Tag Archives: garden

Photographs: Nature

Morning Green

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Morning Green
Garden plants after morning watering.

Morning Green. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Garden plants after morning watering.

After focusing on a rather dry sort of landscape for much of the past month, recently I have had a couple of chances to photograph much more colorful and lush subjects here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Due to the seasonal change — yes, spring is on its way — and the effects of another drier-than-usual winter, plants are sprouting and even blossoming here.

We have made a couple of trips to a large local garden that is open to the public, usually going on a less-busy weekday morning and trying to arrive as soon as the place opens. It seems to me that on these weekday mornings there is a lot of garden work taking place — watering, trimming, pruning, planting, and cleaning up. Quite a few of the photographs I have made have involved the detritus of these activities: old leaves and blooms on the ground, flowers a bit past their peak, and in this case some plants that had been watered moments before I arrived.

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

Leaf Edge

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Leaf Edge
The edge of a yellow leaf against blue shadowed background.

Leaf Edge. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

The edge of a yellow leaf against blue shadowed background.

Recently I have begun looking through my archives for photographs featuring the yellow and blue color scheme of Ukraine’s flag — you might think of it as an emerging “blue and yellow” series. I’ve also been on the lookout for new subjects that feature the colors of this flag, a new symbol of the fight against tyranny and against the brutal invasion of this country by Russia and its dictator.

I’ll mostly leave that as the primary text accompanying this photograph, with only a bit of reference to the subject of the image. Recently I was photographing a garden that is beginning to emerge from winter dormancy as spring approaches. Mainly we went there to view and photograph new flowers, but here and there I found evidence of winter and even of autumn, including a few leaves still bearing autumn colors.

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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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

Fallen Leaves

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Fallen Leaves
Fallen leaves on the ground in a winter garden.

Fallen Leaves. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Fallen leaves on the ground in a winter garden.

This photograph was a bit of a surprise. We had gone to a Bay Area garden to photograph some new flowers that we heard were blossoming. (Last month here felt more like “Maybruary” than February, and spring plants seem to be appearing earlier than usual.) In fact, there were flowers, and I did photograph them. Some of the more traditional photographs of flowers and related greenery should show up here soon.

But I’m always looking for things other than the primary subject, trying to spot surprises and things I might otherwise miss. So as I was admiring some lovely blooms and some ivy growing up a nearby wall… I took a peek into the shadows on the ground underneath the plants, where I spotted piles of old leaves. Some were probably the byproduct of garden maintenance, while others had probably fallen naturally. I suspect that anyone who saw me down on the ground photographing under the plants with the actual flowers may have wondered what the heck I was doing.

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 | 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

Green Stems

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Green Stems
Green stems of new bulbs crowd together.

Green Stems. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Green stems of new bulbs crowd together.

Recently I read an article about painter Richard Diebenkorn, whose work I have admired for years. The reviewer was commenting on the relationship between the depiction of the “real” landscape and seeing the subject as something else entirely. He commented, more or less, that these paintings of real subjects aspire to abstraction. That’s an idea that I can relate to — and I know that I’m not the only photographer who thinks this way.

I made this photograph during a morning visit to a Bay Area garden, where we had gone to see the first “spring” blooms. (Technically, it was still late winter, but it sure felt like spring that day.) The flowers were beautiful and impressive. But my attention wanders, and I end up photographing a lot of other things, too. These stems caught my attention with their color and form, especially in softer light in the shade of some trees. So I crouched down (very!) low and photographed in such a way that the stems but not the flowers would be in the 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.

Blog | About | 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.