Tag Archives: plant

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Open Book

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Open Book
A sandstone cliff meets the bottom of a Utah red rock country wash.

Open Book. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sandstone cliff meets the bottom of a Utah red rock country wash.

My virtual journey back through Utah continues. Since opportunities to go into the field are limited right now I am instead digging back though tens of thousands of raw files in my archives. I have always recognized that I leave some photographs behind as I move on to the next thing — and sometimes I’m not just not yet ready to “see” how a photograph will work. For years I’ve made these return visits to the old files, most often with an end-of-the-year traverse of that year’s images before moving on. This time I’m starting back in 2012 and working my way forward slowly.

I made this photograph in the first slot canyon that I ever visited. You might wonder how I managed to get to 2012 without visiting this kind of terrain. It is a long story, but for some reasons I’ve explained elsewhere I simply didn’t get to Utah and the Southwest until about a decade ago. Shame on me! As we walked into this canyon I really had little idea of what to expect, but I was entranced. This bit of sandstone cliff wall sat immediately next to the sandy bottom of the wash, and the color of the diffused light warmed as it bounced down from above between the canyon walls.

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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Photographs: Nature

Sunflower

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Sunflower
A wild sunflower bloom in the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sunflower. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wild sunflower bloom in the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Most of the wildflowers that I find and photograph in the San Francisco Bay Area are relatively small. They may spring up in large, meadow-filling numbers, but the individual blossoms are rarely much more than an Ince across, and many are quite a bit smaller. This flower is an obvious exception, being several inches across — and, as such, it stands out from its surroundings when I find one.

I’m pretty sure this is the flower of the plant I know as mule ears — named, it seems, after the big floppy leaves of the plant. It is also a sunflower, at least according to a few references I found. When I encounter this spring flower around here it is often found alone, and it often is not exactly a pretty plant. Despite the striking size and color of the flower, the blooms are often worn and deformed — so I was pleased to find this relatively perfect specimen on a hike earlier this 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 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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dormant

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Dormant
Deep in a desert canyon, a dormant plant waits for moisture.

Dormant. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Deep in a desert canyon, a dormant plant waits for moisture.

This plant grows in a very unlikely place — in a small crack in the rock face of a canyon wall in a deep wash where there is usually no water at all. No doubt it produced this now-dormant lush growth during a brief wet period when, like so many desert plants, it took advantage of a short interval when moisture was relatively abundant. And now, somewhere under all of these dried up branches and leaves, the heart of the plant waits for the next rain.

By the way, I don’t mind at all if you want to look for analogies to the current societal conditions of social distancing, of putting life on hold, of managing to exist in a dark place, waiting for better conditions to return. Feel free!

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.

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

Commentary

Late-Winter Fiddlenecks

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Late-Winter Fiddlenecks
Fiddleneck blossoms near the end of winter.

Late-Winter Fiddlenecks. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fiddleneck blossoms near the end of winter.

Two weeks ago — it seems like years now — I made my last pre-lockdown visit to a favorite natural area on Friday the 13th of this month. We had attended our last public event a week before and were already in the process of adopting social-distancing measures — a bit ahead of the curve and a bit before such things were no longer optional around here. On this visit I minimized my contacts, traveling self-contained back and forth so that the only stop I had to make was at a local gas station when I got back home.

The experience was both rewarding and somewhat strange. The main flocks I go to see had apparently departed just a few days earlier. There was almost no one else there — normally a good thing, but strange now. Against that backdrop it was clear that even on this late-winter day spring was arriving. I paused from photographing birds to make some photographs of an exuberant patch of fiddle neck blossoms.

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.

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.