Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Granite Benches above Blue Lake

September 14, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening sunlight strikes the trees scattered along the granite benches above Blue Lake, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California.

Although the scene here looks quite peaceful and quiet, the truth is that it was freezing cold and a very strong wind was blowing. A very unusual early August weather system moved across the Sierra on this night and there was even a threat (unrealized) of some snow flurries. The broken clouds passing quickly overhead created fast-moving shadows that tracked across the terrain, producing the pattern of shadow and light on this steep area of granite benches and trees above Blue Lake.

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.

Commentary, Locations, News, Photographers

Michael Frye on fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra

September 13, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Michael Frye has just posted a very useful guide to fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra at his blog. Frye has a great deal of experience here, especially with The Valley itself – you may know him as the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

I was interested to read that he really loves November photography in The Valley – as it is also at the top of my list of great times for photography there. Right at the beginning of the month I love to shoot the fall colors – wonderful big leaf maples, red leaves of dogwood trees, and the brown to golden colors of the oaks and the dry meadows. I find the weather during this month to be some of the most conducive to photography… basically you can run into almost anything: the first real snows of the season, arriving and clearing storms ringing the Valley walls with clouds, beautiful golden light of autumn, waterfalls that may come back to life after autumn rain, and much more.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Shoot

September 13, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A new redwood tree shoot emerges from the base of a mature tree, Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This small, green shoot is the potential start of a new redwood tree at Muir Woods National Monument. Its bright green color contrasts with the browns and reds of the dark forest floor and the shaded bark of the tree.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Morning Musings

Unsolicited advice to the Epson printer division

September 12, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

I’m spending afternoon installing Mac OS X 10.5.8 on an external boot drive along with my second install of CS4 so that I can print photographs for a client. Despite liking the way my Epson printer USED to work before the Mac OS X 10.6 update, I’m now seriously considering making my next large format printer purchase this fall from HP or Canon.

Epson, if in fact you do not plan to support certain serious printers with drivers for newer versions of major operating systems used by your customers, there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with this.

RIGHT WAY:

On your web site, post a list of printers (and other products) that lists the point in time after which you will no longer provide support and updates. This should be done at least one year prior to ending support. At the end of the support period you should release one final update bringing the drivers to current levels of compatibility. With this information your customers can make decisions about how to deal with the EOL of the products. A real professional courtesy would be to contact owners of these machines using the contact data you have. If handled correctly, you would benefit from considerable good will from customers treated with this sort of respect, and many would make plans to update to newer versions of your products. This is how responsible companies handle product natural obsolescence.

WRONG WAY:

Post incorrect and non-functional instructions and drivers at your site. Post no information about your plans to provide (or not) drivers and updates. Be sure to be completely silent about your intentions. When users discover – with absolutely no warning from you – that their printers that worked yesterday do not work today because you won’t take a bit of time to update drivers… ignore them. (I’ve sent two emails to Epson through the support area of their web site… with no response.) When a customer of yours finally does connect with a real person, be sure to insultingly tell them that they shouldn’t expect support of their too-old non-professional product – that will give them a nice feeling about how your company supports its customers as they consider making future printer purchase. This is how companies who don’t care about their customers handle natural product obsolescence.

(Update: As a temporary solution to the problems that I’ve been having with Epson print drivers and Mac OS X 10.6, I have installed the older Mac OS X 10.5.8 and a copy of CS4 on an external drive. I reboot off the external drive to print…)

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