Tag Archives: flowers

Photographs: Nature

Triteleia

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Triteleia
Triteleia flowers in bloom, Pinnacles National Park

Triteleia. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Triteleia flowers in bloom, Pinnacles National Park.

Recently I made a trip to Pinnacles National Park, located just east of California’s Salinas Valley. I have a very long history with this place, going back decades to my childhood visits when it was still a national monument. Back then the biggest attraction was “the caves…” which now don’t really interest me at all. In middle school I once rode a bicycle all the way down there in a small group, and we stayed in a campground on the east side of the park that is no longer a campground. (When it became a national park the camping was moved to another area that used to be outside the park boundaries.) In college I occasionally rock climbed there — an experience that included a bit of carelessness on my part that could have ended my life forty years ago.

This visit was a brief day trip, with some combination of hiking and photography as my goals. I arrived in the early morning, but not at the usual photographer’s pre-dawn hour, loaded up my pack with camera gear, and headed up the trail. My initial goal was some shaded canyons on the way to the small reservoir not far from the end of the road coming in from the east side, and my longer goal was to get up to the summit ridge of the “high peaks.” Along the way I hoped to be able to view and photograph the spring wildflower bloom that the park is known for, and I wasn’t disappointed. Although this season is heading toward its conclusion, and the green is rapidly heading toward brown, there were tons of flowers including these sprays of triteleia, or “pretty face,” flowers.

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: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers

Photographing Spring Wildflowers

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Patricia Mitchell photographing spring wildflowers at Shell Creek

Photographing Spring Wildflowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patricia Mitchell photographing spring wildflowers in San Luis Obispo County.

Many, though perhaps not all readers, know that my wife Patricia Emerson Mitchell is also a fine photographer. She photographs many things, but her speciality is the small world, usually seen by means of training her macro lens on flowers and foliage, often with an eye to seeing the shapes and colors in abstract ways.

On our way to Death Valley earlier this spring we took a detour through California hill country where fields of wildflowers were blooming. During most of the year this spot would be dry and brown, but winter rains turn it green, and in wet years like this one we get to see astonishing wildflower blooms.

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

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

Photographs: Nature

Desert Indian Paintbrush

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Desert Indian Paintbrush
Indian paintbrush flowers in a canyon at Death Valley National Park

Desert Indian Paintbrush. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Indian paintbrush flowers in a canyon at Death Valley National Park.

This impressive — and very red! — flower and its neighbors were photographed in Death Valley National Park in early April, as this year’s spring bloom seemed to be getting underway in earnest. Predicting desert wildflower bloom timing is a tricky thing. This year a lot of folks were saying that there wouldn’t be that much of a bloom since the early season had been rather dry. However, very heavy rains swept through Southern California, including Death Valley, in early 2019. An atmospheric river situation developed near the start of March and there was enough rain to flood washes, fill desert playas, and damage many roads. I had an idea that there might be a good bloom this year, but that it might be a bit later than usual. Judging what I saw on my two visits — one in early March and other at the start of April — that is what happened, and a lot of flowers were emerging near the end of that second visit.

I’m going to use the second part of this post to share a little technical consideration to be aware of when photographing intensely colorful subjects, especially those that are yellow, orange, red, purple, or similar colors. It has to do with exposure. Most digital cameras meter the overall light, but they assume that the colors will be roughly balanced. In scenes with extremely intense colors — like those seen on the paintbrush flowers — the camera’s metering system can over-expose a color channel, often the red channel, even when it seems like the exposure is right. Often the safest thing to do when photographing such a subject (flowers, brilliant sunsets, autumn leaves) is to under-expose by about 1/3 to 2/3 stops so that you’ll retain some highlight detail in the intensely colorful subject.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers

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Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers
A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.

Let’s say you live in California or close enough to get here quickly. Let’s say you like wildflowers. Let’s say you have a bit of flexibility in your schedule. Go now! In many areas of the state — mostly the oak/grassland country of Central and the coastal and inland mountain ranges and foothills, along with many desert areas — the wildflower season is reaching its quite spectacular peak.You don’t need to know the supposed Best Wildflower Spot In California… because this is more or less a statewide phenomenon, and because all you really need to do is point yourself toward one of these kinds of places, and because you’ll actually have as much fun discovering your own wildflower spot as you would have joining the hordes at the over-crowded places in the news. (Recently we saw absolutely stunning wildflowers — the kind that make you gasp out loud — as we drove past them on main highway routes through hills and desert.)

We ran into this particular display along one of those highways. I had driven past it a bit more than a week ago without seeing anything all that out of the ordinary… but a week later it was definitely at its peak. (If you were to go to this specific spot now you would likely find that it had passed its peak.) The tumbleweed plant was a gift from the photography gods and goddesses, as the scene really required something to interrupt the nearly continuous carpet of flowers.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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