Category Archives: Ideas

Ideas

Save Your Seconds

2 Comments

Jim Goldstein makes a good point about taking a second look at your work:

Always Check Your Seconds – Out of the Gloom II: Golden Gate Bridge and Fog

If there is one thing I’ve learned as a photographer it is always check your seconds. Upon first review of a days shoot I’ll almost always pick out the great shots. There’s a caveat to this though… these great shots are usually in line with a preconceived notion of what I wanted to get from the shoot. Coming back to these same photos later allows me to review my work with a fresh perspective. The end result is usually the discover of a real gem of a photo. Case in point… Jim [JMG-Galleries]

(Follow the link in the excerpt to read the whole thing and see the photo.)

In this regard, I’ve developed an annual ritual of going through all of my photos from the previous year during the holidays. (Trust me, that is a lot of photographs to look at!) I often discover something that I passed over the first time, often for the reason that Jim mentions – it was not in line with my original expectations of the subject. However, when I look at the photo with a bit more objective distance months later I often discover something very interesting and new in these photographs. On a few occasions a photo that originally seemed almost not worth keeping has turned out to be a real gem.

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.

Ideas

Standing in the Same Spot

Leave a comment

Inge Fernau posted a comment on one of my earlier photos – a shot of Lee Vining Creek. She included a link to her version of this scene, and it is kind of scary to see how similar it is. Follow the link to my original post to see what I mean.

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.

Ideas

A Note About Today’s Photo

Leave a comment

I have a month or so of “daily images” in the queue and “pre-posted” on this site. On a given day, my mind is often on different photographs than those you see appearing here – for example, right now I’m focusing on photographs from a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge to Point Reyes National Seashore that I took earlier this week. Consequently, I’m occasionally mildly surprised to see the new daily image when it appears in the blog. Sometimes the timing turns out to be interesting.

Yesterday I read Jim Goldstein’s post on digital (and film) image manipulation and creation, Digital Double Exposures: Blasphemy or No Big Deal?” over at his blog. I thought I left a comment, but it doesn’t seem to be there today. What I wrote was more or less that I don’t have any particular problem with some manipulation of an image, but that it can bother me when the result is presented as if it were “real” yet is impossible. I thought of a striking photograph of Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa that I once saw – a stunning panorama with a sky that would be just about impossible over this desert locale. A much bigger problem was that this sunset was somehow magically happening due north of the playa…

This is not to say that I object to the use of photo manipulation techniques, either in camera or in post-processing. There are at least two circumstances in which I’m fine with the idea and do it myself. For example, I have recently experimented with “imaginary landscapes” – images based on photographs that have been modified to a scene that clearly could not exist in the real world. (The linked example is not a photomontage, but a single image that was manipulated in post-processing.)

It turns out that today’s photo of the moon and some oak leaves is an example of different situation in which I think that post-processing manipulation is appropriate – in this case to create a more accurate sense of what my eyes actually saw. In reference to Jim’s post, this photo is a sort of double exposure (triple exposure, actually). In this case I was trying to capture a view of the moon over some trees that I saw as I hiked along this central California trail. Since I had to use a long lens to get a large enough image of the moon, there was not enough depth of field to also get the leaves in focus. In fact, there wasn’t even enough DOF to get the front and back leaves in focus. So, I did three exposures: one for the moon, one for the more distant leaves at upper right, and another for the closer leaves at lower left. The three exposures were stitched together to create what I am certain more accurately reflects my experience of seeing this scene than any of the three separate images could have.

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.