Tag Archives: season

Photographs: Nature

Baby Blue Eyes

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Baby Blue Eyes
Baby Blue Eyes flower against green spring plants.

Baby Blue Eyes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Baby Blue Eyes flower against green spring plants.

Since the pandemic lockdown began almost three months ago, I’ve made it out into the “wild” only a couple of times. Recently the authorities in our area loosened things enough to permit visits to hiking trails in the surrounding hills. I’ve gone early in the morning on weekdays, when fewer people are there, and I’ve stuck to wider trails that used to be dirt roads. It was great to get out — as recently as last Friday — but I did miss most of this year’s wildflower season around here.

This photograph comes from a favorite place along a little trail through a small valley not far from the trailhead. The trail descends into this valley under a canopy of trees and frequently crosses small creeks. Even on warm days it is a place of quiet and dark refuge.

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

Fairy Lantern, Spring Greenery

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Fairy Lantern, Spring Greenery
A fairy lantern blossom among spring greens in the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Fairy Lantern, Spring Greenery. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A fairy lantern blossom among spring greens in the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is not a fairy lantern blossom from the spring 2020 season. It is not news to anyone at this point, but my ability to get into the field was interrupted by stay-at-home orders more or less at the peak of the local wildflower season. Fortunately, I did get out a few times before the world came crashing down. And, truth be told, I have a lot of unfinished photographs sitting in the raw file archive from which this one comes.

While I know that this lovely flower can be found in quite a few places, I almost go back to the same specific location. It is along a trail in a local country park that drops down into a small canyon cut by a seasonal stream. The sides of the canyon are steep, and there is plenty of overhanging foliage, and on the right spring day the whole place is quiet and full of green.

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.

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

Lonely Road, Winter Sunrise

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Lonely Road, Winter Sunrise
Colorful sunrise clouds spread across the winter sky above a road through desert mountains, Death Valley National Park

Lonely Road, Winter Sunrise. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful sunrise clouds spread across the winter sky above a road through desert mountains, Death Valley National Park

It is possible to find solitude, even in national parks, though it may take a bit of effort. I was completely alone in this remarkable place to experience an utterly beautiful sunrise. All it took was getting up an hour and a half before sunrise, heading up into desert mountains in the predawn darkness when the temperature barely cleared twenty degrees, and driving to the end of a gravel road that crosses the crest of a desert mountain range.

I made the photograph on the same morning that I made several others that I have recently shared. The sky and the light were astonishing — broken lines of thin clouds spread across the sky before dawn, and they lit up in the first light, casting pink light across the landscape.

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.

Photographs: Nature

Mallow

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Mallow
Spring mallow blossoms, Northern California.

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

Spring mallow blossoms, Northern California.

I photographed these wildflowers last spring, right here in the San Francisco Bay Area at one of the local county parks where I frequently hike. In retrospect, there must have been so many wildflowers in bloom on the day I made the photograph that I neglected to make any photographs of the surrounding landscape at all — and the close-up photographs of wildflowers only provide sufficient clues to narrow it down to either of two nearby locations.

It seems like whenever I photograph wildflowers with a macro lens that I end up with a few surprises in the image — some tiny critter than I wasn’t paying attention to while focused on the flowers.

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.