Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Textures and Reflections

October 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Detail of a Chicago riverfront building with distorted window reflections

As is the case with a number of the Chicago photographs that I made during our August 2014 visit to the Windy City, this one was made from a boat on the Chicago River. We rarely do “tourist things” when we visit cities, usually preferring to look for more interesting stuff, but everyone we know who had been there recommended the Chicago architecture boat tours, so we gave in and took one. I have to say that it was worth it — the tour combines an intense overview of a lot of downtown Chicago architecture, a lot of background information on the structures and the development of the city, and a unique view that isn’t really available in any other way.

There is almost too much to see on the tour, since Chicago’s downtown is dense with interesting features large and small, and the boats don’t pause to let you gawk! So I photographed a lot, trying to vary my focus between the large and impressive downtown buildings and smaller details down closer to the river. This photograph falls into that second category, and is “about” the shapes and textures of the bit of a more modern building and the very deformed reflections in its windows.

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Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Chicago Waterfront

October 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yachts tied up along the Chicago waterfront near the mouth of the Chicago River

This photograph was made from one of the Chicago architecture tour boats as it paused in the small bay near the mouth of the Chicago river before turning and heading back into the river. This location momentarily provided a bit of distance between my position and the buildings and gave me a clearer shot of the group of them, and the low position on the water emphasize the height of the buildings.

If you like the combination of very new and slightly old architecture found in Chicago — and I do — a view like this one seems to perfectly capture the ideal image of the lake front of this city. Producing a form that reminds me of ascending mountain peaks, each building is part of a progression that culminates in the tallest building whose mass is mostly hidden by those in front.

Morning Musings

Camera Gear… and Baseball (Morning Musings 10/3/14)

October 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Recently someone posed — for the 11,535th time — a question about camera brands: Who is truly winning when it comes to the sensor game?

The context of the question had to do with recent advances in digital camera sensors from Sony, found in certain Sony cameras and in Nikon DSLR bodies. (These recent sensors have pushed a few boundaries forward, as always happens when new components are developed and released. In this case, they increase the photo site density and dynamic range.)

As a sometime Bay Area baseball fan, I understand that the concept of “who is winning?” is a nebulous and ephemeral one. Take the Oakland A’s, one of my SF Bay Area teams. A few months ago no one could touch them — they were on a record-breaking winning streak and were the hard-scrabble, underdog heroes of baseball. By the end of the season they couldn’t win and they slipped inexorably from a sure bet to “ain’t gonna happen,” barely scraping out a chance to get one wild-card playoff game… which they lost.

The other Bay Area team, the SF Giants (my emotional favorite, since I grew up following them) was up, was down, and never, even at their best, looked like a sure bet for anything. They had been in the lead, but not by that much, and in the end they came out just a bit behind the (evil, nefarious) Dodgers… but also qualified for a wildcard spot. And they won that wildcard game in fine fashion and go on to a division playoff today. (Giants fans have a word for this, though the full context perhaps only makes sense to those who have watched the team for a while: Torture.)

So, the answer to “who is winning?” is either a very much “in the moment” answer that means virtually nothing over the long run OR there could be some final competitive event at which a final winner is determined… for this year. And then the process starts all over again, and someone else “is winning.”

Extrapolated to photography equipment, right now I would say that Nikon is something like one of the two teams in our California Giants/Dodgers rivalry. Depending on which week you check, one of them is doing better than the other in some ways, but neither will ever be proven (says the Giants fan… ;-) to win in a a final, ultimate, never-to-be-challenged way. Ahead? Yes. How long? Probably not very? The winner? No.

Right now Nikon has an edge by some measure. On the basis of other factors, it doesn’t. A few months or a year from now… who knows? And, really, when it comes to photography — as differentiated from fawning over gear specifications — who cares?

But, yes, the Dodgers won the division title. This year. I’m not bitter. Yet.

Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment. Connections to photography may be tenuous at times!

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

Small Tree and Pothole

Image October 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small tree grows out of a pothole in stained granite rock, Yosemite National Park

The more time I spend wandering around and photographing on granite domes and slabs, the more astonished I am at the trees and other plants that find ways to survive in the most marginal of conditions. Often we look at the trees growing on these domes and perhaps fail to consider how old they are — a three-foot tree here may be a mature tree — or how tenuously they seem to find sustenance in small cracks, potholes, and low spots where a bit of soil collects. In fact, as the trees and other plants take hold they seem to create their own soil as needles and old growth decay in these places.

Somehow this little tree managed to take root and survive in a small pothole in otherwise smooth granite, no doubt taking advantage of the fact that the bit of soil in the pothole holds some moisture. In typical form, the tree appears twisted and stunted, being perhaps only a couple of feet long and with a trunk that seems to have had a hard time making up its mind about which way to grow. The tree does not stand up from the rock at all, instead lying flat on its reddish surface.

Note: Edited slightly in 2024.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Textures and Reflections

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Chicago Waterfront

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Camera Gear… and Baseball (Morning Musings 10/3/14)

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Small Tree and Pothole

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

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