Tag Archives: spring

Photographs: Nature

Shooting Star Flower

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Shooting Star Flower
Shooting star wildflowers, photographed in San Francisco Bay Area hills

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

Shooting star wildflowers, photographed in San Francisco Bay Area hills.

Shooting stars are among my favorite wildflowers. I know that I have seen them for years — they grow in the California coastal hills where I have hiked since I was a child — but my first strong memory of them comes from the Sierra Nevada. Decades ago I summited Mount Whitney for the first time, near the end of a two-week backpack trip that had started on the opposite, west side of the range. As we descended we crossed a creek and there was a dense field of these flowers.

In addition to liking this flower, there is another reason for posting this photograph. After doing close-up work with a variety of compromises over the years — “diopters,” extension tubes on regular lenses — I finally picked up an actual macro lens, the Fujifilm XF 80mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro Lens for my Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera. I took it out for the first time recently, photographing spring wildflowers in a nearby canyon that I’ve visited for years.

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

Wild Sweet Pea Flowers

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Wild Sweet Pea Flowers
Wild sweet pea flowers, Almaden Quicksilver County Park

Wild Sweet Pea Flowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wild sweet pea flowers, Almaden Quicksilver County Park.

I made this photograph on a short hike along a familiar trail, one where I’ve gone to see wildflowers for several decades. It is not quite as exotic a location as some I travel to — in fact, it only took me about two hours to get there, do my hike, make my photographs, and return home for dinner! There’s a hint there, too — I did not photograph during the typical very early or very late hours. Instead I made this during the late afternoon. That works well in this spot since it is in a deep canyon, and the light is subdued even during main daylight hours.

I am far from an expert on wildflowers! In fact there are only a few that I can consistently name. Yet, even when I cannot recall the names — an issue I’ve always had — I recall the flowers themselves, the time of year and location where I’ll find them, and other features that characterize them.

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, Photographs: Southern California

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers

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Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers
A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.

Let’s say you live in California or close enough to get here quickly. Let’s say you like wildflowers. Let’s say you have a bit of flexibility in your schedule. Go now! In many areas of the state — mostly the oak/grassland country of Central and the coastal and inland mountain ranges and foothills, along with many desert areas — the wildflower season is reaching its quite spectacular peak.You don’t need to know the supposed Best Wildflower Spot In California… because this is more or less a statewide phenomenon, and because all you really need to do is point yourself toward one of these kinds of places, and because you’ll actually have as much fun discovering your own wildflower spot as you would have joining the hordes at the over-crowded places in the news. (Recently we saw absolutely stunning wildflowers — the kind that make you gasp out loud — as we drove past them on main highway routes through hills and desert.)

We ran into this particular display along one of those highways. I had driven past it a bit more than a week ago without seeing anything all that out of the ordinary… but a week later it was definitely at its peak. (If you were to go to this specific spot now you would likely find that it had passed its peak.) The tumbleweed plant was a gift from the photography gods and goddesses, as the scene really required something to interrupt the nearly continuous carpet of 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.

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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, Photographs: Southern California

Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain, Spring

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Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain, Spring
The Temblor Range and spring growth, Carrizo Plain National Monument

Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain, Spring. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Temblor Range and spring growth, Carrizo Plain National Monument.

One the first day of this recent visit to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, I arrived in the middle of the afternoon. I had driven down from the San Francisco Bay Area, choosing to start out later than sometimes since I knew I would not get there for first light. My plan was to arrive in time to set up a campsite and then head out for some late-day and evening photography. I arrived, found a campsite at a location a few miles into the hills on a gravel road, and then travelled back down toward the valley a couple of hours before sunset.

This was among the first photographs of the afternoon. Conditions were quite interesting — rain showers were about (and, in fact, I set up my camp in light rain) but there was also sunlight between the showers. Longer views often included some of the rain, some dark shadows under clouds, and patches of sunlight moving across the landscape. Here I found a place where those bit of sunlight fell on a close hill full of new plants and yellow flowers, and where the longer (ten mile) view across the valley looked out on the location of the San Andreas Fault and the base of the Temblor Range.

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.