Tag Archives: wilderness

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

Canyon Bend and Tree

November 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A box elder with autumn foliage grows along the stream at the bend in a red rock canyon

There are many patterns familiar to those who enter these canyons. In many cases, the creeks and rivers meander back and forth, and over time they may have cut paths deep into the sandstone layers that also meander in the same way. Walking along such a small creek, looking up, and realizing that a winding canyon hundreds of feet deep was cut but the little creek gives you a sense of deep time… and also a clear indication that such creeks are not always so gentle. The winding patterns also lead you on as you descend the creeks. Each time you round a bend like this one you get a view further along in the canyon… to the next bend, where the creek turns out of sight again. And you say/think to yourself, “just one more bend and then I’ll turn around.” So you keep going and round that next bend, where you can see a bit further into the canyon… to the next bend. And you say/think to yourself, “just one more bend and then I’ll turn around…”

This creek doesn’t follow the perfect pattern of consecutive meanders that are found in some canyons, but it did in this section where I found a single box elder tree growing at the edge of a rock that butted up against the wetter, sandy section of the water course. And far above, the gigantic walls of this canyon mirrored, as expected, the curves of the bottom of the canyon, and warm light bouncing among the canyon walls filtered down here to gently illuminate the depths of this red canyon.

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

First Light, Capitol Reef

November 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Before dawn we drove across Capitol Reef National Park to the east, with a plan to head down the rural road that goes south on the park’s east side. We were hoping for interesting dawn light, but we weren’t quite ready for it when it arrived just after we exited the park and arrived at our intersection. The sun wasn’t up yet, but we could see a light show about to develop, with interesting light likely to strike the high ridge to the west and fantastic clouds appearing in the sky.

We quickly found a spot with an open view on much of the surrounding terrain, left the main “road,” grabbed camera gear and headed off to photograph. Within moment the first real light hit these domes and ridges to our west and turned the sky slightly pink. The formations were a good distance away, so I worked quickly with a long lens — and this light diminished within moments.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Canyon Country Gulch, Evening

November 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light in a gulch among red rock hills.

I can credit a knee injury for this photograph. Several days earlier I had been photographing in a slot canyon far from this location. As often is the case, there was a lot of the typical thick, slimy mud in the bottom of the canyon, although the tracks of other visitors had created a drier and less slippery path around the worst of it. However, at one point my attention strayed from the path (as it almost always does when I’m looking for photographs!) and one foot missed the trail and landed in a bit of sloping mud. This mud may just be the most slippery surface on the planet, and my foot immediately slipped few feed toward the bottom of the mud and a pool before I managed to arrest the slide with my other leg — in the process putting way too much lateral stress on my knee. At the time it didn’t hurt much, but fast-forward to perhaps five days later and…

… as we headed down a gully to toward another big canyon the knee started to act up, and at a point where the rest of the group dropped down into the narrower portion of this canyon my knee said, “No.” I let the group go on, explored a bit in the flatlands above the canyon, walked out, and went elsewhere to photograph. In the evening I returned to camp before the rest of the group and I had some time to kill before sundown, so I wandered off from camp into some beautiful nearby red rock and spend an hour quietly photographing in the evening light, where I found this little gulch with a lone cottonwood tree at its far end.

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

Red Rock Vista

November 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees and brush and red rock stretching toward the horizon

This was a day of travel and establishing a new “home base” with a different group of friends. It began at a national park campground, involved a bit of driving on paved and unpaved roads, and ended at a rustic “camp site” close to 50 miles out on a gravel track. We arrived and spent a bit of time settling in, getting our camp for the next few days organized, and later each of us spent a bit of time wandering the nearby hills and “tuning up” our vision for the coming photographic work.

That evening we wanted to photograph something, but at this late hour and following a somewhat busy day our goal had to be a bit modest. So we loaded ourselves into vehicles and drove back up the road a bit to a spot with impressive red rock hills and walked up onto the sandstone slabs. There was much to see and photograph, and the light varied between overcast and that nearly perfect light that shines through thin clouds late in the day. As we climbed higher into these hills I stopped at this spot to take in the long view across curved sandstone terrain toward the farther reaches of the valley, as early evening sun slanted across rocks and vegetation.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wilderness

Canyon Bend and Tree

First Light, Capitol Reef

Canyon Country Gulch, Evening

Red Rock Vista

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