Tag Archives: filoli

Photographs: Nature

Pink Dogwood

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Pink Dogwood
Spring pink dogwood blossoms and branches.

Pink Dogwood. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Spring pink dogwood blossoms and branches.

Blossoming dogwood trees rank high on the list of signs that spring is really and truly here. Many of us in California head to the lower elevations of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada at about this time each year to see the new blooms emerge. They produce a surprisingly dense burst of white color in forests that are often relatively shady.

However, these are not that type of dogwood. If you are one of those California dogwood fans, you certainly noticed the pink fringes on these flowers. Our native Sierra dogwood is more of a pure white specimen, though it can have a bit of yellow or green — but it most certainly does not have the color these flowers possess. I photographed them in a formal garden in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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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Photographs: Nature

Emerging Tulip

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Emerging Tulip
A blossoming pink tulip against a background of tulip greenery.

Emerging Tulip. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A blossoming pink tulip against a background of tulip greenery.

Today I’m taking a detour away from the recent and extensive series of photographs from Death Valley and heading about as far in another direction as possible! This is the first of a small group of photographs that I made on a recent morning when I accompanied Patty (our resident photographer of flowers and other small things) to a Bay Area garden where tulips and many other springtime things were sprouting. It is a bit of an odd spring here — it follows over two months of almost no rain, which is extremely rare for this season in Central California, and it feels like the peak spring season is going to be abbreviated.

This garden, in San Mateo County south of San Francisco, features formal plantings over and extensive area. From late winter through spring it seems like one thing after another comes into form here, and on this visit the tulips were the main show. Most of them are intensely colorful and growing in large groups, but I decided to try to focus on some of the less intensely colorful flowers and to set them against the background of green stems and leaves.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature

Stems

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Stems
Stems of new bulbs crowd together.

Stems. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Stems of new bulbs crowd together.

It isn’t unusual for someone to ask about one of my photographs, “Have you thought about how it would look in black and white?” Why, yes, I almost certainly have! When I began “doing photography” quite a few decades ago, I started with black and white film and printing, and almost all of the photographers I admired were those doing black and white work. Sometimes I know at the time of exposure that a photograph will be black and white. (Though I prefer today’s technology that allows me to capture for color image data for use in the post-processing conversion to monochrome.) Sometimes I’m positive that a photograph will end up as a color image. And sometimes, to be honest, I’m not certain.

This photograph falls into the latter category. Sort of. But not exactly. The thing that drew me to the subject originally was the pattern of very green plants. In fact, a while ago I shared a version of this photograph that is very much a color image. But yet… I felt that it would also work in black and white, and that in some ways the “abstract” nature of patterns of lines and contrasts between light and dark might even work better in some ways using a monochrome rendition.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature

Hidden Leaves

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Hidden Leaves
Leaves on the ground under the plants in a formal garden.

Hidden Leaves. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Leaves on the ground under the plants in a formal garden.

In a discussion about “what to photograph,” I once heard a photographer simply say, “There’s always SOMETHING to see!” You can always find something worthy of a photograph almost anywhere if you look closely enough and open your eyes to what is around you. Often the potential subject is not the thing that you were looking for.

That was certainly the case with this photograph. We had gone to a beautiful garden where the first signs of coming spring were evident—flowers starting to bloom and green things growing. I did photograph some of those subjects, but I was also a bit restless. I started looking around at the other things at this place, and once I did I started to see potential subjects. In one shady section of the garden there were camellias and other larger plants, and beneath these plants the ground was covered with fallen leaves, presenting an intimate landscape that looked more like autumn than the arrival of spring.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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