Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Wetlands, Morning Fog

July 13, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning fog clears from Sacramento Valley wetlands on a winter morning

I love these winter mornings out in California’s Great Central Valley — cold, damp, perhaps foggy or perhaps clear, with the sights and sounds of migratory birds all around. This was my first visit to this wildlife refuge up in the Sacramento Valley, and I was in exploration mode on this visit, trying to get my bearings and begin to understand the rhythms of the place. It was a mostly clear morning, with high clouds from Pacific Ocean weather above and pockets of tule fog below.

It is easy to imagine that the wildlife refuges are wild places, someone along the lines of small wilderness areas. But the truth is more complex, at least at the refuges I’m familiar with. They are actually managed landscapes, with water levels carefully controlled to support various kinds of wildlife and even the growth of plants managed for their benefit. Those beautiful foreground curves of stubble in the water are the result of management — over the course of the season such grassy areas are cut down to ensure an optimum balance of open water and tall grasses. Beyond the water lies another peninsula lined with trees, with fog beyond and that winter sky high above it all.

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

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Red and White Cars, Fence

July 12, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Red and white cars parked behind a white-painted metal fence, Venice, California

Just because I made the photograph on April Fools Day doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a joke. Or does it? (Probably not.)

We were in Venice, California for a) our daughter’s birthday and b) a visit to the G2 Gallery, a great gallery space that presents a lot of work that I/we can relate to — work by Jack Dykinga, among others, was there when we visited. Once we finished in the gallery it was time to look for coffee and food, so we wandered off down the street. As usual, I lagged behind making photographs of various bits and pieces of the urban landscape. This was an odd little place. It appears to have originally been a church, but is now some sort of office. The entire building is painted start white, including the metal fence across the front. Inside were a bunch of white cars (!), but with one bright red one. A photograph was called for…

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Wetland Dawn, Trees

July 11, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees and dawn sky reflected in the surface of a wetlands pond, Sacramento Valley

Some people speak and write a lot about the role of careful planning followed by slow and methodical work in landscape photography. Sometimes that certainly does pay off, but I find that far more often it is about acting on hunches, making good guesses about conditions and locations, and being ready and prepared to take advantage of pure, dumb luck when it comes to you. This photograph is a case in point.

There is no way that I could actually plan such a photograph — the best I could do (and I certainly do this) is to carry around some ideas about clouds reflecting in water and about silhouettes of trees, and then be ready to recognize the opportunity and act when something similar actually appears. But to take credit for dawn clouds whose curve mirrors that of a grove of trees, reflected in a seasonal pond on a morning that just happened to produce a bit of ground fog and beautiful colors would be both egotistical and a lie!

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

Equipment, Fujifilm, Reviews, Tests

A Small Test: Fujifilm X-Pro2 Mirrorless and Active Subjects

July 10, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I want to share the results of a little informal test I did today using my Fujifilm X-Pro2 (B&H | Adorama) mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and a Fujifilm zoom lens to photograph an active subject. First, here is an unremarkable photograph, aside from the fact that I would probably not have used my previous mirrorless camera to photograph this subject.

Fujifilm X-Pro2, ISO 400, f/8, 50-140mm lens at 140mm, handheld

Read on to find out why I photographed this and what I learned from it.

Background

I first used a mirrorless digital camera way back before the 21st century began — before there were DSLRs there were a number of early digital cameras, and my first was an Apple QuickTake! I used several others from a range of manufacturers before I acquired my first DSLR in about 2003.

As a group, mirrorless cameras have had some problems. One of the most glaring has long been slow autofocus (AF) speeds. Those very early cameras were often just plain awful in this regard, but they got better over the years.

Until recently I used a Fujifilm X-E1 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, and it was my primary camera for travel and street photography for about 3 1/2 years. Its AF was fine for most things, but I also had to learn to adapt to slow AF in low light and with low contrast subjects — and the issue was more acute with some lenses than with others. For this reason — and a few others, including electronic viewfinder (EVF) display latency — I would never have thought to use that camera for photograph active subjects.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Wetlands, Morning Fog

Red and White Cars, Fence

Wetland Dawn, Trees

A Small Test: Fujifilm X-Pro2 Mirrorless and Active Subjects

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