Tag Archives: garden

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Green and Brown

Image July 21, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dry fallen leaf rests on lush green leaves on the forest floor.

When I visit gardens to ostensibly photograph flowers, I inevitably find myself photographing other things — structures and objects, trees, fallen flowers, people, and ground plants growing in lush and shaded areas. The beautiful and very green leaves often seem like they would be easy to photograph, but I almost always realize that finding just the right arrangement can be challenging.

The stroke of luck here was finding this one light brown leaf lying atop the larger green leaves. This was spring, not autumn, and old, dry leaves are pretty rare. And, no, I did not put it there — I found it the way you see it.

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, Photographs: Northern California

Dogwood Tree

Image July 20, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dogwood tree in full spring bloom.

This dogwood tree was a complete surprise to us. We had gone to this San Francisco Bay Area location to enjoy an evening event and then stroll the large gardens. We knew there were dogwood trees at this place because we had photographed them elsewhere on the grounds. But we thought that the dogwood show had ended, and in fact there were almost no flowers left on the trees we knew about. But here was this remarkable specimen with thick beautiful flowers tinged with color.

It is funny sometimes to recognize how my preconceptions change with experience. This year that happened with dogwood trees. “My dogwoods” are the trees in Yosemite Valley and along some of the approaches to the park. I’ve photographed them every year for a long time, and it barely crossed my mind that there might be dogwood trees elsewhere or that there might be other types. My first strong hint this spring was on a rainy weekend in Manhattan, of all places, where I found beautiful blooming dogwoods in Central Park. The next surprise was this tree, perhaps thicker with flowers than any I have seen before.

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Photographs: Abstract

Serendipity

Image July 18, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A photograph of some colorful things.

This is just about color… unless you want to make it about something else. Such a photograph could be intentional (to the extent that photographs are “intentional” — read the second paragraph), but the level of serendipity in this one is high, hence the title.

There’s an odd idea that photographs are objective records — but that’s clearly not true. Even in cases where some sort of evidentiary standard is followed, decisions about aspects of what gets recorded and how it gets recorded are subjective. And beyond that limited use for photographs, once we get into the realm of images that are intended to express something, photographs are often far from objective records. One of my favorite expressions: “All photographs lie.” (I could refine that a bit, but there’s not space in this post.)

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Beneath the Blooming Dogwood

Image July 17, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking upwards toward dense spring dogwood flowers.

Over a month ago I shared a photograph of a blooming dogwood tree in Manhattan’s Central Park. In that post I alluded to the fact that this was not likely to be quite my typical year for photographing this kind of tree. Typically I would make a spring visit to Yosemite Valley and other nearby areas to photograph this annual event, but it looked like I wouldn’t this time. But surprises arrive, and a few weeks later I did find myself in Yosemite with camera next to flowering dogwoods. But the surprises weren’t over, and later I photographed these blossoms in a San Francisco Bay Area location.

There’s a beautiful public garden on the San Francisco Peninsula where we go regularly to photograph. We started much earlier this season, and we had seen dogwood trees there — though I didn’t photograph them much. We went back much later, at the end of spring, and we were surprised to find new dogwood blooms in this place where we had thought they were spent.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: garden

Green and Brown

Dogwood Tree

Serendipity

Beneath the Blooming Dogwood

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.