Tag Archives: tree

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

Juniper and Red Rock Cliff

January 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary juniper tree grows at the base of a Utah red rock cliff

This being Utah, it represents a place that will likely be in need to attention and support from all of us who love our shared national lands, in opposition to those who would privatize them for purposes of extractive industry, damn the consequences. The photograph comes from an autumn visit to Southern Utah nearly five years ago, when I joined a group of fellow photographers to explore areas from Capitol Reef to Zion and points in between. This is, as many of you know, stunningly beautiful country, particularly if you get off the main roads a bit and poke around in odd washes and canyons and remote routes.

This lovely juniper tree grows at the base of a sculpted sand stone face that is marked by all sort of veins, weathering, and water stains. The tree grows from what appears to be nearly solid rock, likely finding sustenance on whatever debris has filled a crack at the base of the cliff over the years. The colors of this part of the world area simply extraordinary, with the base being the infinite shades of sandstone color, bathed in everything from direct sun to light that has become saturated by bouncing its way among the colorful walls until it reaches the depths of narrow canyons.

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

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

Autumn Tree, Broken Branches, Ground Fog

January 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree with autumn leaves, surrounded by broken branches, with thinning ground fog below

When we think of Yosemite Valley the first things that come to mind are likely to be towering cliffs, waterfalls, peaks, domes, and other monumental things. The Valley is a place built on a grand scale, but more subtle surprises await if you are there at the right time. Especially between late fall and early spring, when the conditions are right beautiful ground fog frequently appears in meadows, drifting back and forth and gradually thinning as the morning warms.

On this morning I intended to be in the Valley early, but other things distracted me on my way there from Oakhurst (including fog in another valley!), and I arrived in the Valley a bit later than planned. At that point I had more or less written off my plan to go fog-hunting, so I was thrilled to catch the very tail end of the morning fog in a few spots here and there. This tree, a somewhat well-known elm, was just out of the fog that still lay across the surface of the meadow beyond.

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

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

Oak Tree, Clearing Storm

January 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Yosemite valley oak tree with autumn storm clouds swirling around granite cliffs

This may be an almost quintessential Yosemite Valley autumn scene — a bit of golden brown meadow, back-lit black oak tree fall color, granite cliffs, and the clouds of a dissipating early season storm.

This is perhaps my favorite time in the Valley, with a snowy winter day providing the only real competition for that designation. There is an end-of-summer feeling still, especially since the days are often sunny and pleasantly warm. The place is more colorful than at any other time of year — spring wildflowers may be more diverse, but the masses of leaves are larger. With an early rain storm, the near-dormant waterfalls spring back to life and the Merced River rises. And behind all of the knowledge that winter’s arrival is only weeks away.

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

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon

December 29, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

During a bit of hard drive housekeeping this week I found a folder full of files from a Utah visit in 2012. Because I have a hard drive that is about to fill, I’ve been looking for unused and unneeded files that invariably get left behind after work on various projects — you know, the files that I “just might want to keep around, just in case.” I think that the batch in this folder were transferred from my laptop, and they are most likely files that I worked on quickly in the field and planned to update on my desktop computer later. My first thought was that I’d just delete the folder, but then I looked more closely and found several files that I want to keep.

This is one of the keepers. Although I hadn’t thought if it for quite a while, I now recall this little canyon junction quite distinctly, a place were a smaller side canyon dropped down into the larger canyon through which we walked. Scale is hard to judge against this landscape, but the old cottonwood is very large, especially for one in the base of a narrow canyon. This photograph reminds me of something else, too — I need to get back to these canyons!

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: tree

Juniper and Red Rock Cliff

Autumn Tree, Broken Branches, Ground Fog

Oak Tree, Clearing Storm

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon

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