What the Heck is Dan Shooting!?

Some of you who like my landscape/nature work may wonder what the heck I’m doing with the “urban photography” that I’ve posted here during the past few weeks. Get ready for more – there are currently about 10 photographs of similar subjects in the pipeline. Perhaps some explanation is in order.

This isn’t really a new thing for me – I’ve posted urban and “industrial” photographs in the past. (See the night photography section in my Gallery for some obvious examples, and also take a look at some of the “City” photographs while you are there.) Quite a few of them are what I think of as urban landscape photography, and to some extent I approach making these photographs much the same way I approach nature and landscape shooting. I wander about looking for stuff that appeals to me, often looking for effects of light, pattern, or color – and then I photograph it.

Besides the obvious subject differences – yes, I do realize that dilapidated buildings are not the same as aspen forests – I shoot differently, at least for some of this photography. While I do sometimes cart a tripod into urban environments, more often I travel light – ironically perhaps, usually lighter than I do when I go out for a weeklong pack trip! I generally do not use a tripod, I virtually never carry all of my lenses, and sometimes I just go out with a prime or two.

I hope you enjoy this change of pace, and that in some way you can see connections to my photographs of the natural world. (There is actually a long philosophical discussion I could have about that very topic, but I’ll spare everyone…) In any case, I’m sure that the flow of landscapes and nature photographs will resume in a week or so.

2 thoughts on “What the Heck is Dan Shooting!?”

  1. What do you mean spare us?! Sounds like an interesting topic. I occasionally go out and shoot in the city, often taking my D200 with just an old 50mm AI-S. It’s fun to go out and shoot something different, and w/o a tripod. I like to think it pumps my creative juices for when I’m back out in the real world (nature), but I have no data on that….

    I’d also be interested to know if people are actually upset with this side of your work. You must give the people what they want, Dan. :)

    1. John: First, thanks for signing up at the site and posting. The “spare us” comment was meant “tongue in cheek” – and so far no one has complained! :-)

      I agree with you about shooting something different. For me, shooting a variety of subjects keeps my eye sharper… so I wasn’t really apologizing!

      Take care,

      Dan

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