Tag Archives: plant

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Window and Plants

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Lush plants grow around a window of a stone building in Barbizon, France

Window and Plants. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lush plants grow around a window of a stone building in Barbizon, France

Today I continue with my back-and-forth between photographs from a lengthy summer visit to several European countries and a following week-plus backcountry Sierra Nevada photography trip. Today it is back to Europe. (Anyone getting whiplash yet?)

Near the end of our trip we joined members of our extended American and European family for a week at a house in the French countryside near Fontainebleau. We have been doing something like this every other summer for the past few years — we get together, hang out, cook and eat, travel around a bit, and generally have a good and slightly lazy time. To be a bit more specific about our location, we were (just barely) walking distance from the village of Barbizon, which gives the appearance of being a sort of artist community, or at least a place where people attracted to that identity have chosen to live. It is a lovely little village and we visited several times, including near the end of the trip when I made this photograph of the plant-covered window of a local building.

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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: Abstract, Photographs: Nature

Leaf

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Leaf
A single leaf against a shadowed background

Leaf. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single leaf against a shadowed background

I photographed this remarkable leaf inside the conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden. The plants were phenomenal, but the conditions were not! It was terribly hot. The humidity was high, even for August in New York. And the light was limited… and I was shooting handheld. But the remarkable plant displays were too interesting to pass up, so I spent a bit of time photographing.

In these surroundings most of the photographs were, of necessity, close-ups, focusing on a few leaves or flowers and trying to exclude the background. (This was inside a building, and including the other visitors or the steel construction wasn’t what I had in mind.) Here the solitary curving green leaf was set off against a background of deep purple-brown leaves.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lupine, Sunlight

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Lupine, Sunlight
Sierra Nevada lupine blossoms in late-spring sunlight

Lupine, Sunlight. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sierra Nevada lupine blossoms in late-spring sunlight

Lupine blossoms are perhaps among the most wide-spread harbingers of spring in California. These plants grow in a tremendous variety of places, from ocean to mountains, and can be small or large. Mostly they are blue, though the colors can vary, with some almost white and others, at least in the right light, heading off in the direction of magenta or even reddish.

We were in the Sierra in early June for the opening of an exhibit in Oakhurst (“Transitions — Winter into Spring: Photographs by Yosemite Renaissance Artist-in-Residence G Dan Mitchell and Friends”) and we had a full day to do something following the reception. Although we were close to Yosemite, the idea of facing the crowds in The Valley did not appeal — so we went on a “random ride,” eventually ending up back in the Lake Edison area. I photographed these flowers as we headed back in the late afternoon and as the sunlight came from a low angle.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Overlapping Ferns

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Overlapping Ferns
Overlapping ferns grow close together in the springtime redwood forest

Overlapping Ferns. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Overlapping ferns grow close together in the springtime redwood forest

Late in the day, a bit early for golden hour but late enough to start thinking about it, I visited a short trail in Del Norte State Park, along which there was the promise of a few rhododendron blossoms and many, many redwood trees. It was an easy trail, gradually ascending and traversing a low ridge through the forest, and then beginning a descent that led to the beach. Since I was interested in the redwoods and not the beach, I stopped just past the beginning of the descent.

The lighting conditions were just about perfect — thin clouds muted and diffused the light, and it came into the forest from the west at a low angle, side-lighting the redwood trees. While I mostly was there to photograph big, obvious things like blooming rhododendrons and the redwood trees, this forest was full of smaller details, too. As I started back up the trail to return to where I started I saw some thick groups of ferns and I stopped to take a look. This little scene immediately caught my attention, with its nearly symmetrical layers of fern fronds leading down toward the forest floor.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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