Photographs: New York City, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

A Family

Image September 11, 2022 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A passing family group on the street in Manhattan.

As scheduled, it is back to more street photography today. This photograph comes from our late-August visit to Manhattan, which provided us with opportunities to simply go out on walks and observe/absorb the Manhattan vibe. That is, of course, a complex thing, being composed of lots of people, lots of motion, the urban canyons, occasional bits of quiet and stillness, and a lot of things that happen quickly and are gone. The latter, of course, is part of the appeal of street photography.

I recommend urban and street photography to all photographers, including those of you who like think of yourselves and landscape or nature photographers. As a general thing, I think it is good for you and for your photography to step outside your primary genre and to be aware of good photographic work done with subjects quite different than your own. On a very practical level, shooting street forces you to see, think, and react really quickly. Quite often subjects coalesce and disappear in seconds or even fractions of seconds. You don’t have much time to carefully consider, so you work on the basis of instinct. And that is a useful skill to develop, even if you usually work at a more sedate pace. Street also reminds us of how we make photographs of things that we don’t have time to fully evaluate or understand. For example, while I call this photograph “A Family,” I can’t know that it is a family group. And while I might make be tempted to make other assumptions about this trio… I have no way at all of knowing whether I’m right or wrong. It is better, I think, to just ask questions.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographers, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

East of Peaks, End of Day

Image September 10, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Alpine stream, meadows, boulder fieldsEast of Peaks, End of Day— and one tiny photographer — beneath high peaks in shadow as the day ends.

Those of you who see my photography online may have noticed the “continued:” links accompanying my short social media posts. They take you to a bit more information about each image that I post with the original at my website. The story that I’ll share with this photograph is longer than usual, so you may want to click through and take a look! It goes into the background behind this trip, a bit about who participated, and a little surprise in the image that you would probably not otherwise notice. Tempted? Click that link!

This photograph comes from a weeklong trip into the Sierra backcountry with a group of fellow photographers and friends. Almost 15 years ago I was privileged to link up with another such group (informally known as the “First Light” group, after the title of their book) that did trips like this since 2001. There is an even longer history of similar trips going all the way back to Ansel Adams and the Sierra Club. The concept of such trips was to establish a basecamp at a suitable backcountry location for a week or more of exploration and photography. Because no effort was spared to use high end equipment, pack train support was used to bring camp gear in and out as the photographers carried additional gear in backpacks.

This year’s trip included a different set of photographers, though with links to the First Light crew. (Three of us had been on at least one of the previous trips and I’ve been on several.) In fact, we we loosely emulated the predecessor trips in many ways. (“First Light II?” “First Light, TNG?” “Second Light?”) We walked to our destination, packers brought in the bulk of our gear, we established a base camp, and we spent a week exploring and photographing all around our camp in a wide range of conditions. Perhaps best of all, we got to become a little community of backcountry photographers for the week — surviving the Great Torrential Rain of 2022 together, fixing and eating group meals, sharing stories and tips in the evenings and slow midday hours, heading out to photograph in constantly evolving sub-groups, and more.

The group included Michael Frye, Claudia Welsh, Franka Gabler, David Hoffman, Jerry Bosworth, Patricia Mitchell, and myself. Jerry was the initial inspiration for this trip when he responded to a post of mine about a particular Sierra feature and mentioning that it was perhaps a place that he might not get to again. My reply, which was basically “what about a pack train?,” and his enthusiastic response got the ball rolling… and a few months later we were in the Sierra again. It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful combination of personalities.

There’s a lot more I could (and eventually will) write about the group itself and our adventures, but I’ll use this photograph to share one little vignette. I’ve written about the horrible weather we had on the first couple of days of the trip. Finally, on this afternoon and evening, things cleared up and we all gradually headed up into the same area of the high country, following a stream swollen by the heavy rain. Eventually we emerged from forest and into the open alpine country, were we could see the peaks towering above to our west. I made this photograph just before I turned around — the light was starting to fade as the sun had long dropped below the peaks. If you look very closely, you might be able to spot a very tiny Michael Frye among the rocks and meadows.

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Waiting For Walking Man

Image September 9, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New Yorkers (and a few tourists) queue up at a crosswalk in Manhattan.

After promising New York street photography for the past few days — and then sharing cool mountain images instead — here’s a photograph from our recent, late-August visit to Manhattan. (This was the same trip that eventually took us up to Vermont woods. ) Our previous New York City visit was last winter, when the city was in the throes of a very bad peak in the covid epidemic. At that time the whole place seemed almost oppressive. This trip felt different — more like the New York we remember from the before times. It is still not back to normal, but we were able to get out and walk a lot and the sense of dread that was in the air last winter was gone.

I’m fascinated by almost everything visual in Manhattan — the crowds, individuals, the architecture, the urban landscape, and more. I almost always walk around with a camera handy and often keep it literally in hand. That was the case as we walked through a busier section of town and I photographed this group of people queued up at the crosswalk. A closer look reveals quite a variety of people and appearances — there’s a shirtless guy int he crosswalk at left, the anxious people trying to get a head start on crossing the street, the woman near the left with the 1000 mile stare, one guy with a mask on, and more.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Three Trees, Rocky Slopes

Image September 8, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three conifer trees, illuminated by morning backlight, against a background of rocky terrain slopes.

Our August backcountry sojourn with a group of fellow photographers began with the absolute heaviest downpour I have experienced during decades the Sierras. It began within seconds after we got our tent (mostly) up and continued for hours, on into the evening. We all crawled inside our tents and tried to stay dry and warm as hail and rain poured down, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and the roar of the rising waters on the nearby creek started to get our attention. The weather remained “interesting” on into the second day, only beginning to finally clear a bit on the second evening. But the next morning came with a beautiful sunrise and plentiful sun — and that is when I made this photograph.

This group of three trees stood on rocky ground, and because of that they were not blocked by other trees. As the morning sun rose it finally topped a ridge to the east and the light began to strike the trees. This kind of backlight, especially when it falls on trees, is one of my favorite things in the Sierra. So it should be no surprise that I made a series of photographs of this group, some in landscape orientation and some in portrait orientation. In this one I chose to let the glowing trees fill as much of the frame as possible.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

A Family

East of Peaks, End of Day

Waiting For Walking Man

Three Trees, Rocky Slopes

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