Seeing Small (Morning Musing 9/22/14)

September 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I frequently go out and photograph for a morning or a day, or even as briefly as an hour or two. My instincts — for place and for seeing — are such that I can usually get myself into a productive state of mind quickly enough to make worthwhile photographs even with so little time. But I’m fortunate to be able to head out for much longer periods of photography several times each year, ranging from a few days to as much as several weeks — and this experience is very different from that of the shorter sessions and, I think, produces a different kind of photographic work.

As I continue to work my way through hundreds of frames that I brought back recently from ten early September days in the Yosemite backcountry, I begin to wrap my brain around the entirety of the collection of images and I start to see some patterns. One of these is a process that is a combination of “focusing in” and “settling in,” something that takes place in several ways over the course of a long trip like this one.

The transition is obvious when viewed in retrospect — the feelings of excitement and looking forward to the adventure at the beginning are very different from the feelings as the trip comes to an end, which are a combination of an in-the-moment focus and a certain amount of retrospection. At the beginning, no matter how many times I have been out on the trail (a total that can be measured in years at this point), there is always a feeling of excitement and unknown potentials on that first day. I tend to be attracted to the bigger and more obvious elements in the landscape, and a first look around a new location on a day near the beginning of a trip often sees me photographing many of the big, impressive, and obvious subjects.

Then the inevitable transition begins. There might first be a feeling of “I think I’ve photographed everything here,” followed by the now-familiar understanding that I haven’t, and a decision to wander about and see what I’ve missed. This (purposeful) wandering always leads me to see things that I missed at first, often smaller things that I hadn’t seen because I was not yet looking closely enough or sufficiently tuned in to the nuances of the place. And before long I’m finding compositions in a bit of meadow grass, pine cones littering the forest floor in morning light, the textures and forms of granite, and light shining through trees.

Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment.

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest Floor, Late Summer

September 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

As summer comes to an end in the high country of the Sierra Nevada, as it was during my early September visit this year, the moisture, growth, and greenery of the early season give way to the drier and more brown conditions signaling the coming of fall. The short period of rapid summer growth ends, and the mountains seems quieter.

We camped and photographed for several days at a small lake, exploring and even revisiting to places to photograph them more than once. By staying in one location for a time, it we notice things that are overlooked during a shorter stay. Initially the dramatic granite features around the lake drew our attention, but after a few days we became more interested in subtler things, including a low, grassy area near the outlet stream of the lake. On this morning I was simply wandering slowly though this area, now looking more closely and at smaller things, when I saw the still-shadowed ground densely covered by a carpet of pine cones.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Ideas, Morning Musings

Quotations and Photographs (Morning Musings 9/21/14)

September 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Self-portrait with Friedlander Poster - SFMoMA — Self-portrait with Friedlander Poster – SFMoMA

With partially ironic intent, I’m going to begin this Morning Musings post with two quotations. I snagged from the web by doing a quick search on “quotations about quotations” and, in line with common web practice, I simply present them for what they appear to be — I have not checked to validate the sources. Hey, it’s the internet! ;-)

“In the garden of literature, the highest and the most charismatic flowers are always the quotations.”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Many Inventions

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, largely in the context of the (increasingly?) common practice of attaching quotations to photographs. I think that there are things about this practice that seem useful and beneficial, but there are also some aspects that seem a bit problematic, at least to me, and I’d like to briefly explore this in an entirely incomplete way.

I can call up a few relevant quotations pretty quickly when necessary. Some of you may have seen me post a favorite John Muir quote as a way of acknowledging that I’m heading of into the mountains: The mountains are calling and I must go. Continue reading Quotations and Photographs (Morning Musings 9/21/14) →

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Cloud Gate

September 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Chicago’s Cloud Gate reflecting the city skyline

The Cloud Gate sculpture is one of the iconic sights of downtown Chicago, visited by many people and photographed by almost all of them! It stands in an accessible and central section of the lakeside Millennium Park, just across the street from central downtown areas. We wandered past twice on two different days as we walked around this area during our visit. (There are other fascinating public art installations in the surrounding area, too.)

The sculpture is impressive in photographs, but I did not realize how large it is in person. It is remarkable in a number of ways, not the least of which is the effect it has had on the public consciousness. In a purely objective sense, the existence of such a huge, unbroken and curving reflective surface is a marvel. And it is also, to be plain, a lot of fun — it is hard to imagine how anyone could resist playing around with the distorted reflections it produces. Having seen so many photographs of the thing I first resisted the temptation to shoot it, instead just looking. Then I thought that it might be interesting to photograph the ways that people interact with the sculpture, so I took the camera out and started shooting.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Seeing Small (Morning Musing 9/22/14)

Forest Floor, Late Summer

Quotations and Photographs (Morning Musings 9/21/14)

Cloud Gate

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