Tag Archives: spring

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Two White Globe Lily Flowers

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Two Chinese Lantern Flowers
Two White Globe Lily Flowers. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 26, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two white globe lily flowers growing in a narrow canyon at Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. I make a point of hiking through this canyon with my camera equipment every April, when many wildflowers are in bloom.

A couple notes on this photo and some other wildflower photos that will soon follow… I know the location of these flowers very well – they grow along a trail through a canyon at a nearby park where I hike many times each year. I shot these photographs without a tripod. In fact, I travelled very light when I did much of this flower photography this season – on this day I was carrying only my Canon 5D and a 24-105mm zoom. The lens choice might catch the attention of some readers, since this is not your typical macro lens – but I’ve found that it works quite well for this type of shooting, and that it is possible to get a pleasing background blur in many cases if I use a large aperture and pay attention to what is in the background.

keywords: chinese lantern, flower, wild, wildflower, spring, canyon, blossom, plant, leaf, nature, almaden, quicksilver, santa clara county, park, san jose, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Spring Flowers and Seeds

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Spring Flowers and Seeds
Spring Flowers and Seeds. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of spring flowers (larkspur, or delphinium) with seeds, and foliage. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California.

Photographed along a trail through a small canyon where I frequently hike and which I always return to each spring. I was intrigued by the combination of the purple flowers and the seeds on the curving stem.

keywords: color, photo, photography, flowers, seeds, foliage, grass, leaves, stems, spring, new, nature, plants, almaden, quicksilver, santa clara county, park, san jose, california, usa, green, purple, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Quicksilver Wildflowers

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Quicksilver Wildflowers
Quicksilver Wildflowers. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Deep purple spring wildflowers at Almaden Quicksilver Park, California – photographed on an early spring hike near the peak of the central California wildflower season.

The flowers are larkspur, or delphinium. They are interesting flowers and somewhat difficult to photograph. Their color is a very deep purple, so it is almost necessary to photograph them against a much lighter background. These were photographed along the New Almaden Trail, not far from the Mockingbird Hill entrance.

keywords: wild, flowers, wildflowers, deep, purple, five, petals, trail, hike, nature, spring, almaden, quicksilver, county park, santa clara, san jose, california, usa, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Purple Wildflowers

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Purple Wildflowers
Purple Wildflowers. Grant Ranch County Park, California. April 20, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring purple wildflowers photographed in the grasslands of Grant Ranch County Park east of San Jose, California.

I’m told that these are Vicia villosa or winter vetch. All I know for certain is that the hillside was covered with these beautiful small flowers, and that I had to get down very low on the ground to photograph them. :-)

For those interested in photo equipment issues, this photo is evidence, I think, that you can get decent out of focus background bokeh from the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L.

keywords: purple, wildflowers, wild, flowers, grant ranch, santa clara, county, park, joseph, green, leaf, grass, stem, bloom, blossom, spring, nature, stock, california, usa, photo, photography, Vicia villosa, winter vetch