Tag Archives: ground

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Jack Frost Plant

Image Leave a comment
Jack Frost Plant
Jack Frost (brunnera) plants growing under a forest canopy.

Jack Frost Plant. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Jack Frost (brunnera) plants growing under a forest canopy.

In one section of the garden we occasionally visit to make photographs, there is a small grove of (mostly) dogwood trees which are in an area shaded by larger trees. These dogwoods were done blooming when we visited, but they provided wonderful, deep shade to smaller plants growing beneath.

All sorts of interesting stuff grows in this shade, but on this visit I was mostly attracted to leaves. (Most of the flowers were already spent.) This clump of Jack Frost seemed downright lush, with not a damaged leaf in sight.

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 | Twitter | 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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands Tree, Tule Fog

Image Leave a comment
Wetlands Tree, Tule Fog
A wetlands tree in thick autumn tule fog.

Wetlands Tree, Tule Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A wetlands tree in thick autumn tule fog.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph, made on a late-autumn morning in California’s Great Central Valley. The dense tule fog did not simply reduce visibility — it also drained the color right out of the landscape. Foggy landscapes can have color — the blue tones of thick fog in the very early hours, and the warmer tones of shallow fog glowing in sunrise light. But in this case it was a bit later, and the colors of the earliest light had faded and backlit fog glowed and muted the color.

When photographing a subject like this I find myself on a fine line between not enough fog and not enough detail. Sometimes the fog is so thick that a subject that seems visible in person has so little contrast that it almost is invisible in a photograph. But too much definition and the mystery of the fog diminishes. Here I think I have hit the middle ground — there’s perhaps just enough detail to delineate the broad features, but many fine details are missing or softened.

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 | Twitter | 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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Pond, Fog, and Sun

Image Leave a comment
Early morning sun muted by tule fog, illuminates a late-autumn pond.

Pond, Fog, and Sun. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Early morning sun muted by tule fog, illuminates a late-autumn pond.

Continuing with the fog theme, here is another photograph from this week’s visit to the California Central Valley. Even though I scheduled this visit because I knew there was a good chance of thick fog, I was a bit surprised by how much of it I encountered. I ran into serious fog before leaving Santa Clara County to cross to the Great Valley, and it was a more or less constant companion on my two-hour drive. When I arrived at my destination before sunrise the fog was extremely thick, and there was hardly enough light for photography at first.

On these days the fog determines what the landscape looks like: what is the condition of the light? How transitory are the conditions? How far can we see? Is the fog dim and gray or does light in the sky above add color and make it luminous. While it started out on the dim and gray side on this morning, the thick fog wasn’t deep enough to block the light from the rising sun.

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 | Twitter | 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.

Photographs: Nature

Hidden Leaves

Image Leave a comment
Hidden Leaves
Leaves on the ground under the plants in a formal garden.

Hidden Leaves. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Leaves on the ground under the plants in a formal garden.

In a discussion about “what to photograph,” I once heard a photographer simply say, “There’s always SOMETHING to see!” You can always find something worthy of a photograph almost anywhere if you look closely enough and open your eyes to what is around you. Often the potential subject is not the thing that you were looking for.

That was certainly the case with this photograph. We had gone to a beautiful garden where the first signs of coming spring were evident—flowers starting to bloom and green things growing. I did photograph some of those subjects, but I was also a bit restless. I started looking around at the other things at this place, and once I did I started to see potential subjects. In one shady section of the garden there were camellias and other larger plants, and beneath these plants the ground was covered with fallen leaves, presenting an intimate landscape that looked more like autumn than the arrival of spring.

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.