Tag Archives: display

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Red-Wing Blackbird

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Red-Wing Blackbird
A red-wing blackbird perched among wetland plants

Red-Wing Blackbird. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A red-wing blackbird perched among grasses

The red-wing blackbird (and the similar tri-color blackbird) are among those birds that are found all over the place here in California. I’ve encountered them in agricultural areas and on trails in coastal hills parks, in huge groups or as solitary individuals. They often perch, and they aren’t too hard to photograph with a long lens, though their very dark feathers can provide some exposure challenges. When they take to the air they often move quickly and can be hard to track.

The red patches are not always visible. In fact, when I first saw this individual I did not see them. But the bird seemed content to remain in one spot for a while, so I settled in with the bird in the viewfinder and waited. Typically the first thing I’ll do is to try to grab an initial photograph that is at least usable. But they I wait and watch for something beyond that, something that might show the animal in a special way. As I watched this bird, all of a sudden it puffed out its feathers and exposed those brilliant red patches for a few seconds.

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.
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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Say Hello

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Say Hello
A sidewalk display outside a San Francisco store

Say Hello. San Francisco, California. December 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sidewalk display outside a San Francisco store

The journey from yesterday’s “photograph of the day” (birds in the predawn light above Central California wetlands) to today’s photograph may rightly be regarded as an example of moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. But I think that the ridiculous is also frequently worthy of a photograph — though it may not be worth quite as many descriptive words.

We were out walking in downtown San Francisco, and I was in street photographer mode. I’ve actually photographed things in front of this shop — a liquor store — in the past, so I think that slightly off-kilter advertising is part of their plan. It may be difficult to see in this small on-screen jpg image, but there are some interesting and slightly odd things inside the store window, too.

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

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shop Window, Shadows

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Shop Window, Shadows
Afternoon sun casts shadows on display in a shop window

Shop Window, Shadows. Pasadena, California. January 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon sun casts shadows on display in a shop window

We headed to Southern California just after the New Year. It was an excuse to take the Pacific Coast Highway down the California coast — we were fortunate to do this before winter storms forced a long-term closure! — and to visit various family members. Between the scheduled events we wandered a bit and visited whatever nearby thing seemed interesting.

We spent this afternoon wandering downtown Pasadena. It was a fairly lazy day — we had the afternoon pretty much free, with nothing on the calendar but an evening get-together. I made this photograph as the low-angle afternoon winter light slanted across the street and through the windows of this store to produce complex patterns of reflections, text, and the store’s interior.

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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Store Window Display

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Store Window Display
Motion blurred photograph of a Chinatown store window display

Store Window Display. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Motion blurred photograph of a Chinatown store window display

Part of what I enjoy about night photography is the way that the environment is transformed and how I often have to resort to “seeing as the camera sees” more than seeing as I see in the dim light. The camera sees better in low light, it can pick up colors that fade almost to monochrome in nighttime human vision, and it can “see” things like blur motion with longer exposures.

For a few minutes on this evening I decided to play around with long exposure blur. Instead of keeping the ISO high so that I could use short shutter speeds in the low light and stop motion, I lowered the ISO and intentionally selected smaller apertures and very long shutter speeds. Then I used the combination of subject motion and intentionally moving the camera myself to create abstractions. It may hardly matter, but the subject here was a store window full of colorful lanterns.

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