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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night

Shooting Star Flowers

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Shooting Star Flowers

Shooting Star Flowers. Quicksilver Park, California. March 28, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A colorful spring wildflower bouquet of shooting star flowers along a trail at Almaden Quicksilver Park, California.

On this weekend’s first hike I found my first shooting star flowers of the season. These were growing alongside my trail on a hillside in partial sun, and were among a small garden of many different types of California spring wildflowers. This particular spot is not too far from where I live, and it is a spot I return to every spring to photograph the flowers.

(Note: I posted this and other spring wildflower photos elsewhere. Twice this one elicited the same comment: “Great DOF.” Hmmm. That could mean several things, I suppose. It could mean that I “controlled DOF well for this subject.” It could mean that “limiting DOF was a good choice in this photograph.” Or, as I suspect, it might mean that some people are using the term “DOF” (or depth of field) when they are commenting on “bokeh,” the latter being the blurring of background subjects that are not in the DOF range. Just wondering…)

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: colorful, spring, season, wildflower, flower, blossom, bloom, bud, shooting star, trail, hike, walk, almaden, quicksilver, county, park, san jose, santa clara, california, usa, central, foliage, nature, stem, bokeh, green, yellow, purple, pink, stock

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Trailside Ferns, Spring

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Trailside Ferns, Spring

Trailside Ferns, Spring. Quicksilver Hills, California. March 28, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

New spring ferns grow on an embankment along a trail in the Almaden Quicksilver Hills, California.

I photographed these ferns on the shortest hike I know, on the trail closest to my home. But this trail holds a small valley that contains an incredible number of wildflowers and lush growth every spring. Today the wildflowers seemed to just be getting started, but everything was in that brief California spring phase when the earth is still wet and plants are growing like crazy – it only lasts a short time, and a few weeks from now everything will be dry once again. I spotted these small ferns growing in a rocky embankment right next to the trail, and right at the spot where I had to stop and turn around. (The other thing that spring brings is yard work, and I had an afternoon date with the yard. ;-)

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: almaden, quicksilver, county, park, san jose, santa clara, california, usa, spring, hike, trail, bank, fern green, leaf, foliage, new, sun, light, embankment, hills, valley, shade, new, scenic, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trillium, Flower and Stem

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Trillium, Flower and Stem

Trillium, Flower and Stem. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single trillium flower and leaves atop its slender stem in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I think I hit the peak of the “trillium season” when I visited Muir Woods near the beginning of March on a cloudy and damp late winter day on which the sun only occasionally broke through to light the forest floor. I probably spent an hour and a half photographing these flowers along a little section of trail that would usually take perhaps 10 minutes to hike – the flowers were everywhere. Some, like this one, were growing alone, while in other places there were small gardens of trillium flowers.

It may seem odd, but many of these close-ups of flowers were made using a 70-200mm zoom on a full-frame camera – no close-up lenses, no macro lens, and no close-up “filters.” The longer lens lets me work from a greater distance, simplifying tripod placement a lot, and also giving me a lot more flexibility in terms of composition. If there is are downsides to this approach they might include the potential for very narrow depth of field and the need to pay extra attention to camera stability. I used the “live view” feature to focus on many of these flowers. If the usual autofocus feature works I’ll use it, but sometimes it can be hard to get clean focus on these subjects. “Live view” on the Canon EOS 5D II raises the mirror and displays the image on the rear LCD. While the standard projected image can be useful for composition, it is not detailed enough for focusing. However, you can select a 10X zoom setting and see a very large and detailed image of the subject, and in this way you can do very precise manual focusing on any point in the frame.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: muir; woods; national; monument; park; marin county; nature; california; usa; winter; trillium; flower; blossom; white; yellow; leaf; stem; plant; foliage; forest; redwood; nature; spring; bokeh; travel; scenic; marin county; stock; bloom, golden gate, recreation

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light

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Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light

Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light streams through a redwood grove to illuminate ferns on the sloping forest floor below at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Yes, another photo of a redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument. As I think I wrote earlier, I’m working on creating a collection of photographs of this location and obviously the trees themselves need to have a large place in all of this work. This is a bit different – really, trust me! – than some of the other recent redwood grove shots in that it was made during sunny conditions rather than the more gloomy (but no less interesting) rainiy and cloudy conditions I had photographed earlier.

And, yes, there will be more… :-)

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: forest, woods, trees, redwoods, grove, trunks, vertical, muir woods, national monument, park, california, usa, marin, county, floor, hill, slope, ferns, illuminate, nature, frond, branch, dense, light, morning, shadow, green, stock