Category Archives: Photographs: Textures

Photographs: Still Life, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures

Kitchen Tools #2

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Kitchen Tools #2
Close up photograph of kitchen implements.

Kitchen Tools #2. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Close up photograph of kitchen implements.

When looking for subjects to test (otherwise know as “get to know”) a new camera or lens, it is amazing what things one can find to photograph! This week I’m trying to get up to speed on a new camera — more about that below — and how it works with some lenses I already have. On this evening I slapped a macro lens on the thing and headed to the kitchen to photograph… a whisk, blender blades, coffee cups, and others stuff that was lying around.

It is important to me to both understand objectively how my camera equipment functions and to develop an intuitive familiarity with it. The former helps me make smart decisions, and the latter is very important in the field, where I don’t want to get stuck wondering how the gear works. In this case, the new equipment is a Fujifilm X-T5 that I got to upgrade from the XPro2 that I’ve been using for my “small camera” photography for the past few years. For this photograph and a few others like it I put the Fujifilm 80mm macro on the camera.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fabric

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Fabric
Colorful pieces of fabric photographed in a Southern California market.

Fabric. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful pieces of fabric photographed in a Southern California market.

This photograph comes from a visit to a collection of craft stores at a San Diego location a few years ago. We were there on a family visit, but I rarely go anywhere without carrying a camera, and it was impossible to resist stopping to photograph these beautiful and wildly colorful bits of fabric at one of the shops.

Here in California these images and these colors are a part of our culture. That, of course, should be no surprise at all in a state where it is hard to travel more than a few miles without passing through a town or a county with a Spanish-language name: San Francisco, Merced, Los Angeles, and… San Diego.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: France, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Polka Dot Dresses

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Polka Dot Dresses
Polka dot dresses hanging at a Paris shop

Polka Dot Dresses. Paris, France. August 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Polka dot dresses hanging at a Paris shop

This photograph could be many things, but among them might be a warning about what it is like to travel with me or visit any place with “things to see.” When I travel I virtually always have a camera on my person, if not actually in my hand. My photographer sense isn’t necessarily always “on,” but when it is I can be distracted by almost any sort of visual subject.

Sometimes I look for profound or iconic subjects, and I may spend a fair amount of time finding what I’m looking for and figuring out how to photograph it. At other times, as in the case of this photograph, I’ll make a picture of almost anything that happens to catch my attention, frequently working quickly and then moving on. My recollection is that I must have seen this rack of polka-dot patterned dresses in a shop window or sidewalk display while out walking in Paris.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Through the Scrim

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Through the Scrim
Benches and a balcony, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Through the Scrim. San Francisco, California. May 6, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Benches and a balcony, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

There is a small thread in my photograph of the interior spaces of buildings that looks through gauzy, diffused curtains, blinds, and scrims toward the world outside. For example, I have several in his line that I made at the Getty Museum in Southern California, and some things photographed in museums in New York that go in a similar direction. I made this photograph at the new SFMOMA museum in San Francisco during a members’ preview before the official opening last week.

I love the newly expanded and remodeled museum. One writer commented on the way that the new facility opens to the City. (The former building, as good as it was, was mostly closed off from San Francisco, with few places where the interior space opened to views of the surrounding area.) Now the new “back side” of the museum opens straight out over and into the urban environment, and there is quite a bit to see there — and the design creates a stronger link to this city. In this photograph, which was initially “about” the lines of the buildings in the upper part of the frame, the shapes and tones of the two foreground benches are beginning to interest me more.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.