Tag Archives: white

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Miners Lettuce and Ferns

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Miners Lettuce and Ferns

Miners Lettuce and Ferns. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 12, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single miners lettuce plant in bloom among ferns, Almaden Quicksilver Park, California.

As a kid growing up in central California I always heard how one could “make a salad” out of miners lettuce, so this is one of the first wild plants I can remember. (By the way, I have no idea if this plant is actually edible – or deadly poison – so don’t go eating it because you saw my post – ask an expert first!) This single leaf and stem of the plant was growing in a very lush section of a trail at Almaden Quicksilver Park every spring during wildflower season.

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.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trillium, Flower and Stem

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Trillium, Flower and Stem

Trillium, Flower and Stem. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single trillium flower and leaves atop its slender stem in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I think I hit the peak of the “trillium season” when I visited Muir Woods near the beginning of March on a cloudy and damp late winter day on which the sun only occasionally broke through to light the forest floor. I probably spent an hour and a half photographing these flowers along a little section of trail that would usually take perhaps 10 minutes to hike – the flowers were everywhere. Some, like this one, were growing alone, while in other places there were small gardens of trillium flowers.

It may seem odd, but many of these close-ups of flowers were made using a 70-200mm zoom on a full-frame camera – no close-up lenses, no macro lens, and no close-up “filters.” The longer lens lets me work from a greater distance, simplifying tripod placement a lot, and also giving me a lot more flexibility in terms of composition. If there is are downsides to this approach they might include the potential for very narrow depth of field and the need to pay extra attention to camera stability. I used the “live view” feature to focus on many of these flowers. If the usual autofocus feature works I’ll use it, but sometimes it can be hard to get clean focus on these subjects. “Live view” on the Canon EOS 5D II raises the mirror and displays the image on the rear LCD. While the standard projected image can be useful for composition, it is not detailed enough for focusing. However, you can select a 10X zoom setting and see a very large and detailed image of the subject, and in this way you can do very precise manual focusing on any point in the frame.

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: muir; woods; national; monument; park; marin county; nature; california; usa; winter; trillium; flower; blossom; white; yellow; leaf; stem; plant; foliage; forest; redwood; nature; spring; bokeh; travel; scenic; marin county; stock; bloom, golden gate, recreation

Photographs: People, Photographs: Sports

Floyd Landis, 2009 Amgen Tour of California

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Floyd Landis, 2009 Amgen Tour of California

Floyd Landis, 2009 Amgen Tour of California. Sacramento, California. February 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

(See more of my 2009 Tour of California photos.)

Ouch Team rider Floyd Landis warms up on the course for the prologue stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California bicycle race in Sacramento, California.

This photograph was made during the warm up period an hour or so before the start of the prologue time trial of the Tour of California in Sacramento, California. I picked a corner with good angles and good light and had a chance to shoot many of the competitors as they came though this second of two closely-spaced turns. Floyd Landis is a bit of a controversial figure in professional cycling – he is either a “bad boy” or a victim, depending upon your point of view. Landis won, in what seemed like heroic fashion, the Tour of France a few years ago – only to be disqualified after doping charges which he fought vociferously and publicly. In the end he lost his yellow jersey in the tour and was suspended from cycling for a period… and he also had orthopedic surgery on his damaged hip. Now he is back, and it will be very interesting to see what he can accomplish.

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.

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Photographs: People, Photographs: Sports

Fabian Cancellara, 2009 Amgen Tour of California

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Fabian Cancellara, 2009 Amgen Tour of California

Fabian Cancellara, 2009 Amgen Tour of California. Sacramento, California. February 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Stage winner Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank in the first turn of the prologue time trial stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, Sacramento, California.

Cancellara is seen here coming through the first turn and looking up the long straightaway heading back toward the starting area in the prologue time trial stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. He ended up winning this stage.

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.

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