Tag Archives: green

Trillium Plant and Flower

Trillium Plant and Flower - A trillium plant blooms during late winter in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument.
A trillium plant blooms during late winter in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument.

Trillium Plant and Flower. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A trillium plant blooms during late winter in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument.

I somehow missed the trillium bloom in the Northern California redwood forests last year, so this year I was determined to make it back again at the right time. (That time is essentially the first week or so on March.) Since I had plans to be out and about doing night photography later in the day, I decided to start early and head to redwood forests north of San Francisco to see what I could find. I was a bit concerned since it has been quite a dry winter in California.

Fortunately, it seems that a few recent light rains have been enough to get the early spring growth going. Where a week or two ago almost everything was brown, this week there were signs of green grasses and some wildflowers starting to appear. While the redwood forest was not a downright soggy as it usually is at the beginning of March, it was wet enough to start a few small streams flowing. At first I did not see as many trillium and other seasonal plants as I hoped to see, but then I noticed a couple of things. First, some plants seem like they may be on a slightly delayed schedule this year. Second, as I continued to walk and look more carefully I was able to find quite a few of these trillium flowers.

A bit of advice if you try to photograph trillium plants and flowers… The blooms seem to come and go rather quickly, so don’t delay if you are looking to photograph them or you’ll find only the triple leaf plants and no flowers. The floor of the redwood forest is a “busy” place, with lots of different plants and the textures of dead and fallen plant material. Photographing flowers against this background takes a bit of care or the flowers will be lost against the complex backdrop. Shooting rather early or late, when little direct sunlight makes it to down through the trees is a good idea – the light in the shadows is softer and less harsh and you can use large apertures to blur the background.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

Rhyolite Ghost Casino

Rhyolite Ghost Casino - The "Rhyollite Ghost Casino" was originally the railroad station in what is now the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada
The "Rhyollite Ghost Casino" was originally the railroad station in what is now the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada

Rhyollite Ghost Casino. Rhyolite, Nevada. January 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The “Rhyollite Ghost Casino” was originally the railroad station in what is now the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada.

This building in the ghost town of Rhyolite was originally a (very expensive) railway station that was abandoned when the town itself was abandoned after the nearby mines ran out of profitable ore in the early 1900s. According to several sources I have read, the building was then turned into a bar and casino, and many years later was for a time a curio shop and museum. Today it is boarded up and behind cyclone fences – more off-limits than almost any other structure in the ghost town.

I would live to get beyond the fencing and photograph this building more closely. It looks, in some ways, surprisingly modern for something that was constructing in the middle of nowhere about a century ago, and there are a number of interesting elements in the architecture. (I have photographed some of them, and eventually I’ll perhaps post a few.) The green sign on the front of the building appears to be a repurposed sign from the railroad station days. Underneath the fading “Rhyolite Ghost Casino” lettering, barely readable in this photograph, is and older sign declaring in larger print, “Rhyolite.” A walk around the structure reveals other interesting details, including one area that looks like it might have been a booth for a fortune-teller.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

Holiday Lights, Shadows

Holiday Lights, Shadows - Late afternoon light on holiday lights on a trellis casts shadows on a cloth backdrop.
Late afternoon light on holiday lights on a trellis casts shadows on a cloth backdrop.

Holiday Lights, Shadows. San Jose, California. December 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon light on holiday lights on a trellis casts shadows on a cloth backdrop.

For some reason, each year around this time it occurs to me to simply walk out my front door and wander around making photographs more or less in my neighborhood. It is an interesting experience that I think every photographer should try. The first time I tried this locally I “saw” things that I had not noticed during decades living in the area. In addition, looking for things to photograph in what might seem like an unlikely location serves to “tune up” my ability to see, and it helps me renew my ability to look past the obvious to find different subjects and different ways to look at them.

At one point on this “photo walk,” I wandered through a parking lot behind some shops. I photographed the back of a building that had an interesting shadow from an exterior staircase and around which interior furniture was arranged… outside. Then as I walked back across the parking lot I happened to see this trellis covered with strings of holiday lights, catching the warm late-afternoon sun and casting shadows on a sheet of canvas hung behind it.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

Corn Lilies, Late Summer

Corn Lilies, Late Summer
Corn Lilies, Late Summer

Corn Lilies, Late Summer. Yosemite National Park, California. September 18, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late summer corn lilies begin to take on fall colors, Yosemite National Park.

Corn Lilies are among my favorite Sierra Nevada high country plants. During their short summer growth period they begin as corn-cob-shaped shoots that spring up in wet areas as the snow melts out. They quickly grow into lush green plant in thick bunches that are intensely green and which have beautiful curving shapes and textures. (This makes them a very popular subject for photographers!) As the season continues they begin to show some “flaws” from insect damage and so forth, and at some point in August they begin to lose their green color, often beginning to pick up some brown coloration that can be nearly golden in the right light. At some point in September even the most durable specimens begin to be striped with yellow, brown, or even black and they finally simply fall over.

I found this bunch very close to our campsite in the back-country of Yosemite National Park around the middle of September. Although you cannot see it in this photograph, this clump of corn lilies had fallen over in a most interesting way – they all fell pointing away from the center of the group! So these plants are in the middle of falling over, and are lit by early morning light diffused by forest cover.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.