Tag Archives: plant

Photographs: Nature

Blue and Yellow Flower

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Blue and Yellow Flower
A blue and yellow flower, with morning dew, photographed against a dark background.

Blue and Yellow Flower. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A blue and yellow flower, with morning dew, photographed against a dark background.

While this may not be a sunflower, at least it is blue and yellow. This isn’t flower that I recognize — though I was told its name at one point, a name that I had not heard before. It was growing down close to the ground, in a shady area at the garden where we were recently photographing.

I can’t claim to be any particular sort of flower photographer, even though I am attracted to such photographs and do try my hand at them occasionally. (Someone else in our household specializes in photographing small things like flowers.) This flower and those around it were still covered with early morning moisture.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Sand Dune Shadows

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Sand Dune Shadows
Creosote plants cast long shadows across sand dunes in early morning light.

Sand Dune Shadows. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Creosote plants cast long shadows across sand dunes in early morning light.

On every visit to Death Valley National Park I like to combine return visits to places I have visited before with visits to new locations. In the former case I often continue to expand my knowledge of familiar subjects and try to see them in new ways. In the latter I bring what I already have learned about this landscape to these new locations and see how I can draw on that to understand these new places. I made this photograph in a place that I’ve long thought about visiting and finally got to on this trip.

I camped nearby overnight, which gave me the opportunity to photograph in evening and morning light. On that first evening it was exciting to head out on the walk to this new place, unsure of what I would find or how I would photograph it. Early the next morning, as I walked across nearly the same route, the place was already starting to feel like “mine” a little bit, both from the previous night’s visit and from recognizing features familiar to me from elsewhere in the park. These creosote bushes were in a flat area at the base of taller dunes, and as the sun rose over the tops of these dunes the plants cast long shadows.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote, Morning Light

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Creosote, Morning Light
A cluster of creosote in sand dunes, backlit by morning sun.

Creosote, Morning Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A cluster of creosote in sand dunes, backlit by morning sun.

As this morning’s light quickly evolved, I had just time to make one photograph of this subject from this camera position. I was photographing almost straight into the sun, which was just above the ridge that creates the shadow in the background. The plant’s mirror image of shadows caught my attention, and it sort of felt like the combination of the plant and its shadow exploded across this bit of dune landscape.

From a photographic perspective, this image is another example of a few semi-technical points I’ve made in some of my recent Death Valley posts. It was made quickly — not at all using the sort of sedate process that some might think of when considering landscape photography. This landscape of dunes and light evolves very quickly at this time of day, and to respond to it I often work quickly, moving rapidly from one subject to the next. It is also a photograph made with a long focal length lens. As I have mentioned, this lets me work a larger area in the dunes more quickly, and it also allows me to limit the scope of the composition.

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.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote, Sunset Shadows

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Creosote, Sunset Shadows
A clump of creosote among curving sand dunes as sunset shadows arrive.

Creosote, Sunset Shadows. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A clump of creosote among curving sand dunes as sunset shadows arrive.

This comes from a short but very intense burst of photography on a late- January evening in Death Valley National Park. A suitable interval before sunset I had headed out on a hike of a bit more than a mile to a line of sand dunes, where I expected that the final direct sun o the day would arrive over the top of a low ridge to my west, and that it would have the potential to bring some lovely, wam light to the dunes. I arrived at the dunes well before sunset and set to work looking for subjects in this somewhat unfamiliar place.

The light was already transitioning toward evening, and as I worked the transition accelerated. I put a long lens on the camera, partly because it would allow me to pick our small compositions in the larger landscape and partly because it would let me quickly respond to short-term bits of beautiful light that were too transitory for me to pick up and move to their location. Moments before the sun dropped beyond that ridge, the color of the light intensified and the shadows lengthened.

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.