Tag Archives: blooms

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

Desert Star Flowers

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Desert Star Flowers
“Desert Star Flowers” — Tiny desert star (monoptilon bellioides) flowers, Death Valley.

As I mentioned yesterday in the first post following our late-February visit to Death Valley, the main stories this time were wildflowers and Lake Manly. This post is about the former. We went to the place where I photographed these desert star (or Mojave star) flowers looking for sand verbena and desert gold, and we definitely found them. But there were lots of other flowers, too, including these tiny specimens.

I’ve always been aware of wildflowers — kind of hard to ignore them when they appear in large numbers and brilliant colors! But I’ve missed a lot about them, too, as I focused on other elements of the landscape. But my wife, Patricia Emerson Mitchell, wildflowers are her thing. And photographing with her taught me to look down and see things that I had missed before. This is especially true in the desert, where there are myriad tiny wildflowers underfoot in the most surprising places.

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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

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Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature

Imaginary Floral Landscape

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Imaginary Floral Landscape
“Imaginary Floral Landscape” — An imaginary floral lenscape of receeding spring petals.

This feels like a floral version of my “imaginary landscape” photographs, in which I push the interpretation of the image significantly, to the point that I feel it is best to acknowledge what is going on. (To many photographers and flower-lovers it is obvious that this is not a “what I saw” photograph, but more a “what I imagined” photo.) The starting point was a photograph I made using a macro lens and shooting across the top of a group of flowers.

The boundary between real and imaginary in photographs is much less obvious that some observers may realize. If you know what you are looking at, it is not a secret that photographs are usually the photographers interpretation of the subject, not a simple reproduction. To be honest, this is more or less a feature of photographs — they cannot really be full, objective records of things, and some element of interpretation figures in virtually all photographs.

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

Photographs: Nature

Pink Mallow Bouquet

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Pink Mallow Bouquet
A mini-bouget of spring pink mallow blossoms in meadow grasses.

Pink Mallow Bouquet. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A mini-bouget of spring pink mallow blossoms in meadow grasses.

Photos are temporarily being shared without additional commentary. Watch for commentary to resume in late summer.

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

Photographs: Nature

Three Foxglove Flowers

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Three Foxglove Flowers
Three white foxglove flowers hanging from a branch in shade.

Three Foxglove Flowers. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three white foxglove flowers hanging from a branch in shade.

Most of the time when I photograph foxglove flowers I tend to work with the vertical stalks of very colorful flowers, and I try to use a point of view that lets us look into the individual flowers. For one thing, there are often some fascinating patters inside the blossoms. But this time I decided to go in a different direction with this photograph of flowers hanging from a horizontal stalk.

The flowers were growing in a shady area and it was early evening, so I had very soft light to work with. By shooting across the hanging flowers I was able to put three of them in the frame but also include some background flowers behind them. And somehow the monophonic interpretation seems right in this case.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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