Tag Archives: wildflower

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Beetle and Flowers

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Beetle and Flowers
Beetle and Flowers

Beetle and Flowers. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. Apriol 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Macro photograph of a beetle on spring California wildflowers.

I think I’m posting this one more or less because… I can! I was out last month trying to get to know a new piece of equipment, an extension tube. I’ve been experimenting to find out which of my lenses work most effectively with it, and trying to understand the best ways to use it in the field. On this day I figured out a few interesting and useful things. First, contrary to my expectations, the best way to shoot these subjects was to use manual focus and a 24-105 zoom lens. I would have thought that AF would have been more effective, but I found I could manually focus, then move slightly forward and backward with the shutter half depressed, and watch for the AF confirmation lights to come on. One of the biggest surprises was that this lens, which is not exactly known for its wonderful bokeh, turns out to produce really nice blurred backgrounds at large apertures with the extension tube. Who’d have guessed!?

So, a photograph of some anonymous beetle was one of the results.

Technical Data:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 70mm plus extension tube
ISO 400, f/4, 1/320 second

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.



Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Larkspur Blossoms

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Larkspur Blossoms
Larkspur Blossoms

Larkspur Blossoms. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 20, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring larkspur flowers against a soft background of sunlit spring greenery, Almaden Quicksilver Park, California.

I made this photograph back in early April as spring flowers were just starting to really blossom in my favorite flower-filled gully at the Almaden Quicksilver Park near San Jose, California. The larkspur flowers often blossom early and pass quickly through their prime phase, and seem to be pretty delicate flowers to begin with – so I was glad to get there at the right time to photograph these specimens.

I photographed them against a background of grasses with the scene lit by sunlight filtered through high clouds. Using the maximum aperture of f/4 on the 24-105mm zoom (with an extension tube) made for very narrow depth of field and allowed me to throw almost everything in the frame other than the central flower out of focus.

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

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM with extension tubes at 105mm
ISO 400, f/4, 1/250 second

keywords: larkspur, flower, plant, flora, foliage, wildflower, bloom, blossom, stem, branch, leaf, bokeh, blur, soft, background, purple, green, nature, san jose, santa clara, county, park, almaden, quicksilver, california, usa, north america, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

White Globe Lilies and Grasses

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Chinese Lanterns and Grasses
White Globe Lilies and Grasses

White Globe Lilies and Grasses. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Macro photograph of White globe lily flower and buds and spring grasses – Almaden Quicksliver Park, California.

This is one more photograph of the white globe lily flower I posted recently, this one in landscape mode rather than portrait mode. This is one of the first of the seasonal bloom of this flower along a favorite trail of mine at the Almaden Quicksilver County Park – the location of historic mercury mines along the edge of Santa Clara Valley. I photograph these flowers every April, and this photograph is from my first visit of the year.

Some of the challenges in making this shot included the need to use an extension tube and get very close – perhaps just a couple inches from the flower. Since this specimen grew on a steep bit of hillside I shot it handheld and used manual focus – I essentially picked a decent focus point and composition and then carefully moved forward and backward until the important parts of the flower were in focus. (The narrow DOF at this close distance made the zone of focus very small.)

By the middle of April there will probably be hundreds of these flowers in this small valley.

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

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 73mm with extension tube
ISO 400, f/8, 1/100 second

keywords: chinese lantern, flower, bloom, blossom, bud, wildflower, plant, leaf, grass, seed, stem, branch, blur, bokeh, green, white, pink, spring, season, almaden, quicksilver, county, park, santa clara, san jose, california, usa, north america, nature, close up, macro, foliage, flora, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Purple Larkspur Flowers

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Purple Larkspur Flowers
Purple Larkspur Flowers

Purple Larkspur Flowers. Almaden Quicksilver County Park, California. April 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Purple larkspur spring blossoms at Almaden Quicksilver County Park, California.

I think I’ll post another spring wildflower photograph before resuming the Death Valley posts – who knows, maybe I’ll post a few more first!

I’m a bit weak on flower identification. Although I can tell you when certain flowers will come up, tell you exactly where to look for them, and even recognize the plants before the flowers bloom… I cannot always remember the common names, much less the Latin names. With that said, I’m reasonably certain that these are Larkspur blooms.

This patch is on a particular hillside along a particular sunny turn in a trail in the small “wildflower valley” at Almaden Quicksilver Park that I mentioned in an earlier post. At this spot the trail descend though a somewhat open area that faces west and the plants are in a boundary between some much more shaded forest and a bit of open grass-covered terrain. In a small area here that is perhaps no more than 20 feet across, right above a small oak tree set in the edge of the trail, I can always find a small group of these flowers right near the beginning of April.

They are not easy to photograph. The flowers are not terribly large and tripod placement is very tough on the steep hill where they grow. To make this photograph I added an extension tube to a 24-105mm image-stabilized lens and got down on my knees. I was quite close – a matter of a few inches from the flowers. Depth of field is very small, so the trick is to find a good angle that both provides the right kind of background and which puts the main flower roughly parallel to the sensor, to find an interesting composition of the flowers, and then to move the camera slightly back and forth until the primary subject comes into focus. (The camera won’t auto-focus very will with this setup.) The very dark colors of this flower also add to the challenge!

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM (with extension tube) at 73mm
ISO 400, f/4, 1/160 second

keywords: purple, flower, bloom, petal, larkspur, wild, wildflower, spring, green, grass, bokeh, almaden, quicksilver, county, park, santa clara, san jose, california, usa, north america, nature, foliage, season, stock