Tag Archives: trees

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cliff, Fall Color, Escalante River

November 16, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall foliage of cottonwood and box elder trees at the base of a cliff along the Escalante River, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

This portion of the Escalante River treated us in two very different ways during our late-October visit. Early in the trip, we were anxious to explore this section of the river, where fall colors of cottonwood and box elder trees and more were arriving and where the river continuously twists and turns among sandstone cliffs. In the morning we drove out to our trailhead, noticing two things about the weather – it was cold and there was a lot of the thing that no one wanted to mention but which we might refer to as “W”. (Hint, it moves the branches and leaves a lot!) Undeterred, we entered the canyon and encountered very beautiful conditions, especially when it came to autumn foliage color. However, the “morning breezes” turned into a midday gale, at times forcing us to stop moving as strong gusts momentarily pinned us down. Some clouds began to move overhead. Low light and screaming winds in a deep canyon make for challenging foliage photography, to say the least! By the time we finally left the canyon, it was trying to rain, and across the valley we could see snow falling on higher peaks.

With that first visit in mind, near the end of our trip we found ourselves with time to go back to this canyon. The “I’ve already been there” thoughts were overwhelmed by the “maybe this time we can actually make photographs” thoughts, and so we re-entered this location. On this morning, there was no “W” and it was a few degrees warmer. As we continued up the canyon, the colors were just as beautiful as before, with blown-down leaves having been replaced in many locations by leaves that had more recently changed colors. The light was gorgeous, and we shot almost continuously as we walked downstream, only turning around reluctantly when we ran out of time and energy, though we did get a bit further down-canyon this time. The scale of this photograph may be difficult to understand in this small web jpg, but the trees are good-sized cottonwoods at the base of a giant cliff of light-colored sandstone that towers overhead at a bend in the river.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

November 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

An aspen grove along North Bishop Creek in late afternoon light.

While I like huge, expansive groves of aspens, I also like small, isolated groups, especially when set against the background of what I think of as sage brush country. This group of trees is actually part of a long, thin grove that stretches along a small dirt side road up in the Bishop Creek drainage. The grove and the road are on my “must visit” list for my annual aspen-chasing trips to the eastern Sierra, so by now I’ve learned a lot about the “personality” of this particular spot. Like a number of other spots to which I return each year, you might not notice anything spectacular about this grove – but by means of repeated visits I have learned where to look for certain little subjects: a creek that flows past boulders beneath colorful trees, a particular thick grove of very thin-truck trees, groves of trees that seem barely taller than I am.

I made this photograph in what might seem like unlikely lighting conditions. It was late afternoon, and the trees were back-lit. The sun was close to dropping behind the very tall ridge that lies above and beyond the border of the photograph, so the light was angling across the several background ridges running down into the valley, and lighting their upper edges. And, of course, the leaves glow when the light come through them from behind.

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

Aspen Grove, Old Road

November 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

An old dirt road winds into the heart of an aspen grove in full autumn color, Dixie National Forest, Utah

This is another of the “could have been anywhere” photographs, both because little scenes like this can be found all over the American West and because it is a scene that I simply happened to notice while passing by. So, the specific location is most certainly unimportant, though I’ll say that it was along a gravel road running through a section of the national forest in roughly the Zion/Cedar City area, a road that we had turned up more or less randomly and then explored for perhaps a couple of hours before turning back. The goal of that little drive had been to get into or as close as possible to some extensive forests of colorful aspen trees that we had seen from a distance. We succeeded.

There is something evocative on a number of levels about a simple scene like this one – with factors including the literal and subjective aspects of the changing season, the image of the small road disappearing into the grove as it wanders off to an unknown place, and the light of autumn filtered through the golden canopy of aspen leaves. If you don’t pay careful attention when you are there you might miss it, but the golden color suffuses the entire understory when the light is just right. (Photographers and painters may notice this sort of thing more than most people, since we/they are used to dealing with the otherwise blue coloration of the shadow light.) This sort of scene is extremely transitory. While we can permit ourselves to believe that both the green time of summer and the snowy time of winter are relatively permanent, no such illusion is possible during the brief span of literally a few days when the aspen color comes to these groves – they are different every day, and sometimes you can literally see the color going away as the wind blows down the leaves.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cedar Breaks, Evening

November 5, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light through diffused clouds illuminates the stratified and eroded formations of Cedar Breaks, Utah

Since I’ve posted on this scene previously – along with a landscape mode presentation of a similar scene – I’ll keep this one short. This photograph was made in the slightly post-sunset light on an evening when the light was softened by clouds. A smattering of trees grows in the few areas among the cliffs and hoodoos where there is apparently enough of the right kind of soil – most of this terrain is devoid of large plants.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Cliff, Fall Color, Escalante River

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

Aspen Grove, Old Road

Cedar Breaks, Evening

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