Category Archives: Photographs: Unclassified

Privet #1

August 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This is a second photograph in the series of experiments with highly abstracted and very much post-processed photographs of foliage. This one began with a hand-held photograph of a couple of leaves on a privet bush (that really needs trimming!) in our garden. From that simple starting point, the visual improvisation began.

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.

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Photographs: Unclassified

Ivy #1

August 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Ivy leaves, after Huntington Witherill.

With apologies to and inspired by Huntington Witherill, whose beautiful Photo Synthesis exhibit I saw this past weekend at the Center for Photographic Arts in Carmel, this image is the result of something I played around with yesterday.

I was not previously familiar with Witherill’s photography, neither his “classic” and very beautiful black and white work, nor the more experimental digital work of the Photo Synthesis series. It is all very compelling and tremendously varied work. The exhibit features the digital “manipulations” of flower and other plant subjects. I was fortunate to be able to attend his lecture at the opening of the show, and quite a few things struck me – more than I have time to describe here. As (yet another) photographer with a background in music, I relate to his description of a working process for the Photo Synthesis images that is, in some ways, like jazz improvisation – so I took that route with this image, which I’ll simply describe as an experiment for now. It was also fascinating to watch his animations of the sequence of steps that his source images underwent as they progressed to become the final images. I also like the way he embraces the concept of what I think of as “photographic art” without getting too hung up about whether the result is a photograph or something else. I also was intrigued by (hoping I say this in a way that makes sense and doesn’t accidentally sound offensive) the fact that he is so close to some sort of “edge” with these images that some are incredibly beautiful while a few push a boundary that I’m not quite ready to cross.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Unclassified

Brandon’s Window Sill

March 25, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photograph of the kitchen window in the Mission, San Francisco, California.

A grab-shot of window sill in a Mission District apartment. Not much more to say about this one…

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 1600, f/11, 1/250 second

keywords: the, mission, san francisco, california, usa, north america, street, urban, city, still, life, interior, kitchen, window, sill, plant, spider, web, diffused, bokeh, light, ledge, red, stock

Photographs: Unclassified

Blue Angels in Black and White

October 12, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

OK, now for something entirely different.

My original plan was to be in the eastern Sierra ~~today~~ on Saturday, patiently photographing peaceful and quiet aspen groves. But driving conditions did not look promising and I decided not to go. (I did go for the day on Sunday, but more on that later.) In any case, instead of shooting aspens I found myself on the waterfront of San Francisco Bay watching an air show featuring the Blue Angels, here photographed as they blew past directly overhead at a rather low altitude.

See, I can photograph things that move, too! :-)

Later note: Several people asked about the equipment I used to shoot this event. I used a Canon 5D with the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS lens. I shot mostly at 400mm, but was glad to be able to zoom out on a few occasions when the action was a bit closer. My technique is to put the camera in burst mode, but usually just fire a single shot at a time. Most of the time I’m definitely not a “burst and hope for the best” sort of photographer – I’ll actually follow the action through the viewfinder and resist the temptation until the shot looks interesting. But not always. This shot was done in burst mode as the formation screamed almost directly overhead.

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, fleet, week, air, show, airshow, bay, event, stock, blue, angels, air craft, jet, aerobatics, formation, wings, us, navy

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Unclassified

Privet #1

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Ivy #1

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Brandon’s Window Sill

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Blue Angels in Black and White

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.