Winter Green. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
California winter grasses sprout in January, San Francisco Bay Area.
Today I break up the stream of recent photographs from more far-flung travels to share a very local photograph that I made this week right in my “own backyard” here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have hiked these local hills for decades, and these grasslands and oaks are in my blood by now — they are old friends. The specific location isn’t important, and you can find places like this all over California.
My reason for going out today was not photography — it was the hike. But like a good photographer I stuck a small camera and a lens in my pack. As I rounded a bend on the trail I was presented with this classic California winter scene of trees and shadows falling across a hillside with brand new grass — the very beginning fo California’s “impossible green season.” When much of the rest of the country is still deep in winter, here our terrain is just beginning to turn green.
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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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You are right about that green, it is about the prettiest I have ever seen in a photograph! It glows!
Thanks! I’ve been intrigued by the shapes of these trees and their shadows for years. I often see the tree and its shadow as a single, almost symmetrical shape.
And, of course, I never get tired of the amazingly intense eruption of green every winter in California.
Dan
such an interesting combination of color and shadow! Beautiful!