Tag Archives: lily

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Fairy Lantern

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Fairy Lantern
A fairy lantern (globe lily) flower, photographed in the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area

Fairy Lantern. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A fairy lantern (globe lily) flower, photographed in the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area

It is difficult to come up with a rational explanation for why some wildflowers particularly catch my attention, but it is fact that some do. I have a short list of Sierra Nevada wildflowers that will always cause me to pause and look more closely. In a particular area of the Northern California hills that flower is this one, the fairy lantern or globe lily.

Somehow I managed to hike for decades in these hills before I “discovered” this flower on a hike through a small valley one spring while visiting the non-urban park that is closer to me than any other, a place where I’ve gone for spring “conditioning hikes” since I can remember. One time a perhaps two decades ago I took a different route through this spot and was enchanted by these mysterious flowers. Now I mark the onset of spring here by their appearance. They aren’t really easy to photograph since they don’t open up energetically, and you must get down low and photograph them from a bit underneath to reveal the flower — and the colors are subtle and easily washed out by any bright 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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dry Corn Lily Plants, Autumn

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Dry Corn Lily Plants, Autumn
A bed of fallen and dry autumn corn lily plants, Yosemite National Park.

Dry Corn Lily Plants, Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bed of fallen and dry autumn corn lily plants, Yosemite National Park.

The corn lily is one of my favorite Sierra plants. It tends to grow in meadowy, wet areas that are often particularly lush — and thus bug infested— in the early season. I think it is an attractive plant at almost any point in its annual life-cycle. It emerges as the green shoot as meadows come back to life early in the season, and before long the intense and lush bright green plants stand tall. But this state of perfection doesn’t last long, and soon blemishes appear — dark spots, holes, and eventually yellow areas as the end of the summer season draws near. (I’ve long thought of this change as the first sign of the coming Sierra autumn season.) Eventually the plants dry out, fall over, and when everything works out just right the form small carpets of brown and yellow and tan and fading green.

The corn lily is a favorite of photographers, most often photographed during that earlier lush, green stage. (It often seems like photographing such a beautiful plant would be easy, but once I start looking for the perfect conjunction of leaf shapes it inevitably becomes more difficult than I expected. )

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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White Globe Lily Flowers

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White Globe Lily Flowers
A cluster of spring Chinese lantern flowers

White Globe Lily Flowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cluster of spring Chinese lantern flowers.

Please excuse the rather large number of posts of these flower during the spring season. It is both a personal favorite flower and something that grows not far from where I live. In fact, the location is at a park that I’ve gone to for decades — really the closest hiking park to my home. I’ve hiked there in all seasons for years, sometimes going for photographic purposes and other times just going for a good trail workout.

Over the years I’ve gotten to know the character of specific locations in the park, including where and when to find particular wildflowers. These white globe lily flowers grow in abundance along one particular trail each spring, especially in an area where the route passes through some small, steep canyons. The flowers seem to arrive suddenly, flourish for a short period, and then go to seed. On the day I photographed this group a few had bloomed but most were still in the bud stage.

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

Photographs: Nature

White Globe Lily… And Bug

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White Globe Lily... And Bug
An insect on the top of a white globe lily flower

White Globe Lily… And Bug. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An insect on the top of a white globe lily flower.

Folks who follow my photography may have noted a rather large number of photographs of very small things recently, mostly a lot of wildflowers. This isn’t an entirely new thing for me, as I have photographed and occasionally shared wildflower photographs before. What has changed? Two things. First, I’m married to “the Georgia O’Keeffe of photographer photography, and she has a macro lens almost permanently attached to her cameras so that she can photograph this subject. Second, I finally decided to spring for my own macro lens, and I’ve been out trying to learn more about its use.

When viewed through the macro lens, photographs of flowers often end up being photographs of other things, too — bits of pollen, spider webs, dusk and dirt, brown areas, holes… and in this case, one black bug of significant size. I misidentified this flower for years, and I was grateful to a viewer who recently set me straight. It is a white globe lily. (If you want to understand just one of the reasons that I’m often challenged by naming such things, it is apparently also known as “fairy lantern, white fairy lantern, pink fairy lantern, lantern of the fairies, globe lily, white globe-tulip, alabaster tulip, Indian bells, satin bells, snowy lily-bell, and snow drops!”)

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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