Category Archives: Photographs: Macro

Photographs: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Translucent Bloom

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Translucent Bloom
Light glows through the petals of a spring blossom.

Translucent Bloom. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Light glows through the petals of a spring blossom.

The scale of my photograph subjects usually ranges between the whole landscape and something a bit smaller than that. But Patty, the other photographer in the household, has made a specialty of photographing vey small things, often flowers, and often so close that we see details rather than the whole thing. This was bound to rub off on me, and I realized that I have a series of such photographs on my desktop ready to post.

I made this photograph on one of our periodic forays to a large garden on the San Francisco Peninsula. At first I wasn’t thrilled with the light — we were expecting some lingering fog and soft light, but instead the sun was out. But I found that if I got in really close to some of these flowers that were in just the right light… it was possible to find that “less than all of it” perspective on them.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Succulent

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Succulent
Detail of a succulent plant.

Succulent. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Detail of a succulent plant.

Recently I shared a group of tulip photographs and mentioned that we saw them during April visits to a Bay Area garden. But the tulips were not the only attraction. For example, I posted a photograph of dogwood blossoms a few days ago. Although they comprised a very small part of the overall displays, I also saw some very interesting succulent plants here and there.

At this garden, many of these plants are found in small pots in various locations — on a table, on top of a low wall, tucked into a spot beneath trees. In my view, some are not the most visually exciting plants, and those that present interesting patterns are difficult to photograph, often because it is hard to get an uninterrupted framing of the plant. I liked this plant, however, both for the remarkable patterns of the leaves and for the striking coloration.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Dried Winter Flower

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Dried Winter Flower
Dried desert wildflowers, Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park

Dried Winter Flower. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dried desert wildflowers, Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

As someone once wrote, “There’s always something to see!” Occasionally I have to work at reminding myself of this, and then I have to work at doing the “seeing.” My recent January trip to Death Valley was a case in point. This is a place I know well, and where I usually can find plentiful subjects to photograph, and where conditions usually are not an impediment. In fact, the conditions regarded as challenging — things like dust storms — often turn out to be photographically compelling. However, on this trip things often seemed a bit… blah. There were thick clouds and a heavy atmosphere, with a sort of gray and murky effect that did not seem to provide many opportunities to photograph the grand landscape and which left a kind of flat light that wasn’t even great for more intimate subjects.

As I often remind myself, if I’m in the field often enough that I manage to encounter spectacular conditions I have to accept that sometimes I’ll experience the opposite, too. So in conditions like these I have strategies. One is to simply slow down and enjoy being in the place — and I did quite a bit of that on this trip, taking time to wander up some quiet washes and to poke around odd back-country places. Another is to look where I don’t usually look. This photograph came about from a combination of those focuses. Driving a gravel road “in the middle of nowhere” I noticed an abandoned side road, stopped, got out and walked along it, discoing some old mining remnants. As I walked back toward my vehicle I realized that the surrounding terrain was full of winter plants holding a remarkable number of these dried flowers, something I hadn’t noticed here before.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Macro, Photographs: Nature

The Center

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The Center
The center of a white flower surrounded by darker petals

The Center. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The center of a white flower surrounded by darker petals.

Previously I’ve pointed out that I’m not the primary flower and foliage photographer in our household — that honor belongs to Patty Emerson Mitchell. Sometimes I accompany her on excursions to photograph this subject, and I made this photograph on one of those occasions when we spend the morning at a beautiful formal garden not too far from where we live.

I usually photograph flowers in color — in many cases color is the point! But every so often monochrome seems like the way to go, either because the particular flower’s color is not striking or because of the way that black and white may allow us to push and pull the image in ways that would not likely work in color. I’m often a bit surprised that some people seem to regard black and white as more “real” or true to the original subject. in truth, perhaps because we give up the possibility of an “accurate” rendition of a color subject when we work in black and white, we actually have far more room to modify and tweak the image to produce the result we have in mind — and often these modifications are far from subtle.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.