Tag Archives: trunk

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

Skeletal Tree and Sandstone Cliff

May 14, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The skeletal remains of a dead tree stand in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I don’t recall exactly where I made this photograph. I’m pretty certain that I made it near the start of a walk up the Virgin River in Zion National Park in the afternoon, near the feature known as the Temple of Sinawava. Actually, I’m certain of all of that with the exception of knowing precisely where in the Temple of Sinawava area I made it. I do recall paying special attention to these red rock walls and looking for various subjects that I might combine with them to make photographs.

Speaking of the sandstone walls… on this side of the canyon and at this mid-afternoon time of day, little to no direct light makes it down to the floor of the canyon. So the lower walls are almost entirely in shade. However, the sun most certainly is still striking the upper canyon walls, and the reflected light from the sun-lit areas works like a giant light panel, reflecting softly diffused light down into the canyons and gently warming the colors that would otherwise be quite cool. (In other words, blue.) The diffused light causes even the shaded areas, such as recesses in the rock, to retain some details. And because the light is reflected from and into red sandstone canyon walls, the color of the light only gets warmer, and down in the canyon the color can be quite beautiful.

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

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff

May 11, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Along the Mt. Carmel Road through Zion National Park, the higher elevation areas tend to feature a lot of lighter color sandstone, which I understand may be the remnants of ancient sand dunes. For the most part, these formations tend to be lighter in color than the strikingly red tones of the sandstone cliffs found lower in the park, in the Zion Canyon of the Virgin River for example. These “highland” rock formations have their own appeal, including a wide variety of patterns including beautiful curving shapes.

But that isn’t what you see in this photograph, even though I made it in the highland area. As we rounded a turn at one point, ahead of us and then to the right was a very large and close cliff of red sandstone, and it was still in the afternoon shade. I like shade! Not only that, but in front of this cliff were several large trees that were not only out of the shade but which were also backlit. I like back-light! So we stopped and I photographed those trees. But as I worked on them I also noticed this skeletal and very deal old snag of to one side. I like old snags! Because the rock was in the shade yet lit by reflections from across the canyon, the red tones of the sandstone were intensified. There were a couple of challenges with this scene. The overall luminosity range is not great, the colors are all affected by the reddish glow from the cliff and the light from across the small canyon, and the tonal level of the tree is not that different from that of the rocks. In order to get the tree to stand out at least a bit against the rocks (something that was more obvious on the scene and looking at it in 3D) some work was necessary in post, especially some fine work on the tree itself.

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Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring

April 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.

I’ve seen so many beautiful photographs of cottonwood (and other) trees against sandstone cliffs, that I was anxious to search out some such scenes when I went to Zion and other Southwest locations in early April. After arriving in the town of Springdale, near the entrance to Zion and the Virgin River canyon, we headed up into the canyon for our first visit. Although I had seen plenty of photographs from the area, I had made a point of not researching any specific locations or shots – I’d rather find my own. As we entered the canyon, a friend’s description of the place as “Yosemite in red” came to mind – though this canyon in Zion has a much smaller and more intimate scale.

From the upper park service tram stop, we continued on up the canyon on the easy trail. If I were evaluating my day based on how far I hiked, it would have been a failure. I hardly ever walked more than a few dozen yards at a time without stopping to look around or scope out some new photographic opportunity. These trees were growing on the opposite side of the river, right up against the vertical sandstone walls, and the lack of direct sun softened the light on these trees and their brand new spring leaves.

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

Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff

April 14, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cottonwood tree with early spring leaves stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park, Utah.

This was my first visit to Zion National Park – believe it or not – and I had been thinking about photographing cottonwood trees against red sandstone cliffs well before we arrived. We got there in the afternoon, checked in to our lodgings, and soon went up into the main canyon on the shuttle and then hiked up toward the Narrows from there.

It was a special and unusual experience for me to be photographing in an entirely new place, and to have very little idea of the geography of the Zion at all – I had almost intentionally avoided researching ahead of time, preferring to take it for what it was when I arrived. I was so naive that when we passed over a bridge and I looked downstream I thought, “Oh, that is the Watchman.” (For those who don’t know, the photograph of the Watchman Tower above the Virgin River, photographed from the bridge that crosses the river just inside the park is, roughly speaking, the Zion equivalent of photographing Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite.) We kept going, staring up at the beautiful sandstone towers and walls as the shuttle travelled up the canyon to the very end at the Temple of Sinawava, where we got off and started to walk. The walls in this very area are beautiful, and my progress up the trail was very slow as I stopped to gawk and photograph all of these wonderful new subjects, including this almost bare tree with its first spring growth. against the backdrop of the sandstone cliffs.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trunk

Skeletal Tree and Sandstone Cliff

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff

Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring

Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff

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