Tag Archives: spring

Photographs: Nature

Flower Detail

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Flower Detail
Macro photograph of the center of a delicately colored flower

Flower Detail. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Macro photograph of the center of a delicately colored flower.

A few weeks ago I accompanied the local flower photographer — the one I live with — to one of her favorite area botanical gardens where we spent a morning photographing flowers and plants. I’ve been having some fun with this recently, perhaps because i finally got the right lens for photographing this subject close-up!

Many things intrigued me about this flower. The remarkable patterns in the flower’s center, of course, were prominent. But working in soft light, at least partially created by using a scrim for shade, an amazing range of subtle colors became visible — it seemed at first like a white flower, but in this light the presence of tones ranging from blue to pink became clearer.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Drifting Fog, Hills

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Drifting Fog, Hills
Dawn fog pours across arid California hills

Drifting Fog, Hills © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn fog pours across arid California hills.

This is a somewhat unusual photograph — not the photograph itself, actually, but the fact that I’m sharing it. It is a black and white rendering of a photograph that I have previously shared as a color image. Most often I make a decision one way or the other, and I rarely ask “Is this better in color or monochrome?”, at least not publicly! But recently I have had reasons to look at the world in black and white a bit more than usual, so I decided to take an alternative view of this scene.

This was a remarkable morning in these inland Southern California hills where I had gone to photograph wildflowers. Early in the morning, a bit before sunrise, I headed from my hilly campsite toward a large valley filled with flowers… and I was very surprised to look look down and see the valley filled with fog. Of in the distance, gentle breezes were pushing the fog bank over and around these hills as the sky began to lighten.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature

Tidy Tips Flower

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Tidy Tips Flower
A spring tidy tips flower

Tidy Tips Flower. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A spring tidy tips flower.

This photographs takes me back just a few months to this past April, when a wetter-than-normal winter produced a spectacular wildflower bloom all over California. The state’s late-winter and spring transition is always special, but in these wet years it can astound. Places that are dry and brown most of the year are magically transformed — with fields of lush grasses and wildflowers everywhere.

In early April we made a weeklong trip to some of these typically dry areas to photograph the brief display. We spent a couple of days in the hills located roughly between the coast and the Central Valley. As we headed east, into increasingly drier climates, we stopped at one remarkable valley carpeted with wildflowers, the place where I made this photograph.

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.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks, Pacific Coast

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Sea stacks along the upper Big Sur coastline

Sea Stacks, Pacific Coast. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sea stacks along the upper Big Sur coastline.

California’s Pacific coastline is a sort of “home base” for me. Despite being born in landlocked Minnesota, I’ve lived within less than an hour of the coast since I was four-years-old. My childhood memories include trips to Santa Cruz, Monterey, and points north and south. One of our favorites was visiting the Point Lobos tide pools.

Many visitors to the coast come hoping to see beautiful blue sky days with warm sun. Those are not my favorite conditions — I prefer a good winter storm or the right kind of fog. But this photograph was made on one of those days back in April of this year. Following a wet winter, this was one of those glorious early-spring days when even I welcome the sunshine along this coast!

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.

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