Holiday lights in the gardens of the Filoli Estate.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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.
Late-summer foliage in the New England Woods — “The Mount,” Massachusetts.
We are just back from a visit to the East Coast. We started in New York City, where we visited relatives and enjoyed a few of the city’s amenities and attractions as it gradually starts to come back to life. (It felt very different from our last visit, in the midst of the pandemic resurgence last winter.) From there we headed north to Vermont, where we spent a week with an even larger assemblage of family members — hanging out, cooking and eating together, and getting into the New England world.
Believe it or not, this was my first time visiting the states north of New York City. This California near-native, who regards our brown/golden and parched summer landscape as normal was appropriately impressed by the green of Vermont and, on a couple of brief forays, areas of Massachusetts. On this day we ventured down to Lenox to “The Mount,” the estate of Edith Wharton. We did visit the mansion, but we also spent time strolling the grounds and the gardens, where I made this photograph.
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.
Hardy plants grow in a crack at the base of a rocky Sierra Nevada face.
A group of us recently spent a week base-camped at a Sierra Nevada backcountry location, photographing extensively all around our location. It was quite a week — great time with friends, hikes up into beautiful alpine terrain, wild weather, brilliant sunsets, and lots of beautiful subjects to photograph. The spectacular nature of the surrounding terrain, with broad valleys and high rocky peaks, suggested photographs of the monumental landscape. However, there were plenty of more intimate subjects, too.
At some point on almost any excursion like this one I spend time photographing small things, and near the beginning of this trip I spotted some fascinating rocks nearby and made a mental note to devote at least an evening to photographing them. These rocks were quite colorful, with combinations of warm and cool tones. Opportunistic plants grew along the base of the rocks and extended up fractures in the rock.
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.
Special Note: Patty and I are presenting a Silicon Valley Open Studios event on May 21 and 22. Look us up (Dan | Patty) or contact us for information. Visit us and see our prints!
The process leading me to this photograph was a bit oblique. This is another image from our spring visits to a garden full of seasonal flowers. I had been photographing tulips when I was distracted by wisteria plants that were almost completely covered with dense flowers. I went to photograph the flowers, but up close they didn’t see quite as fascinating as the bush seen as a whole. But as I worked on photographing the flowers the leaves kept getting in my way… until I realized that perhaps they might make the photograph.
Moving from focusing on the flowers to incorporating the leaves, I first simply included a few leaves in a flower photograph to provide a bit of contrast. As I worked I continued to given the leaves a larger and larger portion of the images. Soon I was primarily focused on the leaves, including the flowers only as background. I placed the flowers behind the leaves and narrowed the focus zone to emphasize the leaves. Eventually, as in this photograph, I removed any obvious presence of the flowers at all.
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.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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