Tag Archives: and

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Launch For Hire Building

June 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The “Launch For Hire” building, docks, and Tomales Bay as remnants of morning fog drift above the water

I shared a color version of this photograph back in March, not too long after I made the photograph. The building is an old wooden structure that sits on pilings above the waters of Tomales Bay, and is probably familiar (especially with its “LAUNCH FOR HIRE” sign) to almost anyone who passes by on the way to Point Reyes. In fact, that is precisely where I was headed. I had gone up there quite early, hoping to arrive early enough to be at Drakes Bay for sunrise. However, other sites along the way distracted me, and after I finished photographing them I found myself delayed, and the sun was rising over the Marin County hills as I drove around the bay. This photograph was made a few minutes later, after the very first light had already come and gone.

The “black and white or color?” question is a new one for those of us who started out photographing on film “back in the day.” Some of you reading this no doubt think that this context is obvious, but in a world in which some actually don’t understand, for example, how a rotary dial telephone worked, this context will likely soon become as unfamiliar as using a horse and buggy. Whether to shoot color or black and white was, only a bit more than a decade ago, a decision what was made well before clicking the shutter. Put black and white film in the camera and shoot black and white, or put color media in the camera and shoot color. (In most cases – with sheet film it was possible to choose, though that didn’t tend to be the work process of such photographers.) Now we have the odd advantage – or, sometimes, the burden – of having to decide based on the nature of the subject and how we see it. Quite a few photographers using digital media will tell you that they don’t always know for sure whether a shot will work best in black and white or color at the time of exposure. (Sometimes you do, but not always.) So we “capture” the scene in color and put off the final decision until the post-processing stage. Even there it can occasionally be hard to decide. This was one of those cases – and both the color and black and white versions live on for now.

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.

Night Photography, Photographs: Architecture

Porch and Shadows

June 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ambient light, shadows, architecture and vegetation on a night photography shoot.

In November 2012 I joined my friends from The Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group, for a get-together and shoot at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard. Since this was an “alumni night” event, there was a certain ritual to be followed. Folks who were new to Mare Island arrived early to tour the site – the first west coast naval ship yard, with history going back well over 150 years. A bit later, the “veterans” arrived to join everyone else for events that began with sharing of photographs, continued with pizza, and then led to a night of, well, night photography nearby.

The weather was not promising. We knew that a weather front was on its way, and we hoped – though we probably knew better – that it might hold off long enough to complete some photography. (Those of us with smartphones, checking the weather radar updates, knew better.) The tell-tale south wind was rising as we headed out, and within moments of starting to photograph an old wooden building the rain began. At first I continued to shoot under my umbrella, but soon it was just plain too wet to stay out. Fortunately, we had arranged for access to one of the historic officer’s quarters buildings and photographing inside and around this building quickly became the fall-back plan. I ended up on the front porch with Mark Citret and Tim Baskerville where we intermittently talked photography and made a few shots of things that didn’t require us to stand in the rain. At one point I parked myself near an end of the old porch and made this photograph of the shadow of my rig falling the wall of the building.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

June 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Vertical format black and white photograph of light streaming through the upper reaches of the turret skylight above the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This is a second photograph made during a recent visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA, on the weekend before the place closed for two years of renovation and expansion work. Only days before did I realize that it was about to close and the extraordinary length of the closure, and I quickly adjusted my plans to get up there one more time. I wanted to wander the facility itself, but I especially wanted to see the excellent exhibit of the work of photographer Garry Winogrand.

This skylight is a dominant feature when the museum exterior is viewed from the west, where its tilted and round shape stands out from almost anything else nearby. Inside the building it creates a wonderful space full of light that somehow seems intimate, even though it is the highest point in a very large lobby atrium. The small diameter of the space and the walkway that splits it in two probably contribute to this effect. This photograph is a highly interpreted or stylized view of the subject, and is the result of a great deal of work in post-production – which almost seems somewhat ironic since the photograph was made handheld with a very small rangefinder style mirrorless digital camera.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Surf, Big Sur Coast

June 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Huge winter surf breaks over rocky coastal islands along California’ Big Sur Coastline.

In mid-January waves of stupendous size came ashore along the California coastline, as they do at times every winter. The surf was caused by storms, but not storms that were at all visible here in California, where this was an unusually warm and sunny weekend, with clear skies and temperatures (in January!) in the low seventy degree range. As I understand it, the source of the large waves was a big Pacific storm far to the north, in the region of the Aleutian Islands, which was sending huge swells thousands of miles toward our coastline.

The news reports were making a big deal of so-called “sneaker waves” – huge waves that seemingly appear unexpectedly and sometimes wash over areas that might seem safe. Sometimes the reports overdo this sort of thing, but the warnings are justified, and this was especially the case during this occurrence. We were even surprised a bit ourselves. When we finally made it to this area along the Big Sur coast that is open to the ocean, we expected to see huge surf, but when we pulled over and looked it didn’t seem like anything all that extraordinary was happening. Yes, there were waves, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. However, as we grabbed gear and tripods and walked to an overlook on a bluff above the water a series of truly huge waves began to come ashore. It turns out that this pattern alternates periods of smaller waves with periodic intervals of much larger waves, and we certainly saw abundant evidence as gigantic waves completely overwhelmed these rocky offshore islands before continuing on to hit the shoreline and wash far up the beaches.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: and

Launch For Hire Building

Porch and Shadows

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

Winter Surf, Big Sur Coast

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