Tag Archives: blossom

Photographs: Nature

Red Tulip

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Red Tulip
“Red Tulip” — A red tulip blossom opens.

I have to confess to a degree of ignorance about flowers. Many people (including my wife, photographer Patricia Emerson Mitchel) can walk into a garden and name every flower. I recognize flowers by shape, size, color, and season, but I’ve never been able (or willing?) to learn all of their names. So this was just a “very intense red flower” (and a big one, too) until I looked at the buds and realized that it was a tulip. I think…

The color of this flower was amazing. The red was the most intense I think I’ve seen in a flower. As a photographer, that sounds an alert about a technical issue — blowing out the red channel in the digital capture. It also makes me concerned about how accurately the color can be reproduced in a photograph, as some of the very bright and intense colors don’t map perfectly to the digital color space. Having said all of that, this is just about how I recall the flower.

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.

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Photographs: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Fringed Yellow Tulip

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Fringed Yellow Tulip
“Fringed Yellow Tulip” — A yellow fringed tulip flower about the blossom.

Although I’m no expert on flowers, I am a fan of photographing them, especially tulips as they transition from buds to newly-blossomed flowers. (My lack of expertise is something of a family joke. “those are tulips, right?”, I might ask every spring.) This was one of the last we photographed on an early spring visit to a local garden where thousands of them are growing. It is a “fringed” tulip, a type with a remarkable and complex fringe along the edges of the petals.

The fringe impresses me, but is less interesting to me as a photographic subject. I’m attracted to the smooth forms of the unfolding blossoms more than to those details. This one is at the fascinating stage where it has taken on is full coloration and is on the verge of opening and turning into an actual flower.

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

Tulip Bud and Leaves

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Tulip Bud and Leaves
“Tulip Bud and Leaves” — A spring tulip bud, just before blossoming.

While a field of wildly colorful tulips is impressive and hard to resist, I like photographing individual flowers, usually before they are fully bloomed. I love the transition from the early green buds, though the first tentative appearance of the flower’s color, to the moment when the blossom begins to open.

This one is at the state where its eventual color is just starting to appear, taking over from the green early-bud stage. At the upper tip, especially, there is a bit of yellow and a tiny spot of pink. By the way, with this photograph I’m going to do something a little unusual for me: before long I will share a monochrome interpretation of the same image.

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

Cherry Blossom, Hakone Garden

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Cherry Blossom, Hakone Garden
“Cherry Blossom, Hakone Garden” — Cherry blossom in evening light at Hakone Gardens.

This is another “spring” photograph from our afternoon and evening at the Hakone Estate and Gardens earlier this season. The gardens are open — and worth visiting — all year, but there are special events during cherry blossom season, including the evening hours when we visited. The visit began in late afternoon sunlight, but continued on into the evening when colorful lighting is turned on in the garden.

I have known about the Hakone Garden sfor a long time. Back in my cycling days I rode past many times on my way into the mountains. I went there for some workshops and off-site meetings many years ago. But somehow I had never really known the history of the place. It was created as a retreat in the early 1900s under the direction of a woman who was entranced by Asian gardens she saw at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. It passed through several private owners before the last one decided to donate it to the town of Saratoga to protect it from being turned into a housing development.

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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