Tag Archives: foliage

Photographs: Nature

Three Foxglove Flowers

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Three Foxglove Flowers
Three white foxglove flowers hanging from a branch in shade.

Three Foxglove Flowers. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three white foxglove flowers hanging from a branch in shade.

Most of the time when I photograph foxglove flowers I tend to work with the vertical stalks of very colorful flowers, and I try to use a point of view that lets us look into the individual flowers. For one thing, there are often some fascinating patters inside the blossoms. But this time I decided to go in a different direction with this photograph of flowers hanging from a horizontal stalk.

The flowers were growing in a shady area and it was early evening, so I had very soft light to work with. By shooting across the hanging flowers I was able to put three of them in the frame but also include some background flowers behind them. And somehow the monophonic interpretation seems right in this case.

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

Coreopsis Flowers

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Coreopsis Flowers
A garden of coreopsis flowers in the evening shade.

Coreopsis Flowers. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A garden of coreopsis flowers in the evening shade.

This is the next in a series of photographs from our early-June evening at a favorite San Francisco Peninsula garden. After enjoying the more typical festivities (eating, drinking, sitting, and enjoying the view) we wandered off into the gardens to make few photographs as the evening began to produce softer light

We arrived at this section of the garden, a place that is typically in (photographically challenging) full sun, as the last beams of sunlight began to dissipate. The shaded light opened up the shadows and reveals details of the flowers that might be overwhelmed by midday light.

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 | Twitter | 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

Leaves in Shadows

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Leaves in Shadows
Lush leaves in the shadows of a San Francisco Peninsula garden.

Leaves in Shadows. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Lush leaves in the shadows of a San Francisco Peninsula garden.

In early June we visited our favorite San Francisco Peninsula garden. We usually go early in the morning, but this time we went late in the day — there was a special event featuring music, drinks, and food, along with the opportunity to sit under oak trees or on the lawn and watch the evening light arrive. As appealing as all of that was, we still DID bring cameras.

Before the light decreased too much, we managed to do a quick circuit of some of the more interesting parts of the garden, mostly looking for flowers. But we also stopped in a dark little grove where most of the flowers were spent, and here I photographed this lush growth beneath the trees.

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 | Twitter | 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: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Foxglove Buds

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Foxglove Buds
Foxglove buds about to bloom.

Foxglove Buds. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Foxglove buds about to bloom.

We visited this garden in late May to photograph spring flowers. Lots of things were in bloom, particularly roses and foxglove. The foxglove blooms intrigued me, and I began by trying to photograph individual blooms and the dense collections of flowers. Eventually I noticed that a few of the plants had not entirely blossomed yet, and I became intrigued by the groups of buds at the tops of the plants.

There’s an interesting and useful photographic fact demonstrated by this photograph. One way to highlight a subject is to place it in sharp focus against an out-of-focus, diffused background. The usual advice — which has some validity — is to use an extremely large aperture to make the background soft. But if you are close enough to the subject and the background is far enough away, you can also get a nice background blur with smaller apertures, too… as I did here. (Note, too, that color and luminosity differences between subject and background can also help it stand out.)

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 | Twitter | 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.