Tag Archives: primrose

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Golden Evening Primrose

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Golden Evening Primrose
Golden Evening Primrose

Golden Evening Primrose. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Golden Evening Primrose blossoms, Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park

Once we figured out that this was turning out to be a rather good wildflower year in Death Valley—rather than the expected complete bust—we began to see wildflowers everywhere. Although there were not too many at the lowest elevations in the most arid and desolate parts of the valley itself, up in the surrounding desert mountains there were a lot of flowers, and in some places the display was downright abundant, with the colorful patches on hillsides visible from a good distance away.

It helped that on what was probably our best wildflower photography day there was a winter storm that not only brought some rain and a bit of snow to the higher elevations but, more importantly, brought clouds and the soft light conducive to flower photography. As we would walk or drive along we might spot a bit of color and get out to look around. Invariably, as soon as we started photographing that color that we first spotted we would look more closely and find more and more examples and more and more kinds of flowers. What seemed like it might be a quick “stop to photograph the yellow flowers,” inevitably turned into a half hour or an hour exploration of a world of small and colorful desert flowers.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are 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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Brown-eyed Evening Primrose

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Brown-eyed Evening Primrose
Brown-eyed Evening Primrose

Brown-eyed Evening Primrose. Death Valley National Park, California. March 27, 2010. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brown-eyed Evening Primrose flowers and buds, Death Valley National Park

Going through some older Death Valley photographs near the end of 2012, I came across a few photographs of small desert flowers including this one of (what I’m pretty certain is) Brown-eyed Evening Primrose. (I’m certain it is a primrose, and it seems to fit the description of the specific form.) I’m not sure why this and a few related photographs had sort of disappeared into the raw file collection, though every time I go back through the old original files I find something interesting that I missed the first time around.

Even though it has now been several years, I recall quite specifically making this and the other similar photographs. I had driven to a well-known Death Valley location – one of the “icons” – quite early in the morning, and as I looked around near that subject, I saw some color on a small, rocky hill just off the highway. I decided to investigate, so I walked over there with my gear and wandered up onto the small hill. (I suspect that anyone who had seem me poking around over there might have wanted to yell, “Hey, you, the photograph is over this way!”) It had rained recently and what I found was a fairly astonishing number of new wildflowers that were just beginning to come to life in this seemingly barren and rocky area. I ended up photographing a number of different types of flowers and even surprises such as a big green caterpillar!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.