Monthly Archives: April 2008

Photographs: Death Valley

Panamints to the Sierra, Evening – Aguereberry Point

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Panamints to the Sierra, Evening - Aguereberry Point

Panamints to the Sierra, Evening – Aguereberry Point. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Looking northwest across the Panamints toward the Sierra Nevada crest at sunset from Aguereberry Point, Death Valley National Park, California. Entirely apart from any photographic merits, being alone on top of this very isolated point thousands of feet above Death Valley as the sun set was an amazing experience.

keywords: aguereberry, point, sierra nevada, range, panamint, sunset, evening, golden, mountains, ridges, valleys, color, death valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, travel, scenic, wilderness, desert, alpine, silhouette, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Spring Oak Leaves

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Spring Oak Leaves
Spring Oak Leaves. Calero Hills, California. March 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Some people might say I shouldn’t admit it, but there was an element of serendipity – actually, I made a mistake – in this photograph. (Some who imagine that all photographs should coalesce in the photographer’s mind in their final form before the shutter is clicked won’t want to hear about this.) I was working with a long lens and wide aperture to narrow the depth of field. My plan was to shoot the colorful foliage in the foreground and throw everything beyond out of focus. I set up, let the camera autofocus… and it focused on the “wrong” branches – the branches that are in focus in this shot. “Wait a minute,” I thought, “I kind of like the way that looks!” Instead of an in-focus foreground with everything else OOF, the middle ground is in focus and objects closer and farther away are OOF. It ended up being my favorite version of this scene; I like it more than the shot I was planning on.

keywords: spring, oak, tree, branches, leaves, bright, colorful, yellow, green, calero, santa clara, county, park, california, usa, nature, stock, landscape, morning

Commentary, Ideas

Sepia No More – The Flickr Aesthetic

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A New York Times review by Virginia Heffernan comments on the development of a so-called Flickr aesthetic.

There is something to this, for better or for worse. Clearly, certain types of photographs that “work” on photographic social networking sites like Flickr (often images that work well in thumbnail-sized electronic version, presented by photographers who are adept at the social networking business) are often quite different from images that might work as prints in a gallery or other venue.

I found one interesting irony in the article. The author seems to describe the Flickr photography in somewhat condescending terms, often suggesting – and not always without reason – that the photographers are naive. The irony is that, for all of the author’s knowledge of artistic issues, she seems equally naive about several aspects of the Flickr phenomenon, digital photography and post-processing, and other more modern developments.

Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Sports

Into the Surf

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Into the Surf
Into the Surf. Pacific Coast, California. March 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

In early March I headed out to the California coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz for an afternoon of random coastal shooting – I was probably thinking seascape, hoping for some interesting fog and clouds, but I stumbled across a large group of wind surfers just north of the coastal town of Davenport.

keywords: California, Ocean, Pacific, Seascape, Water, waves, Wind, windsurfing, Winter, sea, surf, spray, chop, swells, windsurfer, person, sports, stock, usa, outside, adventure, outdoor, board, mast