B&H: Holiday Deals Update and Last Day for Holiday Standard Shipping

See the Deals Page for updates on the following and more:

  • Today is the last day to order from B&H with “guaranteed” holiday delivery via standard shipping. (You can still procrastinate a bit and pay more for expedited shipping if you want! ;-)
  • The special price in the Canon 5D Mark II body is still available.
  • I have added an updated listing of this weeks holiday specials at B&H – they include a wide range of camera bodies, lenses, and more from Canon, Nikon, and other manufacturers.

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.

Trees and Red Rock, High Country

Trees and Red Rock, High Country - Backlit trees in a high country terrain of rugged red rock sandstone, Zion National Park
Backlit trees in a high country terrain of rugged red rock sandstone, Zion National Park

Trees and Red Rock, High Country. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Backlit trees in a high country terrain of rugged red rock sandstone, Zion National Park

Since this has been a recurring theme in my photographs from Zion National Park in October, I think I’ll keep the commentary a bit short on this one. I made the photograph along the Mount Carmel Highway, which passes through high country along an east-west route though the park. We had a day here while on our way to our eventual destination to the east, so we decided to focus on this high country area, with its deep washes and slot canyons, autumn colors, and rounded forms of various types of layered sandstone.

In this area the sandstone was a sort of medium red – not as intense as some of the deeper strata nor as light as some of the nearly white rocks found elsewhere. This rock was finely layered in many places, and formed into a small world of ridges and domes covered with widely spaced trees. I photographed the scene in afternoon light, when the sun was shining from behind the trees and creating a sort of halo of light for each one. Because of the backlight, a bit of atmospheric haze is present and the underlying rocks take on a deeper tone. Every so often a friend of fellow photographer might refer to something they call “G Dan light,” and this is it – the light of backlit trees, photographed by shooting almost directly into the sun, with just a bit of haze.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.

B&H Update: Canon L Lenses – “limited time” (12/17/12)

UPDATE: – Canon 5D Mark II bundle for $1599, and very low price on Canon Powershot S100.

  • Canon 5D Mark II Body for $1599.00 – (click to add to your cart to see the discount price) – bundle also includes Pearstone LP-E6 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack (7.4V 1450mAh), Vello BG-C2 Battery Grip for Canon EOS 5D Mark II, SanDisk 16GB CompactFlash Memory Card Extreme 400x UDMA.
    A word about this camera: I shoot the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Although there is a newer Canon EOS 5D Mark III now, for many photographers the 5D2 will perform extremely well and at barely half the cost. Although I could upgrade to the new 5DIII, I have chosen to stick with the 5DII since it performs so well for me. If you have been waiting to get a full frame Canon camera, this may well be what you have been waiting for!
  • Canon S100 – $249.00 (add to cart to see this price) – this is a fine little “pocketable” camera that has a number of serious camera features. I sometimes use one for informal shooting when I don’t want to take out the full DSLR rig.

A quick note this morning about limited time discounts on four popular Canon L zooms at site-affiliate B&H – including the new 24-70mm f/2.8 L II zoom and the popular 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS and 16-35mm f/2.8 L lenses.

“In cart” means that you need to click the link and then add the item to your cart in order to see the reduced pricing.

As always, see the Deals Page for this and other recent special prices. (Please check the links for full and accurate details from B&H.)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.

Geese and Sun in Fog

Geese and Sun in Fog
Geese and Sun in Fog

Geese and Sun in Fog. Central Valley, California. December 11, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of Ross’s geese passes by the sun as it barely shines through dense Central Valley tule fog

Although photographing birds and the landscapes where they are found on a dense fog day might seem like a challenge or perhaps even a disappointment, for me it turns out that the fog makes things much more interesting. While I love seeing and photographing the migratory birds as the warm dawn light hits them, that is usually over fairly quickly. But with fog there are all kinds of interesting mysteries to explore. Birds appear on the edge of visibility, and often you may hear them but not see them. (This was especially true with sandhill cranes on this day. We often heard them, but never caught more than a faint and momentary visual sighting as they briefly emerged partially from the fog as they flew directly overhead.) The atmosphere can glow as the sun tries to push through the shallow tule fog.

At one point during this foggy morning a breeze came up and for a moment it looked like the fog might clear. It became a bit less opaque near the ground and there were occasional hints of potential light as the fog momentarily thinned. The disk of the sun became faintly visible, though it often quickly faded again from sight. When I first saw the sun I thought that since birds were flying overhead from time to time that if I was patient I just might be able to get a photograph of some of them in the fog with the faint sun behind them. You can only “plan” a photograph like this in the most general sense: the amount of fog, its thickening and thinning, and the appearance and formation of the birds are entirely out of the photographer’s control. So I wait and watch… and make a number of photographs.

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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.