Tag Archives: foliage

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Joshua Tree Forest

February 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Joshua tree forest in the Inyo Mountains near Eureka Valley.

At the end of my January 2012 visit to Death Valley National Park, I exited to the north, stopping for an evening and a morning at the Eureka Valley Dunes, and then heading out to the north toward Big Pine. This was my first drive across this route, so I got to see some brand new (to me) California territory. The drive began by retracing the route along the gravel road to the dunes, then rejoined the main road – still gravel – coming up from the Park. This road was in great shape, well graded and wide, as it headed out of Eureka Valley and into the Inyo Mountains.

After entering the Inyos, it wasn’t very long before pavement resumed – which is a welcome thing at this point, since I had been almost entirely on gravel roads, some badly washboarded, for something like 65 miles or more at this point. As the road climbed out of Eureka Valley and up a mountain canyon it soon passed through fairly large joshua tree forests. Since I hadn’t eaten yet today and it was now past mid-morning, I took this as an opportunity to stop for some breakfast/lunch and to photograph these fascinating trees, here stretching across waves of sage and brush covered hills backed by higher hills that were still in shadow.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Spring Trees, Yosemite Valley

January 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New spring growth comes to a grove of trees in a Yosemite Valley meadow.

This week, in the middle of winter, I have been going through older photographs, both looking for images I missed and deleting some that I no longer need to keep. Among the photographs in this batch is a set that I made two years ago on a spring visit to Yosemite Valley, when waterfalls were flowing and the trees and meadows were just coming back to life.

There are groves of beautiful curving trees like these in a number of meadows in The Valley, and I always love to photograph them when back-light silhouettes their trunks and branches and highlights the new growth high in the trees. On this morning there was just enough haze in the atmosphere to mute the details of the steep cliffs along the far side of the Valley beyond the trees and the meadow.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dogwood Leaves, Spring

January 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New spring dogwood leaves after morning rain along Crane Flat Road, Yosemite National Park.

There is a grove of dogwood trees along highway 120 into Yosemite, between the park entrance and the valley, where I stop several times each seasons. Most recently I stopped there on a quiet autumn evening this past October when the dogwood leaves were turning fall colors. Much earlier in the season I stop to see and photograph the dogwood flowers. I made this photograph several years ago on my first visit to the grove that season, on a rainy morning when the leaves had emerged and the flowers were in bloom.

While the flowers were the main reason I visited the grove on this morning, it turned out that the flower photographs were less interesting, in some ways, than the photographs I made of the leaves of the dogwood trees and of other newly sprouted plants. Not only where the plants young and fresh and green, but the soft light and the drops of water from the light rain intensified the colors and made the light less harsh.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Corn Lilies, Late Summer

December 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late summer corn lilies begin to take on fall colors, Yosemite National Park.

Corn Lilies are among my favorite Sierra Nevada high country plants. During their short summer growth period they begin as corn-cob-shaped shoots that spring up in wet areas as the snow melts out. They quickly grow into lush green plant in thick bunches that are intensely green and which have beautiful curving shapes and textures. (This makes them a very popular subject for photographers!) As the season continues they begin to show some “flaws” from insect damage and so forth, and at some point in August they begin to lose their green color, often beginning to pick up some brown coloration that can be nearly golden in the right light. At some point in September even the most durable specimens begin to be striped with yellow, brown, or even black and they finally simply fall over.

I found this bunch very close to our campsite in the back-country of Yosemite National Park around the middle of September. Although you cannot see it in this photograph, this clump of corn lilies had fallen over in a most interesting way – they all fell pointing away from the center of the group! So these plants are in the middle of falling over, and are lit by early morning light diffused by forest cover.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: foliage

Joshua Tree Forest

Spring Trees, Yosemite Valley

Dogwood Leaves, Spring

Corn Lilies, Late Summer

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.