Tag Archives: white

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

Turks Head, Green River

April 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The green river curves around Turks Head and through deep canyons in hazy evening light, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

I made several photographs Canyonlands National Park’s Green River Overlook on this beautiful early April evening. The upper portion of this area of the park is a high, flat area at about 6000′ of elevation that tends to drop off steeply, especially on the east, south, and west sides which lead to the canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers just above their confluence. Below this upper plateau there is a second plateau at the level of the White Rim about 1000′ lower, with yet another drop-off into the bottoms of the river canyons and their tributaries.

This photograph is looking roughly southwest into the canyon of the Green River, which is barely visible between the foreground White Rim area and the solitary butte of “Turks Head” just beyond. (At least I hope it is Turks Head! That looks to be the only feature in this area that would fit that description, but I’m now to this geography.) At this early evening time the light was slanting nearly horizontally across the scene from the right and hitting a few of the west-facing slopes and glancing along the top of the White Rim. Haze filled the air, softening the light, muting the colors of the scene, and accentuating the grand scale of this landscape.

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: Utah

Green River Canyon, Evening

April 10, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I recently returned from a week in Utah which, perhaps surprisingly, was completely new to me as a photographic subject. More about that in a moment, but first a description of the photograph. It was made in Canyonlands National Park in the “Island in the Sky” area, looking west from a high viewpoint above the canyon containing the winding Green River, not far above its confluence with the Colorado River. The “Island” is a high and relatively flat plateau at around 6000+’ of elevation, surrounding on many sides by deep canyons, cliffs, and then several levels of lower plateaus. There are “edges” everywhere, and all of them provide stunning vistas into the vast spaces below and beyond. We ended up at this spot largely due to a photograph I had seen an a park brochure that included a view of receding mesas and canyons in evening light. We scouted it in the middle of the afternoon as we visited several places in this area of the park, and it seemed inevitable that I would end up at sunset. I initially imagined a scene with brighter colors from the sunset and the post-sunset sky, but instead I ended up with something that I think I like even more, namely softer light with haze in the atmosphere and somewhat gentler colors.

As I mentioned above, I have not photographed in Utah before. I had been through the state several times many years ago, but I think we more or less sped through on interstate highways – which don’t tend to follow the most scenic routes – and I had a very limited view of the place. While it is too bad that I waited so long to go there, it gave me the opportunity to have an experience that I don’t have nearly as often in California where I do most of my shooting. Because I live within a short drive of redwood forests, the Pacific coast, and places like Yosemite Valley and the Sierra and visit all of them frequently, I have to admit that I sometimes forget how extraordinary they are. I can drive right past Yosemite’s Tunnel View if the view is just a typical Yosemite Valley view. But on this trip, I more or less intentionally avoided investigating our destinations before we left. Consequently, I had opportunities to be surprised and astonished — like any good tourist! — by things that I was seeing for the first time. For example, I really had no idea what I would see at Arches National Park when we drove into it at just about the “golden hour” – and I was completely stunned by impossible structures and juxtapositions of sandstone columns and arches and towers and cliffs. I just got a quick taste on this trip… but I’ll be back.

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

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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Third Street Bridge, Morning

April 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Third Street Bridge near AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.

This bridges sits in a newly revitalized area of San Francisco next to the Giants’ AT&T ball park, which is visible in the background along the right side of the frame. In an area that was (and still is, if you look around a bit) somewhat “seedy,” there are now, for better or for worse, lots of new buildings including businesses and condominiums. This bridge seems like a sort of surprising structure to see in a place like this. It is a “draw bridge” that can apparently be lifted to allow boats to pass underneath to go in and out of a small inlet that extends from the bay (to the right of this photo) and inland a ways.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Impossible Tree Fall, Spring

April 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rushing water of a seasonal creek splashes and leaps over rocks and past a tree, Yosemite National Park.

The name of this little seasonal waterfall – found along highway 120 – is not, as far as I can tell, official. However, it seems to be fairly well-known among Yosemite folks. It is also a great name – not only because of the fun conduction of words, but also because it so aptly describes the most notable feature of the fall, the “impossible tree.” In this odd little section of rocky hillside above a road, a creek flows for a short time in the spring as the winter snow melts out. In this middle of this rocky jumble grows a single tree, with its roots seemingly attached to nothing more than rocks. So it is a doubly impossible tree, growing in the middle of a waterfall and somehow finding sustenance from granite.

This photograph was made outside of the more typical “golden hour” time, though it wasn’t all that late in the morning. My timing was just right – though luck probably had as much to do with this as did planning. As we passed by, the sun was rising high enough to peek over the top of the ridge above the fall and its light was just starting to strike the leaping water from behind and above.

G Dan Mitchell Photography