Tag Archives: single

In the Scottish Forest

In the Scottish Forest
“In the Scottish Forest” — A small tree growing in the dense forest on a rainy day on the Great Glen Way, Scotland.

I made this photograph near the end of our May trek along Scotland’s Great Glen Way. It was the final day of our walk, and we would end arrive at Inverness later that day. I think we thought this would be a sort of easy, level and downhill walk to our destination. It started that way, along a narrow country road through fam country, but the sky soon clouded up (hey, it is Scotland!) and before long it began to rain. I saw this tree off to the side as we walked through a particularly dark and wet section of forest.

The rest of the day was a bit odd — though it was not all dark like this photo. The rain continued, mostly light but fairly continuous. Eventually we began to spot buildings on the edge of Inverness through breaks in the trees. Before long the path dropped toward the outskirts of the town, and the hike was more and more along urban sidewalks and paths. Then we missed a sign somewhere and got off route, eventually realizing our mistake and correcting — and before long we crossed the river to downtown Inverness and reached the official end point of the walk.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Inside the Flower

Inside the Flower
The interior of a California Golden Poppy

Inside the Flower. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The interior of a California Golden Poppy

Recently I wrote another post that considered some of the characteristics of California’s state flower, the golden poppy, ranging from its ubiquitous appearance throughout the state to the challenges of photographing the blossoms. The color is intense, and so “hot” in the red channel that it is easy to blow out the details of the flower even with a supposedly correct exposure. (Advice to new golden poppy photographers: It is generally better to underexpose by perhaps a half stop or so than to risk blowing out the red channel.)

There are plenty of ways to photograph this flower. You’ll see quite a few photographs made from flower height, some with several of the colorful blooms lined up in the frame. It is possible to photograph them from a higher angle and see into the interior fo the flower, though there are some technical challenges to that approach. In this photograph I managed to find a flower that was open on one side, so that I could do both — photograph from a lower angle and see inside the blossom. I decided here to try to completely eliminate everything that is not the flower itself, leaving a sort of small and very orange floral 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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California Golden Poppy

California Golden Poppy
A single specimen of a California golden poppy flower.

California Golden Poppy. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single specimen of a California golden poppy flower.

Any California photographer is obligated to photograph the California Golden Poppy. Check the contract — it is right there! It is the state flower and it is found just about everywhere in the state with few exceptions. More recently, as folks around here have moved away from having water-reliant lawn and towards drought-tolerant landscaping, the poppy is showing up in more and more yards. I’m sure I could find a dozen places to photograph them within a five or ten minute walk from my house.

They are called (at least sometimes) “golden” poppies, but they aren’t exactly gold. The color is more orange, though it sort of “leans” a bit toward yellow. If you look up the flower on wikipedia, you’ll find a wonderful description from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden: “California poppies … are of a burning color—not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of poppies.” They aren’t easy to photograph, at least in part because of this unusual and intense color. This one cooperated more than most, opening its petals toward me in somewhat soft light.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Rhododendron And Ferns

Rhododendron And Ferns
A single rhododendron flower, fallen onto a bed or redwood forest ferns

Rhododendron And Ferns. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single rhododendron flower, fallen onto a bed or redwood forest ferns

On this evening we headed to a place where I knew there would be rhododendrons, a spot on a high bluff above the ocean, where light comes in from the west late in the day. If you are lucky, it is filtered by clouds and provides just enough of a glow to illuminate the dark floor of the redwood forest. If you a doubly lucky, there is no wind, and the plants are still enough for the long exposures necessary in this low light.

Since we already had visited this spot, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to photograph and where to look for it — and most of our targets were not far from the trailhead. On the way in we walked past many blooming rhododendrons, but we decided we could come back to those a bit later. We crossed a low ridge and descended a bit into a valley. Here we photographed a bit, and then we began to retrace our steps along the trail through ferns and redwoods. I happened to spot this solitary fallen rhododendron blossom. It seemed like it had only recently come to rest on these ferns as the flower was still fresh.


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 | FacebookEmail

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.


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