to Utah we had wandered into this area, only to be largely stymied by clouds, cold, absurdly strong winds, and even a bit of rain. It was a bit disappointing, in that we had really looked forward to visiting this portion of the Escalante River, and when we started out in the early morning and saw a lot of beautiful fall color we thought we were in for a good day of shooting. Although that day was not a complete loss, it wasn’t what we hoped for – and by the end of the day we were struggling against very strong winds and cold.

Fortunately, nearly a week later we found ourselves back in roughly the same area of Utah, and as we considered the next day’s possible shooting locations the idea of giving this spot a second try came up. After considering that alternatives of trying a new location or going back, we decided to go back. It was a good decision! Where the first visit had been cold, cloudy, windy and even a bit damp, the second visit brought warmer conditions, almost completely clear skies… and most important, nearly windless conditions. (At one point we were cautiously admitting to one another that we had made exposures of foliage that lasted as long as a couple of seconds!) Near one large bend in the canyon there was a spectacular abundance of “targets” – brilliant cottonwood and box elder trees, beautiful canyon walls of various colors, fallen leaves, and more. On the previous visit we had all looked at this little scene of a large fallen section of the canyon wall with golden cottonwoods growing all around, and then pretty much continued on since the trees where being whipped around by the wind. But on this second visit the wind was calm, and light was reflected into the scene from sunlit sandstone walls to our left.

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 Tree, Sandstone Strata

May 19, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An autumn tree grows from a precarious crack in sandstone strata, Capitol Gorge

I’m often fascinated by places where the huge and ancient strata descend under (or ascend from, depending upon your point of view) the flat earth. In the bottom of this canyon, there is a section where, as we walked further into it, the strata angled down quite steeply. Given what I understand of the geology of Capitol Reef, it should be no surprise to find such a feature here.

Another thing that continues to amaze me is the seemingly impossible places in which life springs up. Here this small tree (perhaps a single-leaf ash?) seems to be doing OK in a very tiny crack in solid rock and a few feet up the canyon wall from the wash at the bottom. The pink color comes both from the rock itself and the light reflected down into the canyon, bouncing off of other rock faces high above.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dogwood Branch, Whirlpool

May 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A gentle whirlpool on the surface of the Merced River behind a hanging dogwood branch with spring blossoms

I have photographed dogwood blossoms quite a few times before, but I had never quite gotten around to trying my hand at the “dogwood over water” photographs that are so popular and which can be so beautiful. However, on this early May 2013 visit to Yosemite Valley I made that one of my loose goals during a single day of shooting. Fortunately for me, this was a great year for dogwood blossoms and I managed to arrive at what must have been just about the perfect time. Too early, and the flowers can be sparse and perhaps a bit green; arrive too late and they can be quite worn our, with brown spots and holes. But during my brief visit I think I saw them growing more thickly on the Valley trees than I remember from past visits, and many of them were still in great shape.

I found a steep section of river bank not far from a bridge – and the bridge provided some shade and softer light on the water. This branch was hanging right down over the edge of the water, with a bit of bridge and tree shadow darkening the smooth water in this section of the Merced River. The main challenge with this subject is, perhaps surprisingly, the combination of the need for somewhat long exposures and the difficulty of getting perfectly breeze-free conditions right above the water. Even on a relatively still day, over the river the air is likely to be moving, and it doesn’t take much movement to blur exposures of a quarter second or longer. I wait for still moments, I try to shoot near the apex of the branch movement, and I may make quite a few exposures, knowing that many of them will not be sharp enough. Luck was with me on this one though. Not only is the branch still, but right at this moment an attractive round “mini-whirlpool” formed in the water behind the branch and interrupted the darker water with a bit of reflected blue sky.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dogwood Flowers, Sunset Light

May 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The flower-laden branches of a dogwood tree hang above the Merced River in sunset light

In the evening we had pulled off the road near the place sometimes called “Gates of the Valley” (and occasionally by other names), but I was not especially interested in photographing the famous and iconic scene that many stop there to photograph. I wouldn’t rule out photographing it, but it would have to be an exceptional evening to warrant adding my contribution to the uncounted photographs that have been made of the Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall, and El Capitan from this spot. We stopped for dogwoods.

I have photographed the dogwood blossoms in this area plenty of times in the past, and at the right time there can be a lot of flowers here. This was one of those right times, since it seemed like an exceptional spring for production of dogwood blossoms. Initially I had my eyes on some trees on the north side of the road, but first I thought I’d wander east a bit. That turned out be a good direction to walk for several reasons – I unexpectedly ran into friends who were also photographing here, and I found one beautiful tree that was hanging its blooms out over the waters of the Merced River. I then headed back to the west, stopping to talk to other folks (it seemed like everyone was out photographing dogwoods on this evening!) and then continuing on past the pull-out, stopping along the way to make more photographs of dogwoods and the forest in evening light. Before long I ended up at a well-known bridge over the Merced – where, yes, I ran into more friends! When I got there I almost felt like I was ready to call it an evening, but then I saw the low angle near-sunset light coming up the river and recalled a bunch of flowers I had seen there earlier in the day. I thought it might be interesting to shoot almost straight into that light and use a long lens to “get close” to the flowers and to throw the background along the river out of focus. The result is a dogwood flower photograph this is a bit different from most that I shoot.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: season

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata

Dogwood Branch, Whirlpool

Dogwood Flowers, Sunset Light

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