Lamp, Narrow Street

May 31, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lamp, old buildings, and a narrow street, Salzburg, Austria

With this photograph I’m back to that theme of the lamps on the walls of Salzburg, Austria. As I mentioned in an earlier post, once I noticed them I began to see them everywhere, always attached to the exterior walls of buildings and always with the same lamp shape, the same curving stem, and the same two bars to brace it.

This one is actually in part of the Salzburg castle, if I recall correctly. It was getting to be late in the afternoon and the angle of the sun was becoming lower, creating more shadows with their blue-toned light. In the photograph one wall is still lit but the sun, and the foreground wall picks up a bit of the reflected glow of sunlight on a wall behind my camera position. Given that the place was busy with tourists, I had to be patient and wait for a moment when the scene was clear.

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

Equipment

Canon EOS 5Ds and 5Ds R Release Near?

May 30, 2015 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Several months ago Canon announced that it would release two new high-megapixel DSLR cameras in the 5D series, the 5Ds and the 5Ds R in June. June is now only a couple of days away. Although I don’t have any inside information, there are hints that the release could come as early as the first week of the month.

I think there will be a large pent-up demand for these cameras from Canon photographers, some of whom have watched from the sidelines as companies like Sony and Nikon have introduced higher MP camera bodies. Those who want to get early copies can preorder — here are links to site-sponsor B&H:

The primary value proposition of the new camera series is the 50.6 megapixel sensor. This is a higher sensor resolution than on any other current full-frame DSLR, and it more than doubles the number of photo sites on earlier Canon DSLRs. For photographers who make big prints from DSLR photographs, and especially for those who work with a great deal of care and focus on subjects in which image resolution may become critical, this will likely be significant advance.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Crest, Reflections, Morning

May 30, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on peaks reflecting in an eastern Sierra lake.

Almost a decade ago I met my brother Richard and his family for a backpacking trip into the eastern Sierra in the area between about the Minarets and Thousand Island Lake. It is almost hard to recall a time when the Sierra was this wet and this green at this point in the season — let’s hope for a turn-around in the weather and a season or two like this one.

The weather during this trip was in the wet phase of a common Sierra summer pattern, where days of “perfect” (perfectly boring!) blue sky weather eventually lead to a build-up of clouds and a few days of thunderstorms. We had some precipitation on most days, including at least one when we were caught by surprise on a day hike to a nearby lake — we began in sun, we arrived at the lake in sun… and then all of a sudden we could see that rain was about to arrive. We high-tailed it back to camp, but got caught by rain before we arrived. This photograph was made the next morning, as the first light was just touching the peaks of Mounts Ritter and Banner above Ediza Lake, and already to moisture was visible in the clouds that were forming even at dawn.

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

Photograph Exposed, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

A Photograph Exposed: “Shoreline Reflections, Trees and Rocks”

May 29, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

(“A Photograph Exposed” is a series exploring some of my photographs in greater detail.)

“Shoreline Reflections, Trees and Rocks” — Silhouetted trees and boulders and their reflections lining a flooded section of the shoreline of Tenaya Lake.

This photograph is a personal favorite for a bunch of reasons related to how the photograph came about, the experience of making the photograph, associations with the place, and a print that pleases me a great deal.

I maintain the no photographer’s work is wholly original. What comes closest to being truly original is the personal vision of the artist — that particular way of seeing that the photographer develops. That vision is actually unique, but it is built from experiences and exposure to a visual world that includes the ways of seeing of other photographers and painters and more. I acknowledge and am grateful to a wide range of photographers whose work informs my way of seeing the world.

Among them is Charlie Cramer, who I’m fortunate to count not only as a photographic influence, but also as a friend. Charlie’s way of seeing light appeals to me a great deal, and among the photographs of his that stick in my mind is one of some very similar trees at this exact lake. When I’m in a place where another photographer’s photograph immediately comes to mind I often feel cautious about making a photograph that might look too much like their work — and this one may be an example of “influenced by” but “not like.”

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Lamp, Narrow Street

Canon EOS 5Ds and 5Ds R Release Near?

Sierra Crest, Reflections, Morning

A Photograph Exposed: “Shoreline Reflections, Trees and Rocks”

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