Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

Narcissus Flowers

Image March 13, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of white narcissus flowers in bloom.

A short while ago I shared the first photograph of this set, a picture of a single narcissus flower. In this companion photograph, made on the same day and in almost the exact same spot, I decided to focus on a group of these flowers instead.

Photographing these flowers seems to me to be a bit more complicated than it might appear. Allow me to share a few things I had to think about. First of all, I wanted to blur out the background, but I also wanted many parts of the flowers to be relatively sharp. Photographers will recognize a conflict there between a small aperture and a large one! A second challenge comes with a subject where almost all of the tones are light. I want to retain the bright quality of the subject, but I must avoid overexposure or I’ll lose all of that subtle near-white texture and detail. So I underexpose just a bit, knowing that I can work the image in post a bit to get it where I want it.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Mountains, Evening Clouds

Image March 12, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dramatic clouds above Death Valley mountains at the end of the day.

From time to time I like to revisit my black and white roots. I started photography quite a few years ago, and back then everything was black and white for me. (Color slide film was available, but I didn’t use that until some time later. ) I learned to develop and print in black and white, and I certainly learned to see that way. So black and white is still at the heart of my photography.

In this photograph I made a conscious effort to channel a particular (and perhaps familiar?) approach to monochromatic landscape, relying not just on capturing an image of a particular scene but also on producing an interpretation of that scene using the tools of the digital darkroom. The experience of photographing the scene was special and a bit surprising. After a day of decidedly so-so light I set up on an elevated vantage point in the early evening, not necessarily expecting great light but ready if it should arrive. And it did arrive during the final minutes of daylight just before the sun dropped below a desert mountain range behind my camera position.

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Photographs: Nature

Last Year’s Leaf

Image March 11, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary autumn cottonwood leaf hangs on a branch against a spring-green background.

The beginning and ending of photography days are often the busiest times. It isn’t that you cannot make photographs all day long, but the light is often most interesting at these moments and things tend to change more quickly. After an early morning start and hours of intense photography, it is almost inevitable that there will come a moment when everything slows down. On this morning I decided to stop what I had been doing (photographing birds) and wander down a short trail past some ponds.

I am often surprised by what I see when I step back from what I am photographing and slow my pace. I really didn’t think I would see anything photographically interesting on this little walk, but almost immediately I came upon bare cottonwood branches holding last year’s dry leaves, their withered and nearly monochromatic forms backed by newly sprouting green grasses and blue sky.

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Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Cranes, Winter Sky

Image March 10, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three sandhill cranes fly against blue winter sky.

During the first week of March it occurred to me that the end of the winter migratory bird season in California is approaching — and that it might come earlier than usual this year due to warmth and drought. So I headed out to look for birds, even though my preferred foggy conditions were not in the forecast. Since the daylight hours are rapidly increasing, it was a longer day that it would have been a few weeks ago — the sun now is up an hour earlier!

It seems to me that the behavior of the birds changes at this point in the season. Larger groups seem more likely to congregate, and they seem more active throughout out the day. That was the case this time, and I saw all kinds of geese, plenty of sandhill cranes, and lots of other birds including ibises, egrets, herons, redwing blackbirds. At one point I paused near large groups of cranes and waited (mostly) patiently for groups of them to periodically lift off and fly past my position.

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