Tag Archives: 1

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Forest in Afternoon Light

November 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A dense forest backlit by afternoon light along the Northern California coast.

If you follow my blog, you know that I frequently photograph all around the Sierra, in the deserts east and south of the range, in coastal California in the San Francisco Bay Area and south, and even in the Central Valley. I’m almost a bit embarrassed, however, to admit to barely having scratched the surface of the photographic opportunities of “real” northern California, along the coast or inland. While I frequently shoot north of San Francisco, most of this work has been done no farther north than about Point Reyes.

This past weekend my wife and I managed a quick getaway that took us up to and slightly beyond Mendocino, where we spent a couple of nights. This wasn’t meant to be a photographic excursion, but I have a very understanding wife! She did not object when I stopped from time to time on our drive to get out the camera gear and make a few photographs. Truth be told, she made a few herself! I tried to keep the photography under control – after all, this trip was more about relaxing, seeing the sights, enjoying some good food, and so forth – but I did stop a few times make some photographs. And I also realized that I really need to head back up into this area and begin to seriously explore this region that is right at my virtual doorstep, and which is in many ways quite different from the “other Californias” that I’ve become familiar with.

This photograph was made in an extensive deciduous forest in a more or less random spot along the road, north of Fort Bragg and in an area where highway 1 takes an inland jog.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City

1 WTC, August 23, 2011

September 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The 1 World Trade Center (1 WTC) building under construction on August 23, 2011, New York City.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” – Ansel Adams

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.

Photographs: Unclassified

Privet #1

August 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This is a second photograph in the series of experiments with highly abstracted and very much post-processed photographs of foliage. This one began with a hand-held photograph of a couple of leaves on a privet bush (that really needs trimming!) in our garden. From that simple starting point, the visual improvisation began.

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Photographs: Unclassified

Ivy #1

August 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Ivy leaves, after Huntington Witherill.

With apologies to and inspired by Huntington Witherill, whose beautiful Photo Synthesis exhibit I saw this past weekend at the Center for Photographic Arts in Carmel, this image is the result of something I played around with yesterday.

I was not previously familiar with Witherill’s photography, neither his “classic” and very beautiful black and white work, nor the more experimental digital work of the Photo Synthesis series. It is all very compelling and tremendously varied work. The exhibit features the digital “manipulations” of flower and other plant subjects. I was fortunate to be able to attend his lecture at the opening of the show, and quite a few things struck me – more than I have time to describe here. As (yet another) photographer with a background in music, I relate to his description of a working process for the Photo Synthesis images that is, in some ways, like jazz improvisation – so I took that route with this image, which I’ll simply describe as an experiment for now. It was also fascinating to watch his animations of the sequence of steps that his source images underwent as they progressed to become the final images. I also like the way he embraces the concept of what I think of as “photographic art” without getting too hung up about whether the result is a photograph or something else. I also was intrigued by (hoping I say this in a way that makes sense and doesn’t accidentally sound offensive) the fact that he is so close to some sort of “edge” with these images that some are incredibly beautiful while a few push a boundary that I’m not quite ready to cross.

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