Tag Archives: tree

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Oak Tree, Red Rock

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Oak Tree, Red Rock
A twisting oak tree beneath red rock towers, Zion National Park.

Oak Tree, Red Rock. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A twisting oak tree beneath red rock towers, Zion National Park.

The title simplifies the content of this scene — there are actually several kinds of trees here, and the contrast between the lighter trunk of the foreground tree and the dark shape of the more distant tree is part of what attracted me to this scene. Other elements included the twisting shapes of the trees and the contrast between the bright green of the leaves (which are close to beginning their autumn color transition) and the red Utah sandstone.

The nature of light is almost always a key factor in photography, but it plays out in very special ways in the red rock canyons of the Southwest. As I have written previously, the typical photographers’ schedule (shoot very early and rather late) is upended in canyons. We often try to find the softer and warmer light of the very early and late hours of the day, but in these canyons the tall walls often keep the subjects in the soft shadow light much of the day, and direct sunlight reflected off the canyon walls can provide that warm color to the light. (To those used to having a midday break between morning and evening photography, this can be exhausting!) This photograph was made during those essentially middle-of-the-day hours, and the soft light illuminates and colors the scene.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Tree, Red Rock, Morning Light

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Tree, Red Rock, Morning Light
A lone tree in morning backlight against a backdrop of red rock formations, Zion National Park.

Tree, Red Rock, Morning Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone tree in morning backlight against a backdrop of red rock formations, Zion National Park.

We recently managed to get away for our first long road trip in a very long time. We started in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where the annual autumn aspen color show was well underway. From there we headed to Utah — which I have not visited since before the previous presidential administration — where we spent several days photographing in Zion National Park. From there we moved on to spend some time on one of the less-travelled Utah backroads before heading south for a very quick visit to the North Rim of Grand Canyon. (The story of that part of the trip is a bit too long to relate here. Perhaps later…)

Our visit to Zion was divided roughly into two sections. We spent the first part of the visit exploring and photographing sections of Zion Canyon on foot. Then we spent a day in the “high country” along the Mount Carmel highway, an area with an infinity of photographic opportunities that change with the light throughout the day. That is the area where I made this photograph of a solitary tree standing atop a sand stone formation in the brilliantly bright morning back-light.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Branches

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Aspen Branches
Winding branches of an aspen tree, Sierra Nevada.

Aspen Branches. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winding branches of an aspen tree, Sierra Nevada.

For some reason this tree sticks in my memory. I had been scouting and photographing in the Lake Tahoe area as part of the work on my fall color book. On my way back to the San Francisco Bay Area I decided to leave the Tahoe area and head south so that I could drive through Hope Valley and over Carson Pass. By the time I got here it was late and the light was fading. There was a solid wall of aspen leaves behind this exposed tree, but they were very early in the autumn transition and still mostly green. I did not seem like the typical “fall color” photograph, but I stopped and made a few exposures anyway.

Some time later I “found” this file in my archives and, unlike when I made the photograph, it somehow seemed obvious that it could be a black and white image. Sometimes I know (more or less) when I make the exposure that a photograph is going to end up in a monochromatic rendition. But I confess that I sometimes reserved judgment until I see the raw file later on… and that on some occasions a photograph that I initially conceived of as a color image only reveals its potential in black and white during the post processing phase.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Summit Boulders and Tree, Sunset

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Summit Boulders and Tree, Sunset
Sunset light on the summit of a Yosemite granite dome on a hazy late-summer evening.

Summit Boulders and Tree, Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on the summit of a Yosemite granite dome on a hazy late-summer evening.

Even back before the recent increase in California wildfires, smoke haze was common during the later summer and early autumn months in the Sierra Nevada and, for that matter, over much of the state. For years I noticed that something was different about the atmosphere in September, and it wasn’t until relatively recently that I realized that the hazy softness in the September sky is, at least in part, due to widespread smoke. To be sure, most of the time it this haze is subtle. And, it can also be beautiful in the right situation. On this evening, it softened and warmed the light just before sunset.

We had been camped in this area for several days, and on this evening I took a long and slow walk with my camera. I headed around the far side of the lake that was next to our camp, gradually working my way toward a high point beyond that overlooks one of the great canyons of the Yosemite backcountry. On this summit I found a few glacial erratics and one small tree hiding in their shadow. I paused to make this photograph, then continued on along the spine of the low peak to descend back towards camp on the other side.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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