Tag Archives: sky

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

Canyon Walls, Reflected Light

November 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

On this day I visited — though just barely — an area of slot canyons in southern Utah. I rarely do much advance research when I plan to photograph in a new area, generally preferring to discover the place for myself. This has both advantages and disadvantages. I certainly make my share of missteps and sometimes miss spectacular locations on my initial visits. On the other hand, when I come with few preconceptions I am free to make my own relationship with these places and perhaps I am forced to look a bit more carefully at what I see.

I had a vague plan to visit an area where there are some fairly well-known features, though I did not plan to visit the most popular of them, preferring to avoid the need to special permits and the attendance line-waiting. So I got a map (one without a lot of detail) and figured out where to find a gravel side road to a place with a name I had heard of, and I headed that direction. I parked at another place with a name that sounded familiar, loaded up and started walking down a valley with a good size wash. Soon the walls closed in on both sides and I entered an area of slot canyon. There is much to see and feel in these canyons, but my attention is often focused on the light, which does astonishing things when it bounces down between higher red rock canyon walls. As I came to this spot I was taken aback by the intensity of the brilliant blue tones when open sky reflected on the shiny surface of the rock, contrasting with the intense reddish tones of red rock illuminated by red reflected light, and creating almost sensuous forms in the rock walls.

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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

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

Autumn Morning, Fremont River Valley

November 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn morning light and clouds above the valley of the Fremont River

Technically this location is actually just outside of Capitol Reef National Park, but its close enough. The plan on this morning was to make a journey down the east side of the park to a somewhat more remote area, so we started out rather early. After passing through the park and starting the drive to our eventual destination we quickly realized that a fairly unusual and spectacular sunrise was underway, so we found the first available location from which to take advantage of the situation.

This was most definitely not a blah blue sky morning! A variety of clouds filled a good portion of the sky in several directions, though light was able to pass through gaps in the clouds to the east. Above the peaks of Capitol Reef to the west the sky was generally darkened by high clouds that briefly took on rosy dawn colors before fading. To the north were lenticular clouds, some lined up in formations that reminded me of California’s “Sierra wave” clouds. When I saw these clouds and this light, the obvious question was what to put in a photograph that included them — so I quickly wandered over the a high point above the valley of the Fremont River from which I could photograph across the sunlit valley to include the spectacular clouds and darker peaks in the distance.

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: Nevada

Nevada Sky

September 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cloud-filled evening sky above the basin and range country of Nevada

Speeding across northern Nevada on the California Zephyr, bound for Chicago and then New York City, the first day of our trip was coming to an end as evening arrived somewhere between Winnemuca and Elko Nevada. We began the day at the western terminus of the rail line in Emeryville, California, then crossed the Sierra in thunderstorm weather, passed through Reno, and then headed northeast into the basin and range country and the Humboldt Basin. The sky continued to be filled with monsoon clouds — showers were visible in the distance and there were periodic dust clouds raised by the wind.

During most of this traverse between Reno and Winnemuca it was difficult to see how to make a photograph from the train. Shooting through train windows is, to say the least, a challenge — reflections, spots on the windows, and the close by landscape speeding past an image-blurring speeds. But as we got to Winnemuca the light began to change, and what had been low contrast and gray began to acquire the warmer late day colors, and the clouds began to thin enough that there was now a mixture of sky and towering clouds. This is one of several photographs that I made during the last few minutes of decent light.

Photographs: New York City

Steps, Hudson River, Winter

August 31, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Steps, dormant trees, and the Hudson River, Winter

We recently returned from a visit to New York City that lasted a bit longer than a week. New Yorkers shake their heads when I admit that we chose to visit New York in August — they know (and so do I) that this can be a time of miserable heat and humidity. But we got lucky and had mostly quite decent weather and even a few mornings that felt cool. On one of these days we took a train ride up the Hudson River to see this area that everyone tells me is so beautiful. And it is. Unlike California with its (beautiful, once you get to know it) golden-brown summer vegetation, here everything it green and the light is soft.

But that’s not when I made this photograph. I made this one at yet another time when New Yorkers might think only fools would choose to be there — the cold, mid-winter period between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Again, we were lucky. It was cold, but we managed to just miss some quite serious snow, and our ability to be out and about was unimpaired. On this day we decided to head a bit north on the subway and visit the Cloisters Museum, a surprising and impressive place that focuses on art and architecture from the Medieval period. Between the subway and the museum we walked up these steps, and it seemed to me that the bare branches, the gray and cloudy sky, the few remaining autumn leaves, and the stone steps captured the feeling of this winter day.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sky

Canyon Walls, Reflected Light

Autumn Morning, Fremont River Valley

Nevada Sky

Steps, Hudson River, Winter

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