Tag Archives: travel

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Sunrise – Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite

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Sunrise - Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite

Sunrise – Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise on Telescope Peak and the Amargosa Range of Death Valley with the ruins of the Rhyollite Nevada bank building in the foreground.

This photograph attempts to pull together three iconic elements of the Rhyolite ghost town experience: the ruins of the old bank building, the view across the Amargosa Valley to the Amargosa Range (just inside Death Valley National Park), and the snow-capped summit of Death Valley’s Telescope Peak in the first light of dawn. This photograph was made just a moment before one that I earlier posted that showed the first direct light hitting the front of the bank, and in this one I was trying to nestle the distant mountains in the curve created by the top of the old wall of the weathered bank building.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: rhyollite, ghost, town, mining, abandoned, ruins, nevada, california, usa, death valley, national park, telescope, peak, amargosa, range, mountains, valley, desert, wall, brick, sage, sky, pink, firsts light, sunrise, dawn, stock, landscape, scenic, travel

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Andrew’s Clintonia

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Andrew's Clintonia

Andrew’s Clintonia. Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Newly emerging spring Andrew’s Clintonia (Clintonia andrewsiana) plant at Muir Woods National Monument, California with immature flowers.

I hope I have correctly identified this plant – with the help of a few people who contacted me after I posted the photo along with a request for plant ID help on my dan’s outside blog. The flowers are the tricky part. All of the photographs of this plant that I could find during my search for identification look different – but the plant apparently doesn’t actually blossom until a few weeks or a month after I made the photograph, so here we’re just seeing the early buds. The leaves look right. It grows in the right place – in the redwood forest and Muir Woods. And I found one online example with mature flowers that has the same single leaf near the top of the flower stalk. So I’s sticking with Andrew’s clintonia until someone comes up with a better idea!

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: Andrew’s Clintonia, Clintonia andrewsiana, andrews, flower, plant, stem, leaf, green, stalk, forest, woods, grove, redwood, floor, bud, bloom, nature, foliage, spring, muir, national, monument, park, golden gate, recreation, area, travel, scenic, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

California Buckeye, Morning Fog

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California Buckeye, Morning Fog

California Buckeye, Morning Fog. Calero Hills, California. April 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Weak sunlight filters through fog to illuminate a solitary California buckeye tree.

Since the peak of the “impossibly green season” is happening right about now here in Central California, I started this weekend by visiting two of the oak/grassland parks very close to my home. This photograph was made as I started a short hike at Calero County Park, an area of open grassland and oaks spread across rolling hills. It was very foggy when I started out but soon the sun began to break up the fog. In this photograph the fog was beginning to thin and the buckeye tree is lit by soft filtered light coming through the fog.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: california, buckeye, tree, branch, leaf, trunk, alone, solitary, solo, grass, meadow, fog, mist, spring, green, light, sunlight, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, usa, santa clara county, calero, park, hills, morning, stock

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Two Fairy Bell Flowers

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Two Fairy Bell Flowers

Two Fairy Bell Flowers. Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a pair of fairy bell wildflowers at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

In this black and white photograph of two fairy bells flowers I decided to go with a very diffused rendition. The color and tonalities of this scene were fairly subtle in many ways – for example, the color of the flowers is only a bit more yellow than that of the leaves. The very soft light on the floor of the redwood forest and the very narrow depth of field created by the close distance, long lens, and large aperture contribute various types and amounts of soft and diffused character to the image. I thought it would be interesting, having done so many realistic wildflower photographs in recent weeks, to try something a bit more abstracted.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: fairy, bells, wildflower, flower, wild, leaf, light, bokeh, blur, branch, plant, foliage, redwood, forest, grove, woods, shade, muir, national, monument, park, golden gate, recreation area, marin, county, california, usa, black and white, monochrome, stock, nature, scenic, travel, petal, branch, Disporum hookerae, Disporum hookeri