Tag Archives: yellow

White Globe Lily Flower And Buds

Chinese Lantern Flower And Buds
One white globe lily flower and serveral buds about to bloom

White Globe Lily Flower And Buds. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One white globe lily flower and several buds about to bloom.

Since a recent post regarding this same type of wildflower went into some detail about it, I’ll try to keep this post a bit shorter. (Note: I wrote “try,” not “promise.” ;-) This is a white globe lily flower, one of my favorites from a local spot that I’ve been visiting for decades, especially in spring, and to which I’ve returned again this spring.

The importance of these “local spots” cannot be over-emphasized. I’ve seen a lot of photographers get trapped by the “I only photograph amazing places” mantra. Some of them, whose naturally busy lives limit the frequency with which they can drop everything and head off to an exotic locale, become frustrated with their photography. I understand — it is important to “do photography” almost continuously in order to produce and maintain the instincts of seeing that are so important. But seeing can happen locally, too. In fact, practicing (a term I know from a life in music) as often as possible, even with subjects that might not be your first choice, is crucially important… and it can be done as close as your own back yard or in your neighborhood.


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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Tidy Tips

Tidy Tips
A tidy tips flower, above a bed of baby blue-eyes.

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

A tidy tips flower, above a bed of baby blue-eyes.

My relationship with things that require naming is… complicated. I photograph birds, but I only know the identities of a few particular types that I photograph. I’ve never been able to recall the names of the various trees of California, aside from the most obvious ones. And flowers have always been a problem. I may know the flower by sight, I might be able to tell you when and where to find it, and it is possible that I can even describe the plant it grows on. My naming the flower? Not likely. At best, I can manage to keep track of the popular names of a few of the most obvious and familiar types — California golden poppy, paintbrush, shooting star, and a few others.

But this one I know is called “tidy tips.” (Unless someone is pulling my leg…) The name seems to make sense, and I presume that it refers to the striking pattern of the yellow center and the white tips of the petals. I photographed this specimen in a central California meadow in early April, when this years spectacular bloom was at its peak. The flower is an individual specimen, but it grew among many, many thousands of other flowers including the baby blue-eye that appear in the background.


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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers
A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.

Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.

Let’s say you live in California or close enough to get here quickly. Let’s say you like wildflowers. Let’s say you have a bit of flexibility in your schedule. Go now! In many areas of the state — mostly the oak/grassland country of Central and the coastal and inland mountain ranges and foothills, along with many desert areas — the wildflower season is reaching its quite spectacular peak.You don’t need to know the supposed Best Wildflower Spot In California… because this is more or less a statewide phenomenon, and because all you really need to do is point yourself toward one of these kinds of places, and because you’ll actually have as much fun discovering your own wildflower spot as you would have joining the hordes at the over-crowded places in the news. (Recently we saw absolutely stunning wildflowers — the kind that make you gasp out loud — as we drove past them on main highway routes through hills and desert.)

We ran into this particular display along one of those highways. I had driven past it a bit more than a week ago without seeing anything all that out of the ordinary… but a week later it was definitely at its peak. (If you were to go to this specific spot now you would likely find that it had passed its peak.) The tumbleweed plant was a gift from the photography gods and goddesses, as the scene really required something to interrupt the nearly continuous carpet of flowers.


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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain, Spring

Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain, Spring
The Temblor Range and spring growth, Carrizo Plain National Monument

Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain, Spring. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Temblor Range and spring growth, Carrizo Plain National Monument.

One the first day of this recent visit to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, I arrived in the middle of the afternoon. I had driven down from the San Francisco Bay Area, choosing to start out later than sometimes since I knew I would not get there for first light. My plan was to arrive in time to set up a campsite and then head out for some late-day and evening photography. I arrived, found a campsite at a location a few miles into the hills on a gravel road, and then travelled back down toward the valley a couple of hours before sunset.

This was among the first photographs of the afternoon. Conditions were quite interesting — rain showers were about (and, in fact, I set up my camp in light rain) but there was also sunlight between the showers. Longer views often included some of the rain, some dark shadows under clouds, and patches of sunlight moving across the landscape. Here I found a place where those bit of sunlight fell on a close hill full of new plants and yellow flowers, and where the longer (ten mile) view across the valley looked out on the location of the San Andreas Fault and the base of the Temblor Range.


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 | FacebookEmail

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.