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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.
This plant isn’t one that I recognize, even though I’ve hiked past its location for decades, apparently without noticing it at all. I also will admit that I’m less that 100% certain of its identification, though “soap plant” seems to fit in terms of appearance, location, and type of habitat. It has a very delicate little flower, and this one is covered with insects which I presume must be feeding on it.
The trail where I spotted the plant is one of my favorites when I just want to get out for a quick hike or when I’m working to build fitness for bigger walking trips. It is typically a peaceful place, starting in open grasslands, and along the way passing through groves of oak trees and California bay laurel.
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.
We visited this garden in late May to photograph spring flowers. Lots of things were in bloom, particularly roses and foxglove. The foxglove blooms intrigued me, and I began by trying to photograph individual blooms and the dense collections of flowers. Eventually I noticed that a few of the plants had not entirely blossomed yet, and I became intrigued by the groups of buds at the tops of the plants.
There’s an interesting and useful photographic fact demonstrated by this photograph. One way to highlight a subject is to place it in sharp focus against an out-of-focus, diffused background. The usual advice — which has some validity — is to use an extremely large aperture to make the background soft. But if you are close enough to the subject and the background is far enough away, you can also get a nice background blur with smaller apertures, too… as I did here. (Note, too, that color and luminosity differences between subject and background can also help it stand out.)
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.
A spring cattail growing along a trail in the San Francisco Bay hills.
I made this at a place where I usually hike in the morning, a nearby park with trails where I can quickly get away and put in some miles. I don’t go primarily for photographic reasons, though I always carry a camera. This time my schedule made it possible to take an evening hike. I started after the dinner hour, set a turn-around time so that I’d get back to the car before the gate was closed, and I was off.
I went a couple of miles before my alarm reminded me that it was time to turn around. I retraced my steps, but now the soft evening light was starting to look interesting. Eventually I came to a large patch of dense cattails growing along the trail, something I had completely missed on the first half of the hike. I took a look at my watch, figured I could spare a few minutes, and set to work making close-up photographs of the lime-green cattails. (Note: I realize that I don’t know the actual definition of “cattail” plants…)
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.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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