Tag Archives: growth

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

San Francisco Tree

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San Francisco Tree
A few new leaves sprout from a nearly-bare tree on an San Francisco street.

San Francisco Tree. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A few new leaves sprout from a nearly-bare tree on an San Francisco street.

After the recent string of wilderness photographs I’m going to change things up and move — at least briefly — to some urban photography. The first few in this series will come from San Francisco… a different sort of wilderness at times!

These trees are found all over San Francisco, squeezed onto sidewalks between multi-story buildings and the busy streets. In most cases the lower limbs are bare, revealing the trees’ interesting, twisted shapes — shapes that contrast with the more regular and geometrical forms of the city’s architecture.

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

Green Tulip Buds

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Green Tulip Buds
Green tulip buds against a bakground of green plants and leaves.

Green Tulip Buds. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Green tulip buds against a background of green plants and leaves.

Earlier this month we spent a few mornings photographing at a San Francisco Bay Area garden. Patricia Mitchell, the other photographer in the household, specializes in photographs of flowers and foliage, often at very close distances… and this is her season! Even in this drought year there are plenty of spring plants sprouting and flowers blooming.

On our second visit the tulips were arguably the stars of the show. The garden we visited has extensive tulip beds and places additional pots of the flowers all around the facility. This gave me the opportunity to photograph the flowers in a range of states, from the green early buds shown here to full blooms — that I’ll share here in other posts.

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, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwood Trees and Red Rock Cliffs

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Cottonwood Trees and Red Rock Cliffs
A small grove of tall cottonwood trees beneath a red rock cliff, Zion National Park.

Cottonwood Trees and Red Rock Cliffs. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small grove of tall cottonwood trees beneath a red rock cliff, Zion National Park.

Because Zion National Park is so popular, especially the main Zion Canyon along the Virgin River, the Park Service has instituted a shuttle system to carry visitors in and out and from place to place within the canyon. Like all such systems, it has it flaws — hard to get a seat going into the park early in the morning or late in the day leaving, hard to schlep camera equipment in and out — but on balance I think it is a good thing. I’ve been in Zion when the place was crawling with cars — cars on the roads, cars parked everywhere, cars waiting for parking spaces. The bus system improves on that, and I think the inconvenience is worth it for the most part.

We took a very early shuttle all the way up to the entrance to the narrows, the last stop on the route. My photographer instincts said, “Get there early!” These instincts are good, and there is a lot of interesting work to be done in the soft morning light. But photographing in these canyons isn’t the same as photographing, for example, in the open spaces of the Sierra or the desert. In red rock canyon country, the best light often comes later in the morning and well before sunset, when the sun is high enough to directly strike the red canyon walls and reflect that soft, warm light down into the lower reaches of the canyons. With this in mind, we took our time after photographing below the narrows, and rather than getting back on a shuttle we started walking down canyon, enjoying the variety of reflected light… and we repeated the process once again later in the day. I first saw this group of trees very early in the morning, and I made a point of coming back to them later in the day when I knew the reflected light would appear.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Old Growth Forest

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Old Growth Forest
Immense coast redwood trees in an old growth forest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Old Growth Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Immense coast redwood trees in an old growth forest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

On an early June day our long driving loop took us out to the Lost Coast on a narrow, winding, somewhat lonely, and very scenic road. After dropping precipitously from coastal mountains to an isolated beach it followed to coast south for several miles before again turning inland. The route eventually passed though small hamlets (with the tell-tale plastic covered greenhouses in abundance) and began to climb drier, inland ridges. Finally it once again dropped steeply, entering one of the quietest and most still redwood forest groves I have been in.

After the long drive it was time to stop and this seemed a perfect place. Before long we decided to get out camera equipment and simply wander for a while in the still forest of giant old-growth trees. Even after years of visiting the coastal redwoods, it still surprised me to see how dark it is along the forest floor — little light makes it down from the crowns of the trees hundreds of feet above. This photograph looks off into the forest, and if you inspect it closely you may notice that, aside from the foreground ferns, the entire scene is comprised of the trees.

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.