Tag Archives: sky

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

Murphy Point and Murphy Hogback, Evening

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Murphy Point and Murphy Hogback, Evening - Evening light on the brow of Murphy Point, with Murphy Hogback leading to the right and the areas of the Green and Colorado Rivers confluence and the Needles beyond, Canyonlands National Park.
Evening light on the brow of Murphy Point, with Murphy Hogback leading to the right and the areas of the Green and Colorado Rivers confluence and the Needles beyond, Canyonlands National Park.

Murphy Point and Murphy Hogback, Evening. Canyonlands National Park, Utah. April 6, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on the brow of Murphy Point, with Murphy Hogback leading to the right and the areas of the Green and Colorado Rivers confluence and the Needles beyond, Canyonlands National Park.

When I photographed from the Green River Overlook in Canyonlands National Park back in early April, I arrived there in the evening with one shot definitely planned out ahead of time (though the conditions were, as they often are, a bit of a pleasant surprise once I arrived) and one sort of half planned. The first was a shot across the rugged terrain to the west and southwest through which the Green River has carved a deep and twisting canyon. The second was of more or less the same subject, but shot in vertical format with a longer lens and tracking some of the formations out toward the horizon.

Once there, I quickly figured out my shooting location – to be honest, there are quite a few options and unless you include cliff-top foreground subjects you don’t have to be terribly particular. I composed the first, landscape-orientation shot and then sort of went back and forth between that image and the vertical shot as the light evolved. As I did this and the low angle light began to cut through some of the haze a bit more, the terrain to my south that I had not really thought about earlier started to look a bit more interesting. From the Green River Overlook, the upper sandstone cliffs first curve back away from the river canyon, then run south, and once again extend a bit out into the canyon at Murphy Point, the impressive prominence at the left side of this photograph. One thousand feet below, Murphy Hogback – a flat-topped ridge – extends further toward the Green River. Beyond that the terrain extends into the distance, full of features that were unfamiliar to me but still very impressive – a series of plateaus, often with white rock edges, steep drop-offs into deep canyons, more distant and barely visible towers and other formations. From what I’ve read since then, I’m pretty certain that beyond the shoulder of Murphy Point, I am seeing the area roughly where the Green and Colorado Rivers meet and beyond that the area known as The Needles.

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.

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

Sandstone Towers, Evening Sky

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Sandstone Towers, Evening Sky - Evening clouds above sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park
Evening clouds above sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park

Sandstone Towers, Evening Sky. Arches National Park, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening clouds above sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park.

I think I can manage to coax one more photograph out of my collection of shots from my first evening in Arches National Park back in early April. To recap the story, we checked into a motel in Moab in the middle of the afternoon, and then had enough time to make a late afternoon and evening foray into Arches. We ended up in the “Windows” area just before sunset and ended our day shooting here as the sun set and then on into the evening.

I didn’t get anything of particular note that included the arches for which this spot is known – for example the North and South Windows. (I did photograph the South Window, but by this time the light wasn’t quite what I was looking for.) The wind was very strong, so I ended up behind some of the main rocky formations looking for shelter, and this provided a fairly clear view to the east just after the sun set. In this direction there was a small cluster of red sandstone formations, and as the evening sky begin to clear just a bit and the post-sunset cast a glow over the sky and the land beneath I made a few photographs in this beautiful soft light.

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.

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

Murphy Point, Sunset

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Murphy Point, Sunset - Sunset light on Murphy Point, photographed from Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park
Sunset light on Murphy Point, photographed from Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park

Murphy Point, Sunset. Canyonlands National Park, Utah. April 6, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on Murphy Point, photographed from Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park.

We spent the better part of a day scouting around the “Island in the Sky” section of Canyonlands National Park, partly with the goal of figuring out where to be for golden hour light. In the end, the very first place we had really considered ended up being the place we came back to – the Green River Overlook. While quite a few landscape photographs can be somewhat spontaneous and a matter of quickly taking advantage of ephemeral conditions, the decision to photograph at the Green River Overlook was quite the opposite. Not only had I decided that I wanted to shoot at this location, but I had even worked out the composition of the shot that I wanted.

With that in mind, we came back here almost an hour before actual sunset, confident that the photograph I had in mind would be waiting for me. And it was! That photograph was shot looking roughly west or a bit south of west and across the canyons dropping into the Green River. But I also had quite a bit of time to look around at other possible subjects as the light slowly transformed. The steep upper cliffs of (what I believe to be) Murphy Point stood to my south and the sunset light began to intensely color their red rocks during the final few minute of sunlight. So I took a moment away from the shot I had come for, pivoted the tripod this direction, and made a few exposures. The geology seen in this area is amazing. Layer upon layer build from the bottoms of the river canyon, through the side canyons and onto the lower plateaus. Then shattered rock stacks up against the tall upper sandstone cliffs that are topped by the relative flatlands of the “Island in the Sky” area. Here the low angle side-light from the setting sun reveals a lot of the more subtle details of this landscape.

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.

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

Sandstone Towers, Evening Clouds

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Sandstone Towers, Evening Clouds - Dissipating evening clouds above sandstone formations, Arches National Park, Utah
Dissipating evening clouds above sandstone formations, Arches National Park, Utah

Sandstone Towers, Evening Clouds. Arches National Park, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dissipating evening clouds above sandstone formations, Arches National Park, Utah.

On our first early April evening in Arches National Park, we ended up at what the NPS map calls the “Windows Section.” This is an area of long sandstone ridges and many arches, including North and South Windows, Turret Arch and more. We really didn’t quite know where we were going, but we could tell that the day was waning and that we needed to find a spot to shoot the evening light – and this are was close and seemed to hold some potential. We drove the end of the road, quickly unloaded, and headed off to see what we could find.

I started by going back down the road a ways to photograph more open terrain to the west along with a row of sandstone features running to the north. I quickly figured out – duh! – that is was very windy! This isn’t a major problem as long as the light is good, but I knew that it was going to be a challenge as the diminishing light eventually called for longer exposures. I then wandered up toward Turret Arch and the South Window, looking for likely compositions. I made a few initial exposures before the sun dropped below the horizon, the light soon began to fade to that wonderful period just after sunset when everything can take on a sort of rich glow when the conditions are just right. Some dissipating clouds were adding to the glow and making the light and the sky more interesting… but that wind wasn’t diminishing a bit! Even with a solid tripod and head, when using a somewhat large lens and long exposures there will be issues with camera stability. This limited my range of motion a bit, as finding spots that provided some shelter from the strongest gusts became a consideration along with the usual compositional issues. With that in mind, I ended up mostly foregoing the major features here and instead turned my attention to the sky and to a cluster of sandstone formations to the east of the main arches… and that is what you see in this photograph.

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.