Tag Archives: white

Photographs: Nature

Two Tidy Tips Flowers

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Two Tidy Tips Flowers
Two tidy tips flowers, San Luis Obispo County, California

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

Two tidy tips flowers, San Luis Obispo County, California.

How could anyone not like this flower?! It is easy, I think, to take some flowers for granted, but the color pattern of this flower is wild and quite striking. I photographed this pair near the beginning April in San Luis Obispo County, where we had gone for one day of photography in its landscape of grasslands and oaks.

News reports, of course, seem to highlight a very small number of supposedly “special” wildflower locations each year. In fact, some of those places can be pretty special. But they are hardly the only great locations for finding California spring wildflowers! In truth, you can almost certainly find great displays within an easy day’s drive from wherever you live in the state, and in many places you can find them even closer.

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

Tidy Tips Flowers And Grass

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Tidy Tips Flowers And Grass
Sprng tidy tips flowers in a grassy meadow

Tidy Tips Flowers And Grass. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sprng tidy tips flowers in a grassy meadow.

This post continues my recent adventures with the new macro lens, in which I learn to better understand how to photograph small things at short distances. For someone who often photographs the large things in the world, where sizes are measured in miles rather than millimeters, this requires some adjustments!

This is not the first recent photograph of tidy tips flowers, nor will it be the last. We had plenty of opportunities to photograph this beautiful flower this spring when we traveled to Southern California grasslands and desert areas. In this photograph I endeavored to place one large flower in front of a background that included more of these flowers and the intensely-green spring grasses.

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

White Globe Lily Flowers

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White Globe Lily Flowers
A cluster of spring Chinese lantern flowers

White Globe Lily Flowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cluster of spring Chinese lantern flowers.

Please excuse the rather large number of posts of these flower during the spring season. It is both a personal favorite flower and something that grows not far from where I live. In fact, the location is at a park that I’ve gone to for decades — really the closest hiking park to my home. I’ve hiked there in all seasons for years, sometimes going for photographic purposes and other times just going for a good trail workout.

Over the years I’ve gotten to know the character of specific locations in the park, including where and when to find particular wildflowers. These white globe lily flowers grow in abundance along one particular trail each spring, especially in an area where the route passes through some small, steep canyons. The flowers seem to arrive suddenly, flourish for a short period, and then go to seed. On the day I photographed this group a few had bloomed but most were still in the bud stage.

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: Nature

White Globe Lily… And Bug

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White Globe Lily... And Bug
An insect on the top of a white globe lily flower

White Globe Lily… And Bug. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An insect on the top of a white globe lily flower.

Folks who follow my photography may have noted a rather large number of photographs of very small things recently, mostly a lot of wildflowers. This isn’t an entirely new thing for me, as I have photographed and occasionally shared wildflower photographs before. What has changed? Two things. First, I’m married to “the Georgia O’Keeffe of photographer photography, and she has a macro lens almost permanently attached to her cameras so that she can photograph this subject. Second, I finally decided to spring for my own macro lens, and I’ve been out trying to learn more about its use.

When viewed through the macro lens, photographs of flowers often end up being photographs of other things, too — bits of pollen, spider webs, dusk and dirt, brown areas, holes… and in this case, one black bug of significant size. I misidentified this flower for years, and I was grateful to a viewer who recently set me straight. It is a white globe lily. (If you want to understand just one of the reasons that I’m often challenged by naming such things, it is apparently also known as “fairy lantern, white fairy lantern, pink fairy lantern, lantern of the fairies, globe lily, white globe-tulip, alabaster tulip, Indian bells, satin bells, snowy lily-bell, and snow drops!”)

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.