Tag Archives: blossom

Photographs: Nature

Ready to Bloom

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Ready to Bloom
“Ready to Bloom” — A tulip bud on the verge of opening.

Here is (yet another!) of my tulip photos from a spring garden trek with Patty. This garden, at an old estate on the San Francisco Peninsula, puts on a remarkable tulip show every spring, and we often go once or twice to photograph. Tulip color can be intense in the sunlight, but I prefer to photograph the flowers in the shade, where soft light fills shadows and the colors are a bit more muted.

These tulips were growing in pots that had been placed, well, nearly everywhere around this immense garden. So I searched out examples that were in my ideal light, sometimes working quickly to photograph them before the direct sunlight showed up and obliterated the subtleties of color and texture.

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: Nature

Tulip Bud and Leaves

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

This photograph is the result of something I rarely do — post the same photograph in monochrome and color versions. I shared a color version recently, but while I was working on the image in post I took a little detours and experiment with a black and white interpretation. I like both of them, though they do create different effects.

Black and white almost always has a more abstract quality to me. We know that the world is not monochromatic, so we begin to accept a wider range of interpretations as soon as we move to black and white. There’s less of the “it isn’t real!” concern with monochrome. (Not everyone realizes it, but monochrome images have historically often been the subject of extensive post-processing.) Here I think that the monochromatic version lets us focus more on the shapes and tones themselves, with less need to relate the image to something real.

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

Join the discussion — you are welcome to leave a comment or question. (Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.)

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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)

Photographs: Nature

California Buttercup

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California Buttercup
“California Buttercup” — A California buttercup spring wildflower, Almaden Quicksilver Park.

Previously I have mentioned my habit of returning to seemingly unremarkable places that are special to me — perhaps a particular rock in the Yosemite high country, a certain tree in the Central Valley, an overlook along the Big Sur coast, one small Eastern Sierra aspen grove, and so on. If you visited these places (at the right times) you might think, “Well, yes, that is nice — but it isn’t iconic.” And you would be right. They are not iconic — they are just special to me. This flower photograph comes from one of those places.

There is a park in the South San Francisco Bay Area where I have hiked for decades. Over the years I’ve probably walked pretty much every trail within its boundaries. One trail descends into a small, shady gully where wildflowers grow in April. I go back every year, specifically to find, small plots of particular flowers. I made this photograph on my most recent walk to this place.

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

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.

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.