Tag Archives: stand

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Looking In

August 5, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Almost everyone in a group of people looks into a conservatory courtyard while waiting for it to open.

Apologies for this title, but I did not get the name of the building (perhaps today I’ll do that), “A group of people looking into a courtyard with one guy looking the other way” seemed a bit too long, and I ran out of creativity before posting. I suppose there is the potential here for incorporating some quip about San Francisco “summer” weather as well – on this lovely “summer” afternoon there were high clouds and fog and it was trying to rain! :-)

I had another afternoon to kill wandering around San Francisco yesterday afternoon. My general target was something like street photography, though it also incorporated this little project I have to photograph downtown buildings from odd angles and render the images in black and white. I had been working on the latter and was heading back to where I would have dinner (and running a few minutes late) when I saw this little cluster of people crowded around what looked like the entrance to this glassed in courtyard filled with palm trees and some tables. Any sort of odd little scene like this – quite different from the general rush of people in the downtown area – catches my eye and often seems like it might make a photograph. Here I had the group of people crowded together to work with, along with the classical architecture of the building and courtyard. So I did what I often might do with such a scene: I stopped and quickly made one initial photograph so as not to miss it entirely, and then I remained and watched for something interesting or out-of-place to occur. When the fellow at the right separated himself from the larger group, my first reaction was a bit of frustration that he had broken up the group of people facing away, but in the end he makes the photograph more interesting to me than it would have been otherwise.

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

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff

May 11, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Along the Mt. Carmel Road through Zion National Park, the higher elevation areas tend to feature a lot of lighter color sandstone, which I understand may be the remnants of ancient sand dunes. For the most part, these formations tend to be lighter in color than the strikingly red tones of the sandstone cliffs found lower in the park, in the Zion Canyon of the Virgin River for example. These “highland” rock formations have their own appeal, including a wide variety of patterns including beautiful curving shapes.

But that isn’t what you see in this photograph, even though I made it in the highland area. As we rounded a turn at one point, ahead of us and then to the right was a very large and close cliff of red sandstone, and it was still in the afternoon shade. I like shade! Not only that, but in front of this cliff were several large trees that were not only out of the shade but which were also backlit. I like back-light! So we stopped and I photographed those trees. But as I worked on them I also noticed this skeletal and very deal old snag of to one side. I like old snags! Because the rock was in the shade yet lit by reflections from across the canyon, the red tones of the sandstone were intensified. There were a couple of challenges with this scene. The overall luminosity range is not great, the colors are all affected by the reddish glow from the cliff and the light from across the small canyon, and the tonal level of the tree is not that different from that of the rocks. In order to get the tree to stand out at least a bit against the rocks (something that was more obvious on the scene and looking at it in 3D) some work was necessary in post, especially some fine work on the tree itself.

Commentary

Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring

April 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.

I’ve seen so many beautiful photographs of cottonwood (and other) trees against sandstone cliffs, that I was anxious to search out some such scenes when I went to Zion and other Southwest locations in early April. After arriving in the town of Springdale, near the entrance to Zion and the Virgin River canyon, we headed up into the canyon for our first visit. Although I had seen plenty of photographs from the area, I had made a point of not researching any specific locations or shots – I’d rather find my own. As we entered the canyon, a friend’s description of the place as “Yosemite in red” came to mind – though this canyon in Zion has a much smaller and more intimate scale.

From the upper park service tram stop, we continued on up the canyon on the easy trail. If I were evaluating my day based on how far I hiked, it would have been a failure. I hardly ever walked more than a few dozen yards at a time without stopping to look around or scope out some new photographic opportunity. These trees were growing on the opposite side of the river, right up against the vertical sandstone walls, and the lack of direct sun softened the light on these trees and their brand new spring leaves.

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

Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff

April 14, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cottonwood tree with early spring leaves stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park, Utah.

This was my first visit to Zion National Park – believe it or not – and I had been thinking about photographing cottonwood trees against red sandstone cliffs well before we arrived. We got there in the afternoon, checked in to our lodgings, and soon went up into the main canyon on the shuttle and then hiked up toward the Narrows from there.

It was a special and unusual experience for me to be photographing in an entirely new place, and to have very little idea of the geography of the Zion at all – I had almost intentionally avoided researching ahead of time, preferring to take it for what it was when I arrived. I was so naive that when we passed over a bridge and I looked downstream I thought, “Oh, that is the Watchman.” (For those who don’t know, the photograph of the Watchman Tower above the Virgin River, photographed from the bridge that crosses the river just inside the park is, roughly speaking, the Zion equivalent of photographing Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite.) We kept going, staring up at the beautiful sandstone towers and walls as the shuttle travelled up the canyon to the very end at the Temple of Sinawava, where we got off and started to walk. The walls in this very area are beautiful, and my progress up the trail was very slow as I stopped to gawk and photograph all of these wonderful new subjects, including this almost bare tree with its first spring growth. against the backdrop of the sandstone cliffs.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: stand

Looking In

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Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring

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Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff

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

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