Tag Archives: skeletal

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Marsh

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Winter Marsh
Skeletal trees and dormant grasses in a winter San Joaquin Valley marsh

Winter Marsh. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Skeletal trees and dormant grasses in a winter marsh

We celebrated New Year’s Day as we have for the past few years — meeting before dawn a group of friends and photographers out in the wintry California Central Valley to greet the literal dawn of the new year. We arrived before sunrise, spent the first few hours making photographs, then gathered for a morning champagne toast and shared snacks and stories. After lunch we went back into the field to photograph birds and the landscape until it was so dark that we could barely see one another by the light of the rising full moon. Great times!

While most of my photography on such trips and in such places at this time of year involves birds, occasionally I photograph other things in this valley. During the late morning hours we all felt that need for a walking break. (Most bird photography involves a lot of standing and sitting around.) We wandered out on a trail through a marsh, I got started a bit later than the group. I took only a small, handheld camera with a single lens, not thinking there would be much to photograph. But it was quiet, a gentle breeze moved the grasses, and soft light shone through the hazy atmosphere, so I stopped to make a few photographs of this peaceful and almost silent landscape of trees, grasses, and water.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Skeletal Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Skeletal Tree and Sandstone Cliff - The skeletal remains of a dead tree stand in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park
The skeletal remains of a dead tree stand in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park

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

The skeletal remains of a dead tree stand in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I don’t recall exactly where I made this photograph. I’m pretty certain that I made it near the start of a walk up the Virgin River in Zion National Park in the afternoon, near the feature known as the Temple of Sinawava. Actually, I’m certain of all of that with the exception of knowing precisely where in the Temple of Sinawava area I made it. I do recall paying special attention to these red rock walls and looking for various subjects that I might combine with them to make photographs.

Speaking of the sandstone walls… on this side of the canyon and at this mid-afternoon time of day, little to no direct light makes it down to the floor of the canyon. So the lower walls are almost entirely in shade. However, the sun most certainly is still striking the upper canyon walls, and the reflected light from the sun-lit areas works like a giant light panel, reflecting softly diffused light down into the canyons and gently warming the colors that would otherwise be quite cool. (In other words, blue.) The diffused light causes even the shaded areas, such as recesses in the rock, to retain some details. And because the light is reflected from and into red sandstone canyon walls, the color of the light only gets warmer, and down in the canyon the color can be quite beautiful.

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.