Tag Archives: utah

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

Sandstone Canyon and Forest

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Sandstone Canyon and Forest - A winding sandstone canyon willed with trees, Zion National Park, Utah
A winding sandstone canyon willed with trees, Zion National Park, Utah

Sandstone Canyon and Forest. Zion National Park, Utah. April 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A winding sandstone canyon willed with trees, Zion National Park, Utah.

This photograph was definitely not shot in “golden hour” light! Although it was afternoon, the sun was still high in the sky, and that sky was a somewhat unattractive washed out light blue color. In order to not allow that quality to take over the image, I composed this scene to completely exclude sky and also to minimize the inclusion of more distant features that would show the effect of the haze. I did include a bit of it at the upper right, since that serves to give the image some amount of depth.

The area is in the “high country” of Zion National Park along the Mt. Carmel highway. This road passes to the east across and then out of the park, climbing (through an exciting but, in some ways, unfortunate tunnel in the sandstone) out of the Virgin River area of the main Zion Canyon to pass through the dome-filled, river cut highlands. I shot toward the sun here, to be able to include the beautiful shaded cliff walls, and I tried to find a composition that would show the twisting course of the creek that winds down this 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.
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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

Towers, Morning Light

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Towers, Morning Light - Morning light silhouettes towers and ridges, Arches National Park, Utah
Morning light silhouettes towers and ridges, Arches National Park, Utah

Towers, Morning Light. Arches National Park, Utah. April 6, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light silhouettes towers and ridges, Arches National Park, Utah.

On my last morning at Arches National Park in early April, I made one final quick trip back up into the park before hitting the road back to California. I was up very early, arriving in the park before sunrise. I had a string of possible subjects in mind, all of which depended to some extent on how the morning light played out. They include the possibility of photographing the setting full moon against some arch or tower that I might be able to put in the right spot relative to the moon, a strong intention to photograph the Tower of Babel and The Organ in very early light, balanced against a desire to shoot some other arch or tower in similar light, the thought that there might be some chances to shoot details of the Park Avenue area a bit later, and as always the potential to shoot straight into the morning sun and haze – a favorite habit of mine.

After getting to a couple of these subjects, the series of receding ridges, buttes, and towers to the east seemed interesting. I used a long lens to photograph this in order to edit down the portion of the landscape that I would work with and to compress the distances. The scene was trickier than it might appear – because I was using the long lens I had very limited options to move from side to side and still keep an interesting composition. In addition it was windy – always a tricky thing when working with very long focal lengths. And, of course, I was shooting in to the light and the backlit atmospheric haze of the early morning – not that I’m complaining about that, since it is some of my favorite light. In the end, I came up with this composition which includes a bunch of features that I can’t even identify! ;-)

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.
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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.

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Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring

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Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring - A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.
A stand of cottonwoods with new spring growth against the backdrop of the vertical sandstone walls of Zion Canyon, Utah.

Cottonwood Trees and Sandstone, Spring. Zion National Park, Utah. April 4. 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

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: Utah

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon

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Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon - Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.
Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.

Trees and Cliffs, Red Rock Canyon. Red Canyon, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Scattered trees below eroded red sandstone cliffs, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Utah.

During out April Utah visit we drove from Zion National Park to Moab, where we would visit Arches and Canyonlands National Park. We debated whether to take the quick and efficient route or the slow and scenic route from Zion to Moab… and of course the slow and scenic route won out. This took us on a range to sometimes-twisty two-lane highways, starting with the Mt. Carmel road through Zion, then up through the Dixie National Forest, past Red Canyon and then Zion, across the drainage of the Escalante, through part of the Capitol Reef National Park, and finally taking a long, lonely road north to highway 70. There was a lot to see along this route – too much, actually, for the single travel day we had allocated to it.

On a trip filled with surprises – this was my first visit to Utah in a long, long time, and my first time photographing there – this day was filled with more than its share. Among them was the drive up Red Canyon. Being focused on the well-known national parks and monuments I had completely overlooked this place – but it turns out to be a wildly colorful place of brilliant red cliffs and towers, many very close to the highway as it ascends the canyon. I made this photograph very close to the beginning of the red rock country as we arrived from the west.

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.