Tag Archives: thorns

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Berry Plants

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Autumn Berry Plants
“Autumn Berry Plants” — A vining berry plant with autumn colors, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This is a sort of accidental photograph. I had stopped along an Eastern Sierra road to photograph a grove of autumn aspen trees that were in soft light, shaded by a nearby hill. The subject initially looked promising — colorful trees, nice light, a creek flowing nearby. However, despite wandering slowly for some time I could not find an aspen subject that interested me. (Oddly, this happens sometimes with aspen trees — they can look great from a distance, but once I’m up close it can be very challenging to find interesting compositions.)

In any case, giving up on aspens I started looking around for other subjects. As I walked out of the grove and was ready to depart, I saw these berry vines growing close to the ground and winding around the trunks of trees. Taking care to avoid the thorns — yes, I’ve been “bitten” before — I moved in close and worked with the interesting colors and textures of the leaves in the 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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Photographs: Nature

Succulent Leaves, Detail

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Succulent Leaves, Detail
Close up view of the patterns of succulent plant leaf edges.

Succulent Leaves, Detail. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Close up view of the patterns of succulent plant leaf edges.

Any time I end up in some sort of garden I seem to end up making at least a few photographs of the plants, often focusing on the shapes, lines, curves, textures and colors. In other words, most often I don’t make photographs that really show the plants in a botanically useful way, instead preferring to see them as essentially abstractions. One advantage of this approach, at least from my point of view, is that I don’t feel particularly limited to presenting an objectively accurate rendition of the subject, and I can instead choose to “see” the subject almost any way I want.

If I recall correctly, I made this photograph during a visit to Northern California a couple of years ago — the last time we visited the state and national redwood parks up there prior to this year. We stopped along the way up there and spent a night or two not far from Fort Bragg, where there is a lovely botanical garden. We took time out from the landscape photography to spend a few hours wandering there — mostly bent over close to the ground to photograph small things!

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Agave Plants

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Agave Plants
Agave Plants

Agave Plants. Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. November 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Agave plants, the Huntington botanical gardens

We spent the Thanksgiving Holiday in Southern California — and once we finished the Big Eating Day Celebration, we did other things. Well, OK, we ate more, too. Among those other things was a trip to the Huntington Library, etc. in San Marino, a place that we had not been to before. (The “etc.” above acknowledges the ridiculously long name of the place, a name the mentions galleries, library, and gardens. I wonder if people in the area perhaps just call it “The Huntington?”)

There was lots to see there. We started by focusing on art, both old and new — including an exhibit of photographs — and then moved on to lunch, followed by visits to a bunch of gardens: Chinese, Japanese, tropical, and desert. I wasn’t there primary for photography, but since I had a camera with me I did make a few photographs, including this close up of the beautiful leaves of this plant, whose form is almost always intriguing.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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