Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Spring Grass, Point Lobos

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Spring Grass, Point Lobos

Spring Grass, Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. April 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring grass in the pine forest at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

Unfortunately, I’m not expert enough at plant identification to come up with a more precise title than “Spring Grass, Point Lobos.” (Yes, that is an open invitation to friendly botanists to offer up a more precise identification! :-) While I was photographing Rattlesnake Grass – photo posted recently – in this spot in the pine forest at Point Lobos I also noticed the impressive seed heads of this nearby grass. This is another of my plant photographs made with the unlikely 70-200mm zoom lens – again, the long focal length lets me work from a slightly greater distance and use the narrow DOF of the longer lens to create a nice out of focus background.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: grass, seed, head, stalk, blade, green, forest, grove, pine, shade, spring, cluster, bokeh, blur, soft, pine, point lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, nature, scenic, travel, carmel, monterey, peninsula, foliage, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Textures

Grass, Point Lobos

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Grass, Point Lobos

Grass, Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. April 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A thick carpet of spring grass at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

As I hiked through the pine forest in the southern part of the Point Lobos State Reserve on a foggy day during the last weekend of April the spring grasses and wildflowers (and poison oak!) were growing everywhere. I had stopped to photograph a scene of pines with a meadow containing yellow flowers when I spotted one large clump of very green grass that had been blown or otherwise pushed into this interesting pattern.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: grass, plant, carpet, mat, thick, pattern, green, bud, flower, blade, leaf, foliage, vegetation, plant, nature, forest, floor, pine, grove, point lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, travel, scenic, monterey, carmel, peninsula, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Rattlesnake Grass, Spring

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Rattlesnake Grass, Spring

Rattlesnake Grass, Spring. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. April 26. 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Seed heads, stems, and blades of Rattlesnake grass growing in the pine forest at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

On the last weekend of April I found time to head down to Point Lobos for a half day – that ultimately stretched a bit longer that that – day of shooting. I almost didn’t go. I had the radio on as I drove toward Monterey, and as I drove through Castroville a traffic report announced that Highway 1 was closed for a marathon south of Carmel – a couple miles before Point Lobos. I almost turned around right there, but then they announced that the highway patrol would “convoy” cars through the area about once every two hours. I decided that since I was almost there anyway I might as well go on down and see what would happen. When I arrived at the intersection south of Carmel the road was completely blocked and traffic was shunted into the nearby shopping center parking lot. I saw a sign for “convoy” parking so I drove over – and it turned out that I had about a half hour before the scheduled southbound departure. I had time to grab a cup of coffee and line up.

The convoy finally worked its way onto the “course” (otherwise known as the coast highway) and then slowly started south past hundred or thousands of runners. At Point Lobos I was the only drive to leave the convoy, and when I entered the park the ranger told me I was only the second car to enter that day! If you have visited Point Lobos you may know that on a typical spring day the place will be so packed that it can be hard to find a spot to park – but I did not run into a single person in the whole park until early afternoon! (I did see one other visitor in the distance.) So what started out to look like very bad timing ended up being quite special – I had “my own private Point Lobos” for the day!

In the early afternoon I decided to walk a trail through the pines that traveled away from the shoreline. Lots of lush spring growth was still flourishing and these grass seeds caught my attention.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: Briza maxima, rattlesnake grass, seed, leaf, stem, blade, head, plant, forest, floor, foliage, flora, point lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, monterey, peninsula, carmel, coast, pine, forest, grove, nature, stock

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Andrew’s Clintonia

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Andrew's Clintonia

Andrew’s Clintonia. Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Newly emerging spring Andrew’s Clintonia (Clintonia andrewsiana) plant at Muir Woods National Monument, California with immature flowers.

I hope I have correctly identified this plant – with the help of a few people who contacted me after I posted the photo along with a request for plant ID help on my dan’s outside blog. The flowers are the tricky part. All of the photographs of this plant that I could find during my search for identification look different – but the plant apparently doesn’t actually blossom until a few weeks or a month after I made the photograph, so here we’re just seeing the early buds. The leaves look right. It grows in the right place – in the redwood forest and Muir Woods. And I found one online example with mature flowers that has the same single leaf near the top of the flower stalk. So I’s sticking with Andrew’s clintonia until someone comes up with a better idea!

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: Andrew’s Clintonia, Clintonia andrewsiana, andrews, flower, plant, stem, leaf, green, stalk, forest, woods, grove, redwood, floor, bud, bloom, nature, foliage, spring, muir, national, monument, park, golden gate, recreation, area, travel, scenic, stock