Tag Archives: blooms

Photographs: Nature

Three Discarded Flowers

Image Leave a comment
Three Discarded Flowers
Three discarded spring flowers, photographed in a wheelbarrow

Three Discarded Flowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three discarded spring flowers, photographed in a wheelbarrow.

I am not the main flower photographer in our family — that would be my wife Patricia Emerson Mitchell, whose primary focus is on photographing very small things, usually flowers and plants, and frequently in abstract ways. (We have a standing joke here about “our” macro lens… that I never get to use….) But still, I give it a try from time to time, and I enjoy seeing what I can do with this subject.

I recently accompanied her to a nearby formal garden where she often photographs. (It didn’t discourage me to know the they have a small cafe there, too. ;-) We went early in the morning on a non-busy weekday, thus avoiding the crowds and making it a bit easier to do photography without getting in the way. The gardeners (lots of them!) were there, too. One contingent was heading roses and clipping spent flowers and vegetation… and I found that the piles of discarded flora photographically interesting. That’s where I found these three flowers on a bed of clipped leaves in a wheelbarrow. (I think that the gardeners wondered about my sanity when they saw me photographing their garden trash!)

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.

Photographs: Nature

Lupine And Paintbrush

Image Leave a comment
The flowers of lupine and paintbrush plants, Pinnacles National Park
The flowers of lupine and paintbrush plants, Pinnacles National Park

Lupine And Paintbrush. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The flowers of lupine and paintbrush plants, Pinnacles National Park.

I found these wildflowers — lupine and paintbrush — along the High Peaks Trail and Pinnacles National Park on a recent visit this spring. I had gone there to try to catch the tail end of the spring wildflower season, which was quite good this year following heavier-than-average rainfall. I also felt like it was time for a good hike over some mountainous terrain. This route gave me both.

While wildflower photography constitutes a small portion of my work, I’ve been attracted to the subject ever since I started going into outdoor places decades ago. This year, for the first time, I finally have a macro lens, arguably the ideal tool for this subject. My ideal wildflower subject probably has some combination of the following: an interesting flower or flowers, perhaps some colors that are both striking and interact well, soft light, a background that is either not distracting or which can be made so with focusing techniques. This one group of flowers gave me most of that. In an area that was largely in sun and mostly featured clumps of individual types of flowers, here I found the red paintbrush and the blue/purple lupine juxtaposed in a narrow band of shade.

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.

Photographs: Nature

Blue Dicks, Spring Foliage

Image Leave a comment
Blue Dicks, Spring Foliage
Blue Dicks flowers against a backdrop of spring greenery.

Blue Dicks, Spring Foliage. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Blue Dicks flowers against a backdrop of spring greenery.

Blue dicks is a beautiful flower with a perhaps-unfortunate name. One reason for the “unfortunate” label is probably obvious. (I’ve been warned to exercise some care when doing online searches for this flower. Hint: include “+flower” in your search terms.) The other reason is possibly less obvious and maybe even arguable: the flower really isn’t always blue. To my eye, it sometimes leans more toward purple or even pink. It is a very common flower but also a rather nice one.

I photographed this along a trail that I’ve hiked for years, and one that isn’t very far from where I live. This time of year, if you live in California’s grassland and oak country or can get to it, there is a very good chance that you’ll be able to find it, too. The flowers typically are individuals, rising at the tips of long, slender stalks that often wave in the slightest breeze.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lupine-Filled Meadow, Evening

Leave a comment

Lupine-Filled Meadow, Evening
Lupine blooms carpet and alpine meadow against a backdrop of evening light on Sierra Nevada peaks

Lupine-Filled Meadow, Evening. John Muir Wilderness, California. August 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lupine blooms carpet and alpine meadow against a backdrop of evening light on Sierra Nevada peaks

This was an unusual and exceptional year in the Sierra Nevada, primarily because the range finally — after five years of drought! — had not only good winter precipitation, but record-breaking precipitation. After watching the range dry out in very scary ways for the paste half of a decade, it has been tremendously gratifying to see a summer season that felt more normal. Because of the heavy winter storms, the high country snow melted out later than usual, and many places that typically might open by June or earlier were still closed well into July. And when the high country did open, there was still snow everywhere and creeks and rivers continued to run high well into the summer.

A side effect of all of this was that the short high country season of growth was delayed and extended, as we clearly saw during our week-plus backcountry photography excursion at the end of August and into the first few days of September. In a typical year I usually begin to sense autumn coming on by this point in the season, but this year it felt like full-blown summer: the creeks were still flowing strongly, there were snow fields in the higher mountains and we still had to cross them to get over passes, meadows were lush and green, and there were wildflowers everywhere. this meadow was a wonderful example. Located only a short walk away from our camp, it was absolutely filled with flowers, but especially with one of the largest displays of lupine that I’ve seen in the range.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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