Tag Archives: leaves

Photographs: Nature

Ready to Bloom

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Ready to Bloom
“Ready to Bloom” — A tulip bud on the verge of opening.

Here is (yet another!) of my tulip photos from a spring garden trek with Patty. This garden, at an old estate on the San Francisco Peninsula, puts on a remarkable tulip show every spring, and we often go once or twice to photograph. Tulip color can be intense in the sunlight, but I prefer to photograph the flowers in the shade, where soft light fills shadows and the colors are a bit more muted.

These tulips were growing in pots that had been placed, well, nearly everywhere around this immense garden. So I searched out examples that were in my ideal light, sometimes working quickly to photograph them before the direct sunlight showed up and obliterated the subtleties of color and texture.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

St. Pierre Cathedral, Autumn Tree

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St. Pierre Cathedral, Autumn Tree, Montpellier
“St. Pierre Cathedral, Autumn Tree” — A nearly bare autumn tree in front of the St. Pierre Cathedral, Montpellier, France.

This is another photograph from our walk past the impressive St. Pierre Cathedral in Montpellier, France when we visited this past December. Our walk first took us the monumental south end of the cathedral, an imposing structure with two gigantic columns supporting an exterior arch. From there we continued around the east side, where it was still mostly quiet. Rounding the north end, we saw much more vegetation, including this tree with the last few autumn leaves.

I decided to go with a monochromatic interpretation of this photo of a detail of the north end of the cathedral. The main challenge was in how to make the leaves more visible, but we do have more leeway in post with black and white. Here I essentially applied a filter (as we used to do at the time of exposure) to brighten the tones of the leaves.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature

Tulip Bud and Leaves

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Tulip Bud and Leaves
“Tulip Bud and Leaves” — A spring tulip bud, just before blossoming.

This photograph is the result of something I rarely do — post the same photograph in monochrome and color versions. I shared a color version recently, but while I was working on the image in post I took a little detours and experiment with a black and white interpretation. I like both of them, though they do create different effects.

Black and white almost always has a more abstract quality to me. We know that the world is not monochromatic, so we begin to accept a wider range of interpretations as soon as we move to black and white. There’s less of the “it isn’t real!” concern with monochrome. (Not everyone realizes it, but monochrome images have historically often been the subject of extensive post-processing.) Here I think that the monochromatic version lets us focus more on the shapes and tones themselves, with less need to relate the image to something real.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)

Photographs: Nature

Pink Tulip

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Pink Tulip
“Pink Tulip” — A pink tulip blooms in late winter.

Patty is the real flower and macro photographer in our household, but sometimes I tag along and give it my best shot. There is a large garden on the grounds of an old San Francisco Peninsula estate that is a favorite of hers — she has a membership and visits regularly to photograph whatever is in season. In early March that meant it was tulip season, so I accompanied her for a morning of photographing these (and a few other kinds of) flowers.

We had great conditions for this subject. Direct, harsh sunlight is not your friend when photographing the subtle colors, shapes, and textures of these flowers — and this morning featured overcast, a bit of light rain, occasional muted sunlight, and lots of shady areas. I photographed this tulip in wonderful soft light that tends to fill in shadows and reveal details that would be missing in high contrast 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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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