Tag Archives: flower

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dogwood Blossoms, Dark Forest

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Dogwood Blossoms, Dark Forest
Blossoming dogwoods in dark, dense forest, Yosemite Valley

Dogwood Blossoms, Dark Forest. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Blossoming dogwoods in dark, dense forest, Yosemite Valley

On one morning during my recent sojourn to photograph spring subjects in Yosemite Valley I had extraordinary lighting and atmospheric conditions. The morning produced a number of photographs that have been and will be shared here. They make me think of “channeling Bierstadt” — with effects of clouds and haze and light combined with dramatic ridges and cliffs. This is not one of those photographs. In fact, this image is inserted here to break up the flow of those others…

The timing and nature of some spring events in Yosemite Valley is variable — the amount of snow in the high country and when it melts out, for example, determine the timing and character of river and waterfall flows. Other events hold to a pretty consistent schedule from year to year, though climate change is edging some of these in new directions. One of the fairly consistent events is the arrival of dogwood blooms in the Valley and then in higher locations nearby. When I visited two weeks ago I saw the first buds on these trees and only a few tiny, green blooms. A week later there were many more blooms, and some trees were nearly full of them. I photographed this forest scene, with a primary tree full of blooms and other more distant blooms seen less vividly in the darker forest, one evening after the direct sun had left this spot.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

White Globe Lily

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Chinese Lantern
White globe lily  blossom in the Almaden Hills

White Globe Lily. Santa Clara County, California. April 29, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

White globe lily blossom in the Almaden Hills

The white globe lily just might be my favorite wildflower from my local hills. I have hiked these areas for decades, but it was only perhaps 20 years ago when I first became aware of this flower, back when I started to hike one favorite area throughout the entire year, no longer limiting myself to the “nice weather” seasons. While walking down a little ravine that I had been in many times before, on a damp spring morning I noticed these flowers growing along the trail in grassy areas, and I’ve looked for them ever since.

This is a single specimen, but there are often several of them growing together. Because I often choose to photograph them early in the day when the light is not too harsh — they don’t hold up well visually in bright light — there is often a bit of dew on the blossoms, and the background is in shadow. This time I think I managed to visit close to the end of the bloom, and some specimens had already formed seed pods.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Mules Ears Flower

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Mules Ears Flower
A spring mules ears flower in the early stages of decay.

Mules Ears Flower. Santa Clara County, California. April 29, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A spring mules ears flower in the early stages of decay.

Someone suggested that this might simply be called “The World’s Saddest Flower.” It also occurred to me that it might be a fine metaphor for certain political events currently transpiring, or possibly for a number of other things. I find a kind of poignant beauty in this flower, still brilliantly colorful but also clearly falling into decay.

I found this flower on a short hike at a place not far from where I live, a spot that I have gone to for perhaps twenty years in spring to find local wildflowers. It is not a place that most would find remarkable — in fact, I was able to hear urban sounds including heavy equipment in the distance — but it is a place that I know well. I knew that I would find certain flowers — blue dicks, larkspur, Chinese lanterns, California poppies, and a few others — but this one was a surprise. I had never seen it or anything similar in this place, and I wasn’t sure of what it might be. Friends who know more about flowers than I do suggested that it is probably mules ears — a very sad specimen at this point!

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

Photographers, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People, Photographs: Photographers

Macro Photographer, Death Valley

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Macro Photographer, Death Valley
Photographer Patty Emerson Mitchell at work photographing the small things in Death Valley

Macro Photographer, Death Valley. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photographer Patricia Emerson Mitchell at work photographing the small things in Death Valley

This is perhaps the typical photographic pose for my wife, Patty Emerson Mitchell, when out photographing — down on the ground, intently photographing some small thing that I probably wouldn’t have even noticed. Her speciality is in “seeing” flowers, often not as literal objective depictions of these things but as vehicles for exploring color and line and texture and shape and curve. A flower is a wonderful thing, but sometimes it can be many other things, too. On this morning we had stopped near a section of the Death Valley playa where there is a bit of water, and I had wandered off to photograph mountains and sky and the playa. She walked down toward the playa, photographed that stuff a little bit and then headed back toward the car as I continued to work.

Eventually the sun was high enough and I and had photographed here long enough that it was time to head back myself, too. I figured that she might be waiting in the car, but then I remembered, “No, she will be crouched down in the gravel, lens an inch or two from something interesting that I probably stepped over, making photographs.” I had photographed in Death Valley for quite a few years, not unaware that there were flowers, but not paying them all that much attention. On the first trip there that she took with me, for the first time I saw — or, more accurately, was shown — that there are small flowers and plants almost everywhere you look, even on the apparently rocky surface of a dry playa or even under a light snowfall.

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