Tag Archives: golden

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

California Golden Poppy

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California Golden Poppy
A single specimen of a California golden poppy flower.

California Golden Poppy. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single specimen of a California golden poppy flower.

Any California photographer is obligated to photograph the California Golden Poppy. Check the contract — it is right there! It is the state flower and it is found just about everywhere in the state with few exceptions. More recently, as folks around here have moved away from having water-reliant lawn and towards drought-tolerant landscaping, the poppy is showing up in more and more yards. I’m sure I could find a dozen places to photograph them within a five or ten minute walk from my house.

They are called (at least sometimes) “golden” poppies, but they aren’t exactly gold. The color is more orange, though it sort of “leans” a bit toward yellow. If you look up the flower on wikipedia, you’ll find a wonderful description from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden: “California poppies … are of a burning color—not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of poppies.” They aren’t easy to photograph, at least in part because of this unusual and intense color. This one cooperated more than most, opening its petals toward me in somewhat soft light.

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese, Evening Sky

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Geese, Evening Sky
The evening sky filled with snow geese.

Geese, Evening Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The evening sky filled with snow geese.

One thing that you don’t understand about bird photography until you do it, is that in order to experience truly remarkable, memorable moments you will spend a lot of time at the opposite end of the spectrum of exciting experiences. The vast majority of your time will be spend watching a quiet landscape in which it seems, at least superficially, that nothing much is going on. Truth be told, there will be moments (sometimes long “moments”) of boredom. You might nap. (I do!) You may do some reading, check your phone for news. Or, best of all, simply immerse yourself in the quiet.

But if you are willing to pay this easy price, you almost certainly will experience a few moments that make it well worth the effort. I still cannot get a particular foggy February morning out of my mind, even though it was years ago when the sun began to break through tule fog as thousands upon thousands of geese and cranes wheeled through the sky in constant motion. That morning, on its own, has led to many 3:00AM wake-up calls and long drives in the. This photograph is from a different but similar moment recently, when many thousands of geese erupted almost continuously from cornfields and filled the sunset sky around me.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves, Autumn Color

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Aspen Leaves, Autumn Color
Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen leaves at their peak of fall color.

Aspen Leaves, Autumn Color. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen leaves at their peak of fall color.

Most of the time I tend to treat aspen trees as part of the larger landscape, perhaps with a grove or a few trees as the subject, or even including some trees of a larger scene. But every so often I get the urge to wander inside a grove and photograph individual leaves up close. I spent an hour or so doing just that at an Eastern Sierra grove that was full of leaves spanning the full spectrum of aspen color, from green through yellow and orange to red.

I photographed the subjects in this series using a handheld camera and a macro lens. (Typically I would use a tripod and put a zoom lens on the camera.) By shooting handheld I was able to explore a wide range of composition spontaneously. That is useful with this subject since even very small changes in camera position can produce entirely different juxtapositions of foreground leaves and the beautiful blur of background color and light.

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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn in the Canyon

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Autumn in the Canyon
A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage deep in the canyon of the Escalante River.

Autumn in the Canyon. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cottonwood tree with autumn foliage deep in the canyon of the Escalante River.

In my previous post I mentioned something about the experience of wandering down canyons such as this one, in particular the seductive nature of the continuous pattern of “next bend,” straight section, and the next “next bend” — and the difficulty of resisting the lure of exploring just one more twist of the canyon. On this. day I ran into that temptation as your pre-set turn-around time arrived… and passed… and we continued through a couple more of these bends.

This was one of the earlier bends, a point where we came back down to the stream after passing over some higher ground in a straight section. Here we had to wade to cross the stream since the route now followed the opposite bank. After crossing I climbed up a bit to place this colorful cottonwood tree in a composition that included the canyon beyond, and as I photographed a string of horses forded the stream.

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 | 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.