Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Winter Dusk, Three Birds

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Winter Dusk, Three Birds
Winter Dusk, Three Birds

Winter Dusk, Three Birds. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Motion blur abstraction of a winter scene with three birds landing

Near the end of the day, well along into the dusk hour, with light fading fast, I decided to take advantage of the poor light and “play” a bit with very slow shutter speeds and intentional camera motion. By moving the camera in various ways during the exposure I can control to some extent the angle, length, and linearity of the blur. In some cases it is enough to just track the birds — and give the less fuzzy image of the three central birds, I am pretty certain that is what I was doing here. In other cases I can basically ignore the motion of my subjects and simply think about how to move the camera to create patterns in the motion blur.

I’ve often felt that working for sharply focused, stopped motion images of birds is not the only way to depict whatever it is that attracts me to them. The camera lets us see birds in ways that we really cannot usually see them with our own eyes. When birds are in motion it is almost impossible — at least with many types of birds — to clearly see them. They move too fast and the motion of wings is essentially impossible to track visually. And when we do stop them with a fast shutter speed, while we get to see them with a kind of clarity that isn’t otherwise possible, we may also sacrifice that sense of constant motion. So I started playing with the idea of intentionally avoiding sharp focus, allowing camera motion to come into play and using slow shutter speeds to allow the birds to blur and to blur their surroundings as the camera moves. To me, this sometimes evokes more strongly the feeling of the fast motion that I observe among these birds, and creates a different sort of honest portrayal of them.

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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Ross’s Geese, Marsh, Evening Light

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Ross's Geese, Marsh, Evening Light
Ross’s Geese, Marsh, Evening Light

Ross’s Geese, Marsh, Evening Light. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large flock of Ross’s geese, some airborne, in a San Joaquin Valley marsh, winter

Six months ago it was New Year’s Day 2014, and I was in the San Joaquin Valley with friends, joining a joyous and raucous throng of migratory birds at a party welcoming the new year. Today, at the opposite point on our annual journey around the sun, it is very hot and dry here in California, and thoughts of this January day were hardly on my mind until I started to revisit some photographs from earlier this year — and was reminded that we are now halfway back through the year on our way to another New Year’s Day.

In the evening these geese were more or less settled into the marshland at this San Joaquin Valley location, with small groups coming and going. I’m certain it was cold, and the cries of the birds filled that air, and the surface of the marsh reflected evening clouds as the day came to an end.

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.

Commentary, Events, History, Locations, Stories

Happy 150th Birthday Yosemite

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It was 150 years ago today on June 30, 1864 that President Abraham Lincoln signed a congressional act that established the “Yosemite Grant” in the Sierra Nevada — the first instance of the US government setting aside land specifically for preservation and public use. (Technically, Yellowstone became the first “national park,” when it was established in 1872.) Between that first act of preservation and protection, the park passed through several intermediate stages including management by the state and by the military before it became a national park on October 1, 1890. (Little known fact: Beautiful Mount Conness, on the northeastern park boundary and visible from many areas between Olmsted Point that peaks near Tioga Pass, was named after senator John Conness, who was instrumental in getting the 1864 act through congress. Some have suggested that Lincoln was distracted by “other events” at about this time, and may have let this slip by without much attention. I’m fine with that.)

G Dan and Richard Mitchell in Yosemite, date unknown
G Dan and Richard Mitchell in Yosemite, date unknown

My family moved from Minnesota to California when I was four years old — and trust me, that was not recently! I’m sure that to Midwesterners the wonders of California must have seemed quite unbelievable, and my family travelled to many interesting places around the state. I don’t now recall for certain when I first visited Yosemite, though I think it was perhaps before this photograph was made. That’s me on the right and my brother Richard on the left. (Richard is also a photographer who does beautiful work in the Pacific Northwest.) My first clear recollection of the park is actually from just outside the park where, before the current mega hotels were constructed, there used to be a bunch of much smaller places to stay right along the Merced River. My memory is of sitting on metal chairs and watching the wild Merced River pass by. Continue reading Happy 150th Birthday Yosemite →

Ideas, Reader Questions

Reader Question: Concerned About Image Theft

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Blog reader “Dan” writes to ask whether he should be concerned about “photo piracy” and other forms of unauthorized use of photographs he  shares online.

I am a great admirer of your photos and I especially like reading your blog and the detailed captions you include with your photos. I also follow on occasion some of the forums on DPReview and one I found very interesting concerned the unauthorized use of photos that are posted on websites. I would like to start posting some of my images on Flickr and Facebook but have had second thoughts after reading the forum thread on photo piracy (not that anyone would find my images worth stealing of course!). Since you post photographs on a number of places on the web, I was wondering what you thought about that and whether it is even worth worrying about. Thanks very much.

Thanks for writing, Dan, and thanks for your kind words about my photography and this blog.

While I’m not an expert on all of the legal ramifications of image theft and photo sharing, I can share a few thoughts with you and other readers. I do think that it is a good idea to be thoughtful about what you share, where you share your photos, and the form in which you share them. The Internet is a very big place and a lot goes on “out there” that you and I may not know about or understand and which we cannot control. Once a photograph is out in the wild, wild west of the Internet, it can take on a life of its own.  There are risks, and some of them are impossible to completely control.

However, there is also a lot of potential value in having your work seen. This could come from the simple pleasure of sharing your photographs with family and friends. It might progress to sharing your work in forums where you might get valuable (and not so valuable!) comments and criticism. It can also be a form of marketing and building your brand, especially if the photographs are part of a more substantial web and social media presence. Continue reading Reader Question: Concerned About Image Theft →

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