Tag Archives: trunk

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

Cottonwood Trees and Cloud-Filled Sky

December 27, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Massive old cottonwood trees silhouetted against the cloud-filled autumn sky, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

This photograph was a sort of passing whimsy, in a sense. In this particular canyon that we visited in late October, our attention as mostly focused on avoiding inclusion of the sky in the frame. For the most part, the tall cliff walls were almost the default background for many photographs, so I paid little attention to the sky, for the most part, except to contrive ways to keep its distracting solid blue out of the frame, where it would distract from the colors and shapes and textures of rock and trees and water.

But when I came straight up to this tree just before we entered a narrow section of the canyon, it is was impossible ignore. It is actually a single tree that splits into two twin trunks near its base, with each trunk then sprouting a group of curving, twisting and interlocking branches high above the ground. With this subject, out in the open as it was, photographing it against the background of rock would not have worked, and it was so tall that I was essentially forced to shoot it with the camera pointing up. Fortunately, there were interesting clouds in the sky, and even more fortuitously the lines in the clouds roughly lined up with the left half of the v-shape of the two converging ridges down that canyon. Even better, this shallow “v” of the canyon rims and low peaks beyond echoed and cradled the somewhat similar shape found in the upper branches of the tree.

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: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red Maple Trees, Autumn

November 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sometimes I just have to make a photograph that is full of color, and finding these trees constituted one of those “sometimes.” During the latter part of October we passed through Zion on our way to points east, so we spent most of a day along the Mount Carmel Highway looking for various subjects that can be found there in a fall. Among them, we were looking for autumn foliage. (The color comes to this high country area of Zion while things are still mostly green back down in Zion Canyon.) At this point some cottonwood and box elder trees were changing, though there was a lot of green still around. However, the red maples, which seem to change first, were at peak color conditions in many spots.

As we drove along the park road, we were more or less hanging out the windows, looking for those combinations of light (quality and angle), color (or trees and rocks), and geology that might make good photographs. Most often we found ourselves looking down into narrow canyons where colorful trees lined the banks of the stream beds. Sometimes we photographed from above, but the most productive shooting involved hiking down into these canyons and then slowly walking them while looking intently for subjects. Of course, the red maples don’t require a lot of careful looking! This group of trees was in a shady curve in the bottom of a canyon, so I found a frame-filling bunch of branches and leaves and made a few exposures.

COMMENT OR QUESTION? Scroll down to the comment form.

Prints are available. Read about licensing and print sales.

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

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

Aspen Grove, Evening

November 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A ridgetop aspen grove in full autumn color, Dixie National Forest, Utah

This is another photograph that resulted from a more or less chance drive up a back road that I happened to spot while out looking for color, and the particular location of the photograph is anything but iconic – in fact, I’m betting that this grove of aspens is rarely photographed, given its someone “off the beaten track” location in a place without even a recognizable name. Essentially, we had turned off onto an interesting side road and started driving up into the mountains. A bit earlier we had stopped to photograph incredibly colorful aspens and other trees before moving on.

As we continued on up this climb, we became aware of time issues – mainly because I had an idea about photographing another specific location at sunset, and that location was still a good drive away from here. So when we came to an intersection along the gravel road, it seemed like a fine place to stop, look around, and consider heading back the in the direction from which we had come. As we pulled over we began to see several interesting things here. First, nearby there was a little old track leading into the aspen forest. (A photograph of that subject will appear here later.) Then another side road nearby started to look interesting, so we drove a short distance along it until we had a panoramic view of the mountains leading toward Cedar Breaks. Here we turned around, and drove the short distance back to that intersection, and I though that this row of colorful aspens, set along the edge of the ridge and fronted by a bit of meadow, looked interesting enough to photograph – and when I saw the faint clouds line up in the low spot between the trees I had to photograph the scene in this soft, overcast light.

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

Aspen Forest, Near Cedar Breaks

October 27, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn colors in extensive aspen forests extend into the distance near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

This was a serendipitous photograph. We were driving down a main road from Cedar Grove towards the lowlands when I caught site of a decent looking gravel side road that looked like it might head in the direction of some interesting and extensive aspen forests that were in full fall color – so I quickly turned off and headed down this road. It passed through huge stands of aspen trees as it descended toward the south, and eventually I felt that I had gone as far as time allowed, so I turned around and started back up the road with the sun at my back.

At about this time, a high thin layer of clouds moved over. This is more or less ideal for daytime photography of subjects like the aspens since it softens the light just a bit and moderates the harsh shadows and extreme contrasts that are otherwise found during daytime hours. With this tree color and this light, it was mostly a matter of finding some scene that would fit together compositionally, and here I found a bit of open meadow between colorful trees, along with a distant view to further aspen covered hills almost as far as I could see.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trunk

Red Maple Trees, Autumn

Aspen Grove, Evening

Aspen Forest, Near Cedar Breaks

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