Tag Archives: southwest

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff - Sunlight reflected from nearby canyon walls illuminates an autumn cottonwood tree in front of a fallen sandstone monolith and vertical cliff face.
Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff – Sunlight reflected from nearby canyon walls illuminates an autumn cottonwood tree in front of a fallen sandstone monolith and vertical cliff face.

Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 29, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

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.

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata - An autumn tree grows from a precarious crack in sandstone strata, Capitol Gorge
An autumn tree grows from a precarious crack in sandstone strata, Capitol Gorge

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata. Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. October 7, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

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.

First Light, Red Rock Cliffs

First Light, Red Rock Cliffs

First Light, Red Rock Cliffs. Zion National Park, Utah. October 14, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First morning light shines on plants along a red rock ridge at the base of a cliff-lined amphitheater in the Kolob Canyons area of Zion National Park

This photograph was made in the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park, a less-developed area of the park, accessed by a dead-end road and with virtually no services aside from a small ranger station near the entrance. Being a good distance from the main, popular destination of Zion Canyon, far fewer people seem to visit this area. We visited on a very cold fall morning, arriving well before the sun light had worked its way down into the canyons.

In may places there are very tall cliffs to the east, and sometimes, as here, they form amphitheaters of red rock. As we came to this part of the canyon, the sun had risen high enough that some of its light was able to find a way down into the canyon and begin to pick off ridges, aretes, and bit of vegetation – though the main cliffs still remained in shadow.

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.

Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon

Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon
Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon

Cottonwood Trees, Escalante River Canyon. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 29, 2012. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cottonwood trees, in various stages of fall color, beneath a tall sandstone cliff along the Escalante River, Utah

There is a little bit of a story behind this photograph. We had visited this canyon area almost a week earlier when we first arrived in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area, but the results had not been quite what we had hoped. We were imagining clear and sunny skies reflecting colorful light down into canyon depths, warm temperatures, still air, and more. Instead we got partial clouds, freezing cold temperatures, and high winds! All of these factors had turned out photographic plans into an extremely difficult challenge. We made it up our canyon to about this point, but the winds were too strong and we were perhaps too cold to stick around. But I had noticed this group of trees at different stages in the transition to fall color and backed by huge boulders and a massive cliff of sandstone.

Nearly a week later we had some extra time and we decided that a second try at this location might be worthwhile. In contrast to that earlier visit, now it was warmer, sunnier, and less windy. We made it to the same portion of the canyon – and a bit further, too – and now found that photography was a lot more possible than it had been only a few days earlier. The color and light on this little scene might need some explanation. The cottonwood trees were, indeed, exhibiting color variations from yellow/gold, through golden brown, and even some still-green leaves. The light came from out of the frame to the right, where a very large and tall sandstone cliff was in full sun and reflecting warm colored light down into this shaded section of the canyon. The color of this light was very surprising. You can see a bit of what was going on by looking at the large boulder behind the trees. The surface facing my camera position appears blue, partly because it was in shadow and partly because that is close to the actual color of this rock. But if you look at the left side of this rock, where a large surface faces that sunlit cliff, it has taken on a color that is almost the same as that of the tree!

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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.