Tag Archives: strate

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

LIne of Weakness

Image Leave a comment
LIne of Weakness
Three plants find sustenance in a narrow crack in Utah sandstone.

LIne of Weakness. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three plants find sustenance in a narrow crack in Utah sandstone.

This small scene was in the bottom of a Southern Utah canyon, where the light was richly saturated as it reflected among red rock walls on its way to the canyon floor. This light virtually glows, and it can be quite soft, filling in shadows and saturating colors. In these places and in this light, even the most mundane subject can begin to be appealing.

I’m always fascinated by plants that manage to establish themselves in unlikely spots with minimal chance for success… and then manage to sustain themselves there for years, decades, or even centuries. I first became attracted to such things in the Sierra Nevada, where full grown trees sometimes seem to grow in nearly solid rock. These plants are smaller, but it is quite amazing that such a small crack creates an environment in which they can thrive.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

StRata, Morning Light

Image 2 Comments
Stata, Morning Light
Early morning light on eroded strata with contrasting colors, Death Valley National Park.

Strata, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light on eroded strata with contrasting colors, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph is an example of the transitory nature of light — and how this factor puts the lie to the notion that landscape photography is something always done slowly, at leisure. That is sometimes possible, but more often the most interesting light is fleeting, there only for an instant and sometimes passing its peak before you realize it. Here the layers of colorful strata are in a small canyon, and the light is blocked early in the morning by hills on the other side, behind the camera position. Once the light does arrive, the shadows move down the landscape quickly, and the interval when the light is ideal is brief.

This photograph is also an example of finding balance between an “objective capture” of the scene, a photographic representation of “what it looked like to me,” and something extreme or even fantastical. You have perhaps seen other photographs of these colorful strata, with shades of red, yellow, blue, green and more. Such colors are striking, but they are often quite subtle. In flat or harsh light they are less intense than what you see here. Even in great light and with the kinds of post-processing that I do, the colors are still not exactly intense. I think this subtlety is part of the beauty of these features, and this is lost when the photographer pushes things too far.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Cedar Breaks, Evening

Leave a comment

Cedar Breaks, Evening
Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

Cedar Breaks, Evening. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. October 5, 2010. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

This was only my second photography trip to Utah — the first had been not long before this when we visited in spring. (When I was very young, my family used to drive through Utah on trips between California and the Midwest, but I was hardly aware of the landscape.) This time we aimed for autumn, leaving the eastern Sierra at the beginning of October and heading across Nevada (not the usual route!) to western Utah and staying near Cedar Breaks National Monument for a few days at the start of our visit.

I did not know much about Cedar Breaks, and one thing that surprised me was the abrupt break between the wildly colorful and sculpted pink rock of the canyon and the flat and relatively plain high country to the east. A road travels along this boundary, and it took me a while to figure out how to photograph the area — the high flatlands seemed plain and the canyon dropped away into the western light. But that light from the west turned out to be the key. Near the end of our visit we were along the southern edge of the chasm late in the day when high, thin clouds softened that light from the west, and from here, rather than photographing straight into it, I could focus on the textures and colors made visible by the light sweeping across from the left.

As you consider this beautiful scene, also consider that such areas in Utah are currently threatened by radical anti-environmental Utah politicians who seem hell-bent on giving away our shared public lands to special interest extraction industries. It is simply astonishing that people who live in a place of such beauty could be so blind to it. Consider supporting the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in their work to defend these treasures.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Autumn Tree, Sandstone Strata

Leave a comment

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.
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.