Monthly Archives: March 2008

Photographs: Wildlife

Gull in Flight, Blue Sky

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Gull in Flight, Blue Sky
Gull in Flight, Blue Sky. Pacific Coast, California. March 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

On the first day of March I went out for some “target practice” – trying to track gulls in flight from a bluff above the Pacific Ocean north of Santa Cruz, California.

I was using a new zoom that provides a 400mm focal length at the long end. Although I’m not primarily a wildlife photographer – not that I don’t give it a try from time to time – I have to say that trying to photograph gulls as they pass by in flight is a real challenge, and renews my appreciation for the skills of those who do specialize in “birds in flight” (or “BIF,” as they refer to it) photography.

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Equipment, Technique

A New and Different DSLR ‘Sensor Dust’ Problem

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Since I sometimes go off for a week or more to shoot in the backcountry, I’ve worried from time to time about getting a dirty sensor early in the trip and not realizing it until I return… a few hundred or thousand frames later. Yesterday I ran into such a problem on a night photography shoot and didn’t realize it until I moved the photos to my computer and checked them in Adobe Bridge.

The first few shots were fine, but perhaps a half dozen into the sequence I noticed a very black smudge near the bottom of a vertical frame image. (This means it was near the “top” of the sensor when the camera was held this way.) On the next couple of shots the “smudge” moved in bug-like fashion up into the frame, finally lodging close to the middle. This was one strange dust spot – like none I’ve ever seen before. The typical spot leaves a semi-transparent smudge on the image and generally stays in one place on the sensor. (Technically, the AA filter, but you know what I mean…) This one was black and moving – at first as I cycled from frame to frame I wondered if I had a bug crawling around inside the chamber.

Fortunately, I’ve adopted a sensor cleanliness strategy that relies more on post-processing removal than on the futile attempt to keep the sensor in a pristine state of cleanliness. So far I’ve been able to remove the offending blob from all of the images from the shoot that I’ve worked on.

If there is a moral to this story, it might be this – even if you hope to keep your sensor clean, you still need to develop the post-processing skills necessary for dealing with dust specks when they unavoidably do show up.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shop Buildings at Night

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Mare Island Shops at Night
Mare Island Shops at Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. March 22, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

At least once a year I join The Nocturnes (the San Francisco Bay Area night photographers’ group led by Tim Baskerville) to photograph the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. This amazing historical site near Vallejo, California was the first US Navy shipyard on the west coast and dates to the mid-1800s. It was active until the late 1990s. It is a night photographer’s paradise with wonderful old buildings ranging form officers’ homes to dry docks to huge cranes to wonderful old brick factory buildings

keywords: night, nocturnes, mare island, naval shipyard, vallejo, california, usa, stars, artificial, lights, brick, quonset, door, road, street, fence, windows, smoke, stack, blue, yellow, brown, shadow, urban, landscape, travel, historic, stock