Maybe I’m taking this black and white thing too far? ;-) If I recall correctly, this was a relatively colorful flower, photographed at a botanical garden under filtered light.
There is a method to my madness. With many flowers, it can be (or so it seems to me) difficult to get past the beautiful colors. That’s natural, of course, and those colors are a major attraction of this subject. But here I felt that I might be able to draw attention to the beautiful and mysterious form of this flower by removing those colors.
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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
“Woman On Bicycle, Street Musician” — A women on a bicycle stops to check her phone as a street musician rests against a brick wall, Florence, Italy
Yes, I seem to be in a retro frame of mind recently, what with a significant number of black and white images plus a thread of street photography. Every so often, I think, my roots in black and white photography seem to come back to the foreground. I began photography decades ago (how many decades I won’t say…) when my father took me — and my siblings — under his photographic wing. He started us with very basic cameras, and eventually we graduated to helping him in his home darkroom. Obviously, in those days, virtually everyone was workmen in black and white, so that’s were I started. My photography and that of the folks who caught my attention was entirely black and white. Eventually I moved to slide film, but that initial exposure to black and white stuck.
This is another of the photographs I made in Florence, Italy back in the summer of 2016. As often happens, I move on from a collection of photographs as other subjects catch my attention — so it is almost always profitable for me to return to the “abandoned” files later on, where I almost always discover images that I like. While Florence in the summer can be a very busy place, crowded with hordes of tourists, if you poke around in the right places at the right times you can find quieter scenes. And if you like soft, shaded light, you can often find that in abundance here, too.
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People out on a summer evening in the narrow streets of Florence, Italy.
For some reason I seem to be in a “black and white” frame of mind this week. Part of this is attributable, no doubt, to ongoing work preparing prints for an exhibit opening next week at Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst, California (“Arms Wide Open: Black and White Photography”). I also recently wandered back into an archive of photographs from a visit to Italy a few years ago, and again took up a thread that included night photographs made in Florence.
So here you have a black and white night photograph from that Florence, made while walking about on a warm summer evening in that town. After spending a week in the Chianti region we ended up in Florence for a few days before flying home, and we spent the time walking the narrow streets of this town, from early morning until late at night. Here a small eatery extends into the narrow street and pedestrians wander along the narrow, curved walkway.
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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
New growth among the plants growing on the dark forest floor beneath redwood trees.
The gigantic trees are, obviously, a primary attraction in Northern California’s remarkable redwood forests. Having been brought up around them, I sometimes forget how unusual and striking they are. Two things remind me. One is when I see someone entering these forests for the first time, not quite believing what they are seeing. Another is when I leave the redwood forest and again see “normal” trees… which now seem very small! One advantage that comes with many years in the redwoods is that it becomes more possible to look away from the huge trees (though they are always in your thoughts) and take in smaller and things, and elements that are more subtle… like these delicate new leaves growing in the shadow of these trees.
As I worked on this photograph I thought about the process of photographing in the landscape. It can be a difficult thing to describe: What am I looking for? What causes me to stop and make a photograph? What is my state of mind when I’m working? Do I work slowly or quickly? (The answer to the last question is, “yes.”) But one thing is certain — the process is more about looking than about photographing. Those who have been with me in such places sometimes report being mildly annoyed by my slow, stop-and-start progress though the landscape. I’m constantly on the lookout for some subject, some light, some juxtaposition of shapes and forms. Most of the time when I spot something and stop… it turns out not to be worthy of a photograph. So I keep looking until I find “it,” whatever “it” is.
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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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