Tag Archives: utah

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

Base of the Organ, Morning

Leave a comment
Base of the Organ, Morning - Autumn foliage begins to change along the base of the Organ and on the slopes of the Great White Throne, Zion Canyon
Autumn foliage begins to change along the base of the Organ and on the slopes of the Great White Throne, Zion Canyon

Base of the Organ, Morning. Zion National Park, Utah. October 30, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn foliage begins to change along the base of the Organ and on the slopes of the Great White Throne, Zion Canyon

During three visits to Zion National Park and Zion Canyon during the past year, the area around “Big Bend” in the canyon has become a bit of a fixation for me. There is a lot to see and photograph here, and the lighting changes a lot during the course of the day. The bend in the canyon creates a sort of closed-in effect, and it is possible to focus both on the very small features and on the very large, including the canyon walls and more distant examples of vegetation climbing up the cliff walls.

Two major features make an appearance in this photograph. The near, darker columns are the base of a feature called “The Organ” that sits near the apex of the horseshoe bend that the canyon makes here as the Virgin River goes downstream. Beyond that are the huge walls of “The Great White Throne,” a towering feature in this portion of the canyon whose color is lighter than that of some of the other reddish rock cliffs nearby. I made this photograph fairly early in the morning before any direct sunlight had begun to affect the scene and when a certain amount of haze was still in the air. The foliage at the base of The Organ is just beginning to show the tiniest bit of autumn color, but higher on the cliffs of The Great White Throne there are trees that are well along on this transition.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Kolob Canyon, Morning

Leave a comment
Kolob Canyon, Morning - Morning light slants over the top of sandstone cliffs above early autumn foliage in Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park
Morning light slants over the top of sandstone cliffs above early autumn foliage in Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park

Kolob Canyon, Morning. Zion National Park, Utah. October 14, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light slants over the top of sandstone cliffs above early autumn foliage in Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park

I finally made it into the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park this October. From what I can tell, this area is much less frequently visited than the more popular and accessible Zion Canyon area. It seems to me that the park service sort of wants it this way, which makes sense to me. There is almost no formal development of this portion of the park aside from a very modest visitor center near the entrance. Along the dead-end road into this portion of the park, you find little besides a few turn-outs and parking lots at some trailheads. In addition, the entrance to this section of the park requires a significant drive from the most popular lodging areas in places like Springdale.

We arrived on a very cold early autumn morning when many trees and bushes were just beginning the fall color changes. In most places things were still very green, but here and there it was possible to find some nice displays of color. Near the location of this photograph the road made a sort of horseshoe bend across the lower portion of the canyon, and I spotted a lot of things that seemed to be photo-worthy to me: the early morning sun light beams slanting through morning haze across the upper section of the canyon, the dry waterfall at its furthest-back point, the always-beautiful red rock cliffs, and the colorful foliage beginning to appear in the canyon.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Oak Branch and Layered Sandstone After Rain

Leave a comment
Oak Branch and Layered Sandstone After Rain - Branch and autumn leaves of a gambel oak drape over layered sandstone after rain, Zion National Park
Branch and autumn eaves of a gambel oak drape over layered sandstone after rain, Zion National Park

Oak Branch and Layered Sandstone After Rain. Zion National Park, Utah. October 12, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Branch and autumn leaves of a gambel oak drape over layered sandstone after rain, Zion National Park

This photograph was made on the afternoon of the day we arrived in the Zion National Park area, after driving across Arizona and Utah from Moab through some substantial rain. The storm was moving from west-to-east as we drove the opposite direction, and we drove through its core in Arizona. By the time we arrived in Zion and drove over the Mount Carmel Highway, we mostly saw the aftermath of the rain, though a few sprinkles remained here and there – and they occasionally interrupted the photography.

The previous rain and the continuing showers enhance and saturate the colors of the rock and the vegetation and bring to life small streams and rivulets. Here the branch of an overhanging gambel oak tree, just beginning its change to autumn colors, intrudes into the upper corner of the frame and contrasts with the deep red-brown colors of the damp sandstone. Rock angle is everything in this terrain, and here the rock is at an angle that allows its layers to be stripped away gradually, revealing the underlying striations and creating interesting and complex patterns. Because this rock is down in a wash, wet sand sits on many of the small ledges.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Autumn Oak Leaves, Streambed Rock

Leave a comment
Autumn Oak Leaves, Stream Bed Rock - Oak leaves on stratified stream bed rocks, Zion National Park
Autumn oak leaves on stratified stream bed rocks, Zion National Park

Autumn Oak Leaves, Streambed Rock. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn oak leaves on stratified streambed rocks, Zion National Park

This is one of those photographs that is not what I was looking for when I made it. We had dropped into a narrow near-slot canyon in the Zion high country, and my thoughts were on photographing the sandy bed of the little canyon along with the steep and sculpted rock and the light reflecting onto them from the narrow strip of skylight above, or perhaps looking for branches against red sandstone. So as I walked up this little canyon and sort of but not quite saw those things I was becoming just a little bit frustrated photographically – the light was colored the way I had hoped, there were footprints in the sand from those who had hiked here before me, and the colorful branches of fall leaves were few and far between and often in places where I could not see a photograph. (Though, as always, I enjoyed the sensations of walking through such a place.)

As often happens, what I really needed to do was let go of my preconceptions about what I thought should be there and instead look around to see what really was there. As soon as I did this I began to look away from the larger-scale elements of the place and see some of the smaller things and how they might make photographs – a few leaves sitting on rock, some remaining ripples in the sand, and so forth. This bit of rock was sitting a foot or two higher than the stream bed and off to one side under some overhanging plants. Unlike most of the rock there, it was strongly stratified and it had a bit of a yellow cast in places. And a few of the yellowish/tan oak leaves were sitting on its surface.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.