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

Terraces, Stairways, Sky

February 10, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People arrayed on terraces and stairways at the Whitney Museum

This is another of my December 2015 photographs from the New York Whitney Museum, and perhaps yet one example of my idiosyncratic approach to visiting museums. I love visiting museums, especially art museums, and I can easily spend many hours or even a full day wandering around and slowly taking things in. It is enough to drive other people who go there with me crazy! (On this visit, the rest of our group finally gave up, left without me, headed to a nearby tavern, had lunch and drinks, and waited for me to finally show up hours later.)

I love to look at the art, the people, and quite often the architectural spaces as well. This was my first visit to the new Whitney Museum, so there was a lot to see. I started on the top level and explored galleries, but soon was distracted by the outdoor terraces, which extent from each of the floors in delightful and interesting ways. On the top floor narrow terraces project out into space above the Chelsea district. On lower levels the terrace areas become larger, and afford urban landscape views of the surrounding city and back upwards toward the exterior of the museum. When I looked up at this mass of windows, terraces, stairways and more I knew there was a photograph (or several) here, and I spent some time with the subject.

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

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

Four Figures In Doorway

February 9, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Four people stand in front of the doorway of a Manhattan store

I suspect that this photograph is going to perplex more than a few folks who watch my landscape and nature photography. In fact, this is one in a large string of very urban photographs made in New York in late December 2015. For those of you who “get” and like this work, thanks! For those who don’t, the more familiar kinds of photography will return before too much longer, and I’ll try to intersperse more of that photography with the urban/street/night stuff.

I’m endlessly fascinated by the way in which seemingly formless and virtually random patterns of motion in the urban environment can suddenly coalesce into something that has structure and which may even be mysterious and suggestive. Capturing this stuff requires me to be “on” all the time — and this can make me not at all fun to be with in these places when I’m carrying a camera! I made this photograph on a very crowded Christmas Eve in Manhattan, and it is one from a short sequence I photographed of this group standing in front of the entrance to a closed store — and for this instant the group miraculously assembled themselves into a fascinating tableaux of individual poses, especially the woman on the left.

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, Photographs: Wildlife

Goose-Filled Sky, Dusk

February 8, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thousands of Ross’s geese fill the dusk sky above California’s San Joaquin Valley

The light and the photographic subjects pass through a series of stages at the end of the day in these wetlands areas. The nondescript late afternoon light takes on a warmer tone as the sun drops toward the horizon and shadows lengthen, and often clouds in the distant west may momentarily mute the light. There is still plenty of light for traditional bird photography, as the direct sunlight has not yet disappeared. Before long comes the last bit of direct sun, golden in color on the bodies of white geese, and then it is twilight.

At this transitional moment all sort of light magic can happen. As flocks of birds wheel around in the night sky they take on different colors — the gold of reflected sunset, the blue of the eastern sky that is transitioning towards night, and sometimes they simply are black against the sky. And the sky shifts colors, too. Sometimes the effect is wild and gaudy, but more often it is subtle, with tones of pink and blue and purple and more. By the time I made this photograph the light was becoming quite dim, and it was dark enough that I could no longer maintain a shutter speed that would stop the motion of the birds. So I no longer tried! I use a longer shutter speed and pan, watching for the flocks to compose themselves in interesting ways, always in constant motion, and against the colors of the evening sky.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

In Flight, Dusk

February 7, 2016 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Ross’s geese in flight above San Joaquin Valley wetlands in dusk light

This was a beautiful mid-winter day in the San Joaquin Valley. It began with a two-hour pre-dawn drive from home, starting earlier than a month ago now that the days are beginning to lengthen again. I drove in clear weather and it remained so as the sky began to brighten as I entered the valley, but as I got closer to my destination I was pleased to encounter for — thin at first but within minutes so think that I had to slow and turn on fog lights. I arrived at my destination a half hour before sunrise, and began photographing, working all morning before finally taking a break for lunch.

My friends Claudia and Michael had dropped a hint in an email that they might be out that way later in the day, and I was pleased to find them there when I came back from my break. We greeted one another, took a quick trip around the area to scout the birds for evening photography, and then ended right back were we started. Big groups of sandhill cranes and geese (mostly Ross’s but with a few other interlopers mixed in) were active in newly turned fields nearby, so we found a good vantage point and watched as the evening light came on. Eventually the light became so dim that it was no longer really possible to make sharp stop-motion photographs of birds in flight. This is, in a way, one of my favorite times of day, when I switch over from a more typical kind of bird photography and begin to go with the darkness, using slow shutter speeds and panning along with the motion of flocks, and making photographs that work with the motion blur of low light and slower shutter speeds.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Terraces, Stairways, Sky

Four Figures In Doorway

Goose-Filled Sky, Dusk

In Flight, Dusk

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