Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Trees and Granite, Morning Light

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Trees and Granite, Morning Light
Trees and Granite, Morning Light

Trees and Granite, Morning Light. Kings Canyon National Park, California. September 15, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brilliant morning light shines on subalpine trees and receding granite ridges, Kings Canyon National Park

Back in September of 2013 a group of four photographers headed off into the backcountry of the Kings Canyon National Park Sierra Nevada for nine days. (It occurred to me today that between the four of us, we have well over a century of experience in these mountains!) We crossed a Sierra crest pass at close to 12,000′ feet, another non-crest pass that was even higher, and then landed in a lake-filled basin where we set up camp at 11,000′ for most of a week. This basin is off the main through trails and the trails that do go here essentially dead-end, so there aren’t a lot of visitors here. Because we remained in one spot we were able to get to know the landscape more intimately, looking more closely at places we might have missed if we had just been passing by on the trail, and returning to photographic subjects more than once in changing conditions and light.

Up the valley from our camp was a series of sub-alpine lakes, surrounded by the quintessential High Sierra landscape of glaciated granite, tiny meadows, small trees, and ponds and lakes. I developed an almost daily loop up towards the upper lake, coming and going by different paths, and I began to get a better sense of the personality of this place. I made this photograph by climbing up a granite spine to a high point where the terrain flattened a bit and afforded a view of the surrounding valley. This photograph was made in the morning, when low angle light was streaming across the top of the farther ridge and backlighting the trees in front of me.

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: New York City

Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York City. December 29, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors pass through Gallery 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

It was a cold and rainy day in New York. For the most part we were fairly lucky with the weather when we visited between Christmas and New Years, with mostly fair though cold weather. But we finally encountered a day on which it was not going to be pleasant to travel around a lot on the subway, so we decided to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Apparently about half of the people in New York City had the same idea! Although we arrived reasonably early, there was already a large line of umbrella-carrying folks standing in line, and once inside we found crowds everywhere. We were obviously not the only people to seek shelter in indoor activities. (For the most part the crowds in New York City don’t bother me too much, but on our subway trip back to our hotel after the museum visit I encountered the worst jam-packed subway that I had run into… and realized that this is not a place where I’m ever likely to live. Visit? Yes, and with pleasure!)

We have visited several times before, so we are starting to be familiar with a few sections of this huge museum. We visited a wonderful exhibit of Julia Margaret Cameron photographs (and realized how much of photographic portraiture she already understood more than a century ago) and a small exhibit of photographs from the past 40 years (some of which I liked a lot and some of which leaves me cold). We also wandered a bit, and when we entered this room not far from the main lobby, I spotted a stairway and though that it would be interesting to photograph the room from above. I was intrigued by the lighting, the crowds of people walking in every direction, their shadows, and the large figure of the statue in the center of the room. (As I photographed, using a small mirrorless camera, a guard must have thought that I was shooting video – which is apparently forbidden – and he started yelling at me from the lower level! I finished my shots and moved on.)

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.

Deals and Sales, Equipment

Fujifilm X-T1 Digital Mirrorless Camera Announcement

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FujimilmXT1

Fujifilm has announced their new X-T1 Mirrorless Camera. The rumors regarding this new camera have been rampant for the past few weeks, and here is what we now know:

  • 16.3 MP X-trans 1.5X cropped sensor
  • ISO 100-51200
  • 8fps continuous shooting
  • Improved hybrid AF system incorporating contrast- and phase detection methods
  • Improved manual focus with digital split image and focus peaking
  • Faster, higher density, and larger electronic viewfinder
  • 1080p HD Video
  • WiFi
  • Expanded manual control dials for shutter speed, +/- 3 EV exposure compensation, ISO,  aperture (on many lenses), and more.

A number of features get my attention. My Fujifilm X-E1 works well at high ISO values, but this camera appears to take the much farther extending the lowest ISO from 200 to 100 and the highest all the way to 51600. The specifications and early reports on the web suggest that the AF system has been significantly improved, even beyond those improvements on the X-E2. The added manual controls are going to help a lot for the sorts of photography that many of us do with this sort of camera, where we need to change settings quickly and without going through menus. There are lots of other improvements, large and small, too numerous to mention here.

I’m very interested in this camera. My X-E1 is a wonderful little picture-making tool that complements my larger DSLR system – and the X-T1 sounds like it has been designed to significantly improve on this effective concept. (There is a very good chance that I’m going to get one.)

The camera is available for pre-order now at site sponsor B&H:

Related: Taking Stock of the Fujifilm X-E1, X-E2 & X-T1 Mirrorless Cameras


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.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Erosion Patterns

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Erosion Patterns
Erosion Patterns

Erosion Patterns. Death Valley National Park, California. December 10, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Deeply furrowed erosion patterns in early morning light, Death Valley National Park

I spent some time photographing Death Valley National Park in mid-December, during a very cold time of the year. It is not unusual for the place to be surprisingly cold in the middle of winter, but this was a period of exceptional cold and it got down to 25 degrees in the Valley and much colder in some of the places I visited in the surrounding desert mountains. I had arrived the evening before I made this photograph, and a sequence of events on the drive it suggest an inauspicious beginning to this visit. I usually come in through Ridgecrest and then up through Trona. I usually drive almost straight through to Ridgecrest and then take a long, late lunch break there – getting my last espresso until I come back out of the park, filling up the gas tank, and so forth. I killed pretty close to an hour taking care of these odds and ends, and then started out of town toward Trona.

Less than a mile up the road I ran into a flashing warning sign announcing that this entrance to the park was closed! This necessitated a bit of backtracking and then travel north up US 395 to then head east toward the park on highway 190. I had originally planned to arrive by mid-afternoon, set up camp, and then photograph in the evening… but by the time I finished all of this driving it was dark when I arrived and I simply pulled into the campground and slept in my car. Early the next morning, feeling just a bit disconnected, I drove over towards 20 Mule Team Canyon where I knew I should be able to find some nice morning light. In fact I did, and I soon found this beautiful miniature landscape of nearly parallel gullies in a hillside along the canyon. As the first light hit the edges off the ridges between the gullies I found a composition that mostly filled the frame with them. I finished shooting here and moved on. At my next location, I finally must have engaged my brain, and I checked the camera to find that it had been left on ISO 3200 from my previous work photographing musicians backstage at a concert in natural light. Groan! So this photograph is one that I managed to salvage from that little escapade… and I’m grateful for the relatively good performance of modern cameras… even when the operator is not paying attention!

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.

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