Cattail

Image June 27, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A spring cattail growing along a trail in the San Francisco Bay hills.

I made this at a place where I usually hike in the morning, a nearby park with trails where I can quickly get away and put in some miles. I don’t go primarily for photographic reasons, though I always carry a camera. This time my schedule made it possible to take an evening hike. I started after the dinner hour, set a turn-around time so that I’d get back to the car before the gate was closed, and I was off.

I went a couple of miles before my alarm reminded me that it was time to turn around. I retraced my steps, but now the soft evening light was starting to look interesting. Eventually I came to a large patch of dense cattails growing along the trail, something I had completely missed on the first half of the hike. I took a look at my watch, figured I could spare a few minutes, and set to work making close-up photographs of the lime-green cattails. (Note: I realize that I don’t know the actual definition of “cattail” plants…)

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Ivy-Covered Wall

Image June 26, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thick, green ivey covers and old brick wall.

I am a sucker for soft light and green leaves, especially if the light is somewhat varied and the leaves have a bit of texture and good coverage. This bit of ivy, covering a wall at a San Francisco Peninsula garden, fit the bill. It was tucked away on the shady side of building, with trees overhead, but some slightly more intense light coming from behind me through openings in trees.

I’m often tricked by subjects like this one. When I see a bed or wall of overlapping leaves it often seems like I could just point the camera that way and produce some kind of picture. But when I do and I look more carefully, there are almost always little bits of imperfection and unbalance that distract me… and I end up taking much longer with these subjects than I expect to.

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

Meadow, Trees, and Cascade

Image June 25, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The view across a Yosemite Valley meadow toward a spring cascade below Glacier Point.

To some extent, this is arguably a “record shot” that documents this year’s extraordinary spring runoff in Yosemite Valley. This winter set records for total snowfall (and snow water content) thought the Sierra, and once spring warmth arrived it began to melt, sending torrents of water downstream. When I visited the Valley in late May, there was water everywhere: meadows had become lakes, trails were flooded, and water was cascading down cliff faces in locations that are usually dry.

This view looks across the Valley to a particularly interesting section of its walls. The main mass of rock is just to the west of the Glacier Point Apron, in an area of fractured rock that drains the watershed above. Typically you might see a small trickle of water here, but at this point there was a full-on stream winding back and forth down this face toward the Valley.

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Photographs: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Seed Pods

Image June 24, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Seed pods in the San Francisco Bay Area hills.

This is a very subtle photograph, with a small range of tones and nothing that is quite pure white or even close to black. The early evening light was quite soft. I almost decided not to try to photograph this subject — the colors were so subtle, the light was low, and I was working handheld. But there I was, there the seed pods were, so I decided to give it a try.

The pods belong to some very tall wild grasses that grow along a trail that I frequently hike. Perhaps only weeks ago this would have been a very green subject, but here in California we move pretty quickly from the green of April to the brown, tan, and gold of the drier seasons of the year.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Cattail

Ivy-Covered Wall

Meadow, Trees, and Cascade

Seed Pods

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