Category Archives: Ideas
Improving Your Odds: That’s Why They Call It “Exceptional”
This is the first of what will be a series of articles looking at steps you can take to improve your chances of producing compelling photographs.
A recent stay in Yosemite Valley during my Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residency reminded me again that while many aspects of photography are out of our control, there are things we can do to increase the odds of success.
On this visit I had three late April spring days to photograph in the park, which mostly means “in Yosemite Valley” at this time of year when the high country is still snowed in. By non-photography standards, the Valley was beautiful — if a bit crowded. The sun was out, the sky was blue, temperatures were comfortable, rivers were full of early snowmelt, the waterfalls were flowing, there were hints of green in the seasonal vegetation, and too many tourists were already showing up!
I did the usual things: I got up before dawn to find the early light. I stuck around until the last light faded. I returned to subjects that I knew from past experiences to be promising. I considered where the light would be at different times of day. I went looking for new subjects in likely places. I wandered. I kept my equipment with me at all times. I made photographs, and some of them are even pretty good, but at times it was hard to “see” something special in these conditions.
What’s not to like, right? From a photographer’s point of view these are not ideal conditions for photography. As pleasant as nice weather is for hiking and camping and picnicking, it can be hard to find exceptional photographs in such everyday light. I and many of my fellow Sierra photographers prefer interesting and unusual conditions — precipitation, broken light, mist and clouds, some haze.
On the final morning I was up and heading into the Valley well before sunrise. The light was unspectacular, with thick overcast cutting off the morning light. But then I caught sight a bit more light in the east, and soon I saw some breaks in the clouds. Within fifteen minutes the conditions opened up and I was treated to an exceptional spectacle of light and clouds and landscape that lasted for several hours, during which I photographed continuously. I made more interesting photographs during these few hours than during the rest of the visit.
To state the obvious, “exceptional” and “unusual” conditions are not the norm. The blue-sky “blah” light is. If you show up on ten randomly selected days, nine of them are going to be, literally, unexceptional, and if you are looking for something unusual and beyond-the-norm you aren’t likely to find it.
The basic lesson is simple: The more you are out there the more likely you’ll be out there for something great. Continue reading Improving Your Odds: That’s Why They Call It “Exceptional”
A Photo Per Day Since When?
See July 3, 2005 post)
I was helping out at a friend’s workshop earlier today, and he mentioned to the group that I have been posting a new photograph every day for a long time. He turned to me and asked, “How long?”
I’m actually not quite certain. The first photograph posted at this blog was on July 3, 2005, when I shared a black and white photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge. Look back through those early posts I can see that at first there were gaps between posts, sometimes of a day or two, and perhaps a bit longer on a few occasions. But shortly after that I decided to try to produce work (not always “great” work) at a rate such that I could post a new photograph every day — so it seems like it must be getting close to eight years now.
I’m occasionally asked a few other questions about this project:
Why?: The main idea comes, I think, from my background in music, a field in which it is simply accepted that you must make work (e.g. – “practice”) continuously, both to develop your skills and to make them become instinctive.
Do you think you can produce a great photograph every day? No! Making a handful of excellent photographs (at least in the genres I focus on) every year is a worthy goal. Essentially, I’m exposing my “practice” work to the world, partly to encourage myself to take the work seriously and partly to share the process with others.
Do you actually go out and make a new photograph every day? Again, no. I produce work at an overall rate that lets me post something every day, but there are many days when I make no photographs… and other days when I make quite a few.
Questions or comments? You can leave them here on this post.
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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Heading Home
For the past week I have been the grateful beneficiary of a Yosemite Renaissance “artist-in-residence” (artist-in-renaissance?) gig in Yosemite National Park. Here are a few brief, or so I hope, thoughts before I pack my vehicle, lock the cabin door, and head back to what passes for civilization.
I am grateful to Yosemite Renaissance and its director, Jon Bock, for giving me this opportunity. I appreciate your generosity, your belief in my work, and the chance to work uninterrupted and at my own pace for a week in the park.
I made a lot of photographs, though I almost never say too much about the results until I have a chance to work with the images over the next weeks and months. That said, the timing of this visit turned out to be fortuitous — in a season of too-warm temperatures and too-little precipitation, this week has been very cold and snowy! Yosemite in winter conditions are special — mist and flurries among peaks and spires, new snow on forest trees, colors and shapes muted by storms, all sorts of effects of light.
This morning I took a short walk near the cabin where I’ve been staying, and I thought a bit about what I got from this residency. I have come to Yosemite for decades. (My earliest memory is when I was perhaps five or six years old, and I was impressed by the boulders and rushing torrent of the Merced River behind our little El Portal motel — now long gone.) While I’ve spent lengthy periods in the backcountry, I don’t believe I have ever spent more than two or three successive days in the Valley. With this weeklong visit, the time pressure was off — I could investigate hunches, revisit locations several times, and work slowly and thoughtfully.
This led to another realization this morning. The week produced more than just one week’s worth of photography, and it connects previous experiences to future work. It fills gaps in my experience with the place and lays the groundwork for work to come.
This morning’s hike was an example. I carried camera equipment but made no photographs — the light wasn’t right. But I got to know a new area and spotted a few subjects for future photography, going so far as to consider how I might compose images there and what time of day and season might be ideal. I’ll be back.
Since I started by describing this as a “brief” note, and I’m already pushing the boundaries of “brief,” I’ll stop here, and conclude (for now!) by again expressing my thanks to Yosemite Renaissance.
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.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.