Tag Archives: trees

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

Mixed Forest, Brian Head

March 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mixed aspen and conifer forest, autumn

Back in 2012 we made our first serious autumn photography foray into Utah, spending several October weeks traveling around the southern part of the state. Among other things, this was the first time I started to understand the differences between the patterns of California fall color that I know so well and the patterns in Utah and similar places. For me the biggest annual fall color event is the turning of the eastern Sierra aspens, which typically reaches is peak by or perhaps a bit before the middle of October. We began this trip with a much earlier than usual visit to those California mountains and, sure enough, we arrived for the very beginning of the serious color in the locations I would typically visit a week or more later. After spending just a couple of days there — I did not want to completely miss the California aspen season! — we headed east across Nevada to Utah.

Our first stop in Utah was in the Brian Head vicinity. (One draw was that the off-season lodging prices were extremely good.) I had not been here before and did not really know what to expect, though I knew that Cedar Breaks National Monument was nearby. We soon discovered that here, unlike in the Sierra Nevada, the big, high elevations aspen trees had already reached and passed their color peak, perhaps even by the end of September. Lesson learned! (We subsequently did learn that there are plenty of other fall color opportunities in the state at lower elevations, and that they can extend all the way into November.) This ridge of mixed conifers and aspens is just outside of the Brian Head area.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Stone

March 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees, a boulder, cliffs and towers — Pinnacles National Park

Visiting Pinnacles National Monument last week presented me with an unusual experience. Typically I photograph in two kinds of places. To simplify a bit, one sort is the places that I have photographed repeatedly over long periods of time, and which I have gotten to know intimately. The other type would be places that I don’t know at all, and which I come to with an almost “blank slate,” discovering their character directly as I encounter them. “The Pinnacles,” as I’ve referred to the place for years, doesn’t quite fit into either category. When I was much younger I frequently visited the place, starting with my parents when I was quite young and continuing into my twenties when I was a rock climber. So some memories and sensations from the place a deeply embedded in my memory and experience. But they I stopped going there and has been decades since I was last there.

With that in mind, it is no surprise that my first visit included quite a few “I remember this!” moments, combined with about as many “This is new!” moments. We mostly visited the east side when I was young, but this time I arrived from the west. I had hiked the high peaks trail, and even climbed some of its pinnacles, but I was surprised to (re)discover just how narrow, steep and exposed it is. So my approach to the place was a combination of working with what I know and discovering what was new. In the end it felt like I was sort of “feeling my way” back into familiarity with the place. I could not yet quite see how to photograph some seemingly obvious subjects, such as the high peaks area, so I focused on many non-iconic subjects, such as the scene of gray and red rocks and trees in this photograph.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trees, Morning Light

March 21, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunlight illuminates trees on a spring morning at Pinnacles National Park

On this first return visit to Pinnacles National Park in about three decades — the last time I visited the place it was still called Pinnacles National Monument — I approached from the west through the small Salinas Valley town of Soledad, heading east into the low, grass-covered hills, ascending wooded valleys, and then passing through vineyard country where I had my first good views of the pinnacles. Until that point much of the drive did not bring back any memories, but that view was much as I remembered. I continued a bit further, passed the expected national park entrance sign, arrived at the kiosk, and went into the nearby ranger station to show my permit. This faculty seemed new to me, and it certainly had not been there years back when we simply drove up the end of the road and camped. This time I got back on the road and continued toward the end of the road.

One expects to simply ascend to the end of this road, but the route surprised me by descending into the valley where that old campground (now gone over twenty years) was once located. Along this descent the road passed by the beautiful California “impossible green” spring landscape of new grass, budding trees, and a few wildflowers. At one point the road turned to the right and descended, and in front of me was a high ridge with back-light flowing over its summit and striking the trees from behind. Those who know me know that I’m completely unable to resist back-lit trees, so I pulled over and paused to make a few photographs before continuing the short distance to the trailhead.

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

Fall Color, River Canyon

March 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees and other fall color along the bottom of a river canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

I made this photograph a few years back on a beautiful autumn day when a small group of friends walked down a river canyon, exploring and photographing the river, the vegetation, and the rocky walls. Direct sunlight does not reach the bottom of these canyons most of the time, especially during the times of the year when the sun’s path is lower in the sky and the daylight hours are shorter. Instead, the light strikes the upper walls, bouncing back and forth, diffusing and picking up the color of rocks and fall leaves as it makes its way downwards. If you look, you can see it in this photograph — in the glow on the canyon wall, the saturated colors of the leaves, and the light making its way into shadows.

Such canyons are wonderful places to go if you want to be cut off from the rest of the world. The landscape above the canyons is often relatively bare, perhaps dry and flat with occasional junipers. But none of that flat land world is visible once you are down in the canyon, where cottonwoods and brush spring up along the creek and every bend promises something new an interesting.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Mixed Forest, Brian Head

Trees and Stone

Trees, Morning Light

Fall Color, River Canyon

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