Spring Squal and Wildflowers
Spring Squall and Wildflowers. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.
A squall moves aross the distant landscape beyond a plain filled with spring wildflowers.
Almost everything about this photograph is transitory, with the arguable exception of the distant hills and mountains. This is an extremely dry place for most of the year, but following wet winters it may erupt into a remarkable show of wildflowers for a few weeks around the beginning of April. The rain the light in the photograph are more transitory than the flowers. It was a windy, post-storm day here, and cloudbursts and cloud shadows were racing across the landscape.
There’s always a bit of luck involved in landscape photography. We may like to imagine that we can control all of the elements that make a photograph of such subject, but our skill and knowledge merely improve the odds a bit. In the end, we work with what we get. Another stroke of luck in this photograph: the passing cloudburst was in the direction of the afternoon sun, so it was lit from behind.
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.
Spring Squal and Wildflowers
Spring Squall and Wildflowers. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.
A squall moves aross the distant landscape beyond a plain filled with spring wildflowers.
Almost everything about this photograph is transitory, with the arguable exception of the distant hills and mountains. This is an extremely dry place for most of the year, but following wet winters it may erupt into a remarkable show of wildflowers for a few weeks around the beginning of April. The rain the light in the photograph are more transitory than the flowers. It was a windy, post-storm day here, and cloudbursts and cloud shadows were racing across the landscape.
There’s always a bit of luck involved in landscape photography. We may like to imagine that we can control all of the elements that make a photograph of such subject, but our skill and knowledge merely improve the odds a bit. In the end, we work with what we get. Another stroke of luck in this photograph: the passing cloudburst was in the direction of the afternoon sun, so it was lit from behind.
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.