Category Archives: Morning Musings

Commentary, Events, Locations, Morning Musings

Sierra Nevada Fall Color (Morning Musings 8/25/14)

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For various reasons — projects I’m working on, clear signs of the changing seasons, photographs I’ve recently seen — I have been getting into that autumn frame of mind that comes at about this time every year. With that in mind, today’s “morning musings” post is about finding and photographing fall color in the Sierra Nevada. Rather than re-writing the whole thing, I’ll start by pointing you to an extensive guide that I wrote a few years ago and have updated every year since that time — if you are thinking of chasing aspen color this fall you may want to take a look: “Sierra Nevada Fall Color — Coming Sooner Than You Think”

If things evolve on a relatively typical schedule, eastern Sierra aspen color is perhaps about six weeks away. I have been photographing this subject for a while now, and it is one of my favorites. I intend to be out there again this fall.

Aspen Color, North Lake
Aspen Color, North Lake

One popular game at this time of year is to predict/guess when the colors will arrive and how good they will be. I’m fully aware that I’ve been wrong quite a few times, and my increasing knowledge of this subject has perhaps only made me more aware of how unpredictable this can be. However, this year I have to wonder about the effects on the trees from our three-year California drought, which has reached an extreme level all across the state this year. I don’t know what the results will be, but I’m considering some possibilities:

  • During the last two years it seemed to me that I was seeing the onset of color move a bit earlier in the season. I have to wonder if we may see stressed trees go into fall mode a bit on the early side this year.
  • Some people say that they are seeing a few aspen groves turning brownish-yellow already and looking like they are drying out.
  • Also during the last few dry years we have seen some anomalous early season storms, and I wonder if that pattern will continue. This can affect the season in various ways if it happens. On the negative side, leaves can blow down early. On the positive side, snow and aspens can make a beautiful pair.

As always, to the extent possible, I like to remain flexible about when and where I’ll photograph the aspens, and I watch the evolving conditions to see what this season may bring. How about you? What are your fall color plans?

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Morning Musings

Morning Musing – 8/24/14

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This “Morning Musing” post is related to the photograph I shared here earlier this today: “Flooded Field, Winter.” I made this photograph last winter on New Year’s Day, when a group of us (friends who are all involved in photography in one way or another) gathered before dawn at a favorite migratory bird location to again welcome the literal dawn of the new year together.

I am aware that no one else see a photograph in the same way that it is seen by the photographer who made it. The backstory of this image reminds me that the viewer, in a sense, can see it more objectively for what it is as a pure visual image, though he or she may be able be able to share with the photographer some of the implications and connections that such a photograph might evoke. The photographer has a unique internal knowledge of and relationship to the photograph that can never be completely understood by the viewer, even by a viewer who might like the photograph a great deal. When I tell you that the photograph was made on a cold and foggy New Year’s Day, in the company of good friends and photographers, you know more about the context, and this knowledge mights shift the way that you understand the photograph, but I can never take you all the way “there.”

The photograph also reminds me of one other wonderful thought. Fall is coming, and then winter, and soon the birds will return to Central Valley, and my friends and I will meet there once again on mornings much like this one. I can’t wait!

Flooded Field, Winter
Flooded Field, Winter

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Morning Musings, Technique

A Bit More on Aperture Selection (Morning Musing for 8/23/14)

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(Thanks to a reader who posted a follow up comment on an earlier post — “Making Aperture Selection Easy (Morning Musing for 8/22/14)” — I wrote up a response with a quick explanation of why you might want to be careful about stopping down too far if you are trying to maximize image sharpness. I think it might be useful information for others, too, so I’m sharing it here as a new post.)

Aperture selection, among other things, allows us to control depth of field (DOF)— the range of distances in front of and behind (if not focused on infinity) the subject that is the center of the plane of focus. By choosing larger apertures (such as f/1.4) we narrow the DOF and can throw elements beyond or in front of the main subject out of focus, making them soft and diffused. Choosing smaller apertures (such as f/16) will increase the DOF, and subjects further behind or in front of the primary subject will be much sharper.

Some photographers make a logical leap from “increasing DOF with small apertures makes more things in the frame look sharp” to “smaller apertures are sharper.” It doesn’t actually work quite that way! Continue reading A Bit More on Aperture Selection (Morning Musing for 8/23/14) →

Morning Musings, Technique

Making Aperture Selection Easy (Morning Musing for 8/22/14)

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From time to time I see questions from photographers trying to figure out exactly which aperture is the “right” one for a particular photograph. Some will go so far as to consult depth of field calculators (or “DOF calculators”) to help them decide whether the should open up a third of a stop from f/11.

There may be times where that sort of precision aperture selection is useful, but in many cases you can make things a lot simpler*, basically selecting from one of three general options:

  1. If depth of field isn’t a big issue — let’s say you are shooting a relatively flat subject — simply use a “middle of the road” aperture that will be sharp on your lens/camera combination. The old rule of thumb about using f/8 is a decent one to follow here, although cropped sensor shooters might go for something more like f/5.6.
  2. If you need very deep depth of field, go straight to the smallest aperture you feel comfortable using. On a full frame camera this is likely to be about f/16, while on a cropped sensor camera it might be a bit larger, perhaps in the f/11 or so range. If your need for extra deep depth of field is strong enough that you are willing to give up a small degree of overall image sharpness — which will be invisible in small images anyway —  you might even go one stop smaller on some occasions to f/22 on full frame and f/16 on crop.
  3. If you need to limit depth of field to throw background elements out of focus, simply try the largest aperture that your lens has — but consider stopping down just a bit if you need just a bit more depth of field.

Basically, for most photographs, especially if you have good light and/or are using a tripod, you could probably get away with considering only three apertures in most cases — the “normal” one, the really small one, and the really big one.

  • Yes, this is a bit of a simplification, though it really does work in the vast majority of the photographs that most people are making. Clearly things can get a bit more complicated if you are, for example, shooting in very low light or need to deal with moving subjects. In the interest of keeping this “Easy” description easy, I’ll simply acknowledge those possibilities here without elaborating.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.