Tag Archives: plant

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest Ferns

January 7, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A dense growth of ferns grows beneath the coast redwood trees at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I continue my year end (though it new extends into the new “year beginning”) review of all of the past year’s raw files with this photograph from May 2010. In this part of California, May is a time of transition. Although the calendar still says spring, in the moderate climate of coastal California the wild growth of early spring is over, and many annual plants have reached maturity. To see these ferns in growth mode you would have to visit the redwood forest earlier. But by May, especially here where the forest holds the moisture longer and keeps the temperatures cooler, many plants have reached their peak of growth. These ferns were growing alongside one of the trails through the main, popular section of the park – though I avoid the crowds of tourists coming across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco and get the soft and beautiful morning light by arriving at Muir Woods very early.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn, Alkali Lake, Eastern Sierra

December 7, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Dawn light on Alkali Lake and the peaks of the eastern Sierra Nevada near Convict Lake.

I posted a photograph very much like this one a month or so ago, but I like this place and the morning light so much that I’m posting this similar photograph. The location is on the shore of a small alkali lake out in Owens Valley/Long Valley, in an area that is full of hot springs. On this very cold early October morning, steam was rising from the many hot springs in the area as the sun rose, lighting the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada near Convict Lake, the sagebrush-covered hills below the Sierra, and finally the surface of the small lake.

For many years after I started visiting the east side of the Sierra Nevada I mostly ignored the high desert terrain such as the area around this lake. As time went on and I looked further east I began to venture out here, and I discovered a beautiful landscape that is affected by proximity to the Sierra but which is not really “Sierra Nevada” itself. The bulk of the eastern escarpment is a constant presence here, but the character of this place is more that of the basin and range country — dry, full of sagebrush, with playas and rocky outcroppings.

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, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow Grasses, Autumn Rain

December 2, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Meadow grasses made shiny by autumn rain, Yosemite Valley, California.

This fall I have been “playing around” with photographs of very dense and detailed vegetation. (Two other recent related photographs include one of aspen leaves and one of creek dogwood.) This is a difficult thing, especially with a subject whose colors seem somewhat muted, but if it works the largish prints can work both by revealing some form that might be difficult to see in all the detail and by presenting the detail itself. (As much as many of us rightfully point out that sharpness is not everything, sometimes it is pretty important!)

I noticed the subject of this photograph while shooting something quite different. I was standing in a meadow near Curry Village in light rain and using a very long lens to photograph mist and clouds drifting among trees and spires high on the Yosemite Valley rim when I happened to look down at my feet. (Always a good idea to look at the other stuff when shooting a specific subject that you came for.) I noticed the shapes of the grasses and the mixture of greens and browns with the “cool” light from the cloudy conditions. Since I couldn’t shoot this subject with the lens I was using at the moment, I went back to the other subject and made a mental note to switch lens and pay some attention to the grasses when I finished.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Creek Dogwood, Sierra Nevada

November 23, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Dense growth of creek dogwood with white flowers and fall color red leaves along Bishop, Sierra Nevada.

This is a plant I’ve been intrigued by in the past – literally the very same plant in the precise same location along Bishop Creek in the eastern Sierra. I think it is called “creek dogwood,” but here again I have to admit to my poor ability to offer proper identifications for many plants. (I’ve mentioned before that I often “know” the plants quite well – where they grow, when they come up in the spring, when they flower, and when the go dormant… but I often fail to register their names!) This plant acquires brilliant red leaves in the fall, and with some green leaves and round white “berries,” it has a striking appearance.

This is the next in the series of photographs of very dense vegetation. While it may be hard to make sense out of the photographs when presented as small web images, there is a lot of very interesting (to me, anyway!) detail in a print of this subject. It is even possible, I think, to make some sort of compositional sense out of all of this complexity as well – or at least I want to think so!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.