Tag Archives: garden

Photographs: Nature

Three Discarded Flowers

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Three Discarded Flowers
Three discarded spring flowers, photographed in a wheelbarrow

Three Discarded Flowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three discarded spring flowers, photographed in a wheelbarrow.

I am not the main flower photographer in our family — that would be my wife Patricia Emerson Mitchell, whose primary focus is on photographing very small things, usually flowers and plants, and frequently in abstract ways. (We have a standing joke here about “our” macro lens… that I never get to use….) But still, I give it a try from time to time, and I enjoy seeing what I can do with this subject.

I recently accompanied her to a nearby formal garden where she often photographs. (It didn’t discourage me to know the they have a small cafe there, too. ;-) We went early in the morning on a non-busy weekday, thus avoiding the crowds and making it a bit easier to do photography without getting in the way. The gardeners (lots of them!) were there, too. One contingent was heading roses and clipping spent flowers and vegetation… and I found that the piles of discarded flora photographically interesting. That’s where I found these three flowers on a bed of clipped leaves in a wheelbarrow. (I think that the gardeners wondered about my sanity when they saw me photographing their garden trash!)

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Nature

Leaf

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Leaf
A single leaf against a shadowed background

Leaf. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single leaf against a shadowed background

I photographed this remarkable leaf inside the conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden. The plants were phenomenal, but the conditions were not! It was terribly hot. The humidity was high, even for August in New York. And the light was limited… and I was shooting handheld. But the remarkable plant displays were too interesting to pass up, so I spent a bit of time photographing.

In these surroundings most of the photographs were, of necessity, close-ups, focusing on a few leaves or flowers and trying to exclude the background. (This was inside a building, and including the other visitors or the steel construction wasn’t what I had in mind.) Here the solitary curving green leaf was set off against a background of deep purple-brown leaves.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Architectural Detail

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Architectural Detail
Architectural details, New York Botanical Gardens

Architectural Detail. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Architectural details, New York Botanical Gardens

We began our recent trip with a short visit to New York City. This gave us a chance to visit with relatives there and to break up the jet-lag-inducing flight to Europe. Because the visit was short — we were only in New York for three nights before we flew on to London — we took it easy and didn’t try to see too much this time. We hung out near our Manhattan hotel, walked a lot, went out to eat, and made one longer trip to the The Bronx to visit the New York Botanical Garden.

The Garden is spectacular, very large, and full of interesting things to see. Unfortunately, we were there on a typical August New York Day… which many of you may know means 90+ degrees and near-100% humidity. Our first stop was indoors, to see a small exhibit devoted to O’Keeffe paintings from her visit to Hawaii. In the building shown in this photograph there was a companion presentation that featured some of same plants and flowers that were the subjects of her work on the Islands. Needless to say, inside this greenhouse-like structure on a hot humid New York day… it was even hotter and more humid! We stuck it out for a while, but we eventually had to go back outside. As we did so, we got a bit of light-softening overcast, and I made a few photographs of the forms and textures of this remarkable building

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Night Photography, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wall, Window, Garden

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Wall, Window, Garden
Light shines across a wall with a lighted window

Wall, Window, Garden. San Francisco, California. December 3, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light shines across a wall with a lighted window

In a way, I would almost prefer to not identify this location, even the city — but since it is my habit to provide some information I will confess that I made the photograph in San Francisco. I joined up with a few of my fellow Studio Nocturne SF photographer to head out into the San Francisco night to do some night photography. We stopped at two locations. This first one is actually a fairly well-known location, but I decided to mostly not photograph the familiar subject but instead wander around and look for other things.

Recently I have been doing a lot of my night photography, especially the part of it done in cities, using a small, handheld camera. I’m essentially able to do street photography in the (near) dark, which means that I can often work quickly and without drawing as much attention as I would with a larger camera and a tripod. This photograph, which seems more like something that would warrant the use of a tripod, was made in this way.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.