Spring Flowers at Mirror Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. April 27, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Tiny spring flowers photographed along the shoreline of Mirror Lake in Yosemite Valley.
keywords: California, National Park, Sierra Nevada, Spring, Yosemite, usa, valley, mirror lake, nature, flower, plant, blossom, bloom, leaf, hike, macro, pink, maroon, green, stock
Dogwood Blossom – Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. April 27, 2008 © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
On my first “One Day Yosemite Valley Blitz” of the season I drove up the Valley for a day of photography on April 27. The dogwood trees were just starting to bloom and although most were still far from their peak I did find a few wonderful blossoms including this one on a fallen tree near the east end of the Valley.
The blossoming of the dogwoods is one of the major attractions of the spring season for many Yosemite aficionados, almost rivaling the spring waterfalls. They may start in late April and continue on into May, though the timing can vary quite a bit depending on the precise location and elevation of the trees.
keywords: dogwood, blossom, bloom, flower, spring, tree, leaf, bokeh, forest, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, foliage, nature, scenic, travel, stock
Two White Globe Lily Flowers. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 26, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Two white globe lily flowers growing in a narrow canyon at Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. I make a point of hiking through this canyon with my camera equipment every April, when many wildflowers are in bloom.
A couple notes on this photo and some other wildflower photos that will soon follow… I know the location of these flowers very well – they grow along a trail through a canyon at a nearby park where I hike many times each year. I shot these photographs without a tripod. In fact, I travelled very light when I did much of this flower photography this season – on this day I was carrying only my Canon 5D and a 24-105mm zoom. The lens choice might catch the attention of some readers, since this is not your typical macro lens – but I’ve found that it works quite well for this type of shooting, and that it is possible to get a pleasing background blur in many cases if I use a large aperture and pay attention to what is in the background.
keywords: chinese lantern, flower, wild, wildflower, spring, canyon, blossom, plant, leaf, nature, almaden, quicksilver, santa clara county, park, san jose, stock
Purple Wildflowers. Grant Ranch County Park, California. April 20, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Spring purple wildflowers photographed in the grasslands of Grant Ranch County Park east of San Jose, California.
I’m told that these are Vicia villosa or winter vetch. All I know for certain is that the hillside was covered with these beautiful small flowers, and that I had to get down very low on the ground to photograph them. :-)
For those interested in photo equipment issues, this photo is evidence, I think, that you can get decent out of focus background bokeh from the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L.
keywords: purple, wildflowers, wild, flowers, grant ranch, santa clara, county, park, joseph, green, leaf, grass, stem, bloom, blossom, spring, nature, stock, california, usa, photo, photography, Vicia villosa, winter vetch