Recently I have heard some photographers suggest that IBIS-equipped cameras have made tripods obsolete. IBIS is a fine thing, but that overstates the case.
“Photographer Patricia Mitchell” — Photographer Patricia Mitchell at work in early morning autumn light in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.
Contemporary cameras incorporate remarkable advances in camera and lens image stabilization. Some newer cameras with IBIS (In-camera Image stabilization) claim to extend the useful range of shutter speeds for handheld photography by as much as seven stops.
IBIS can be very useful for photographers who shoot handheld. I do urban night street photography using a handheld, IBIS-equipped camera that supports high ISOs — and I can capture subjects that would have been just about impossible to photograph a few decades ago.
A tree in a planter on a Manhattan sidewalk, amidst urban detritus of various sorts.
This is yet another photograph from my spring visit to New York City. There’s more going on in this photograph than might be immediately apparent. I’ll share a few hints here, but you may want to look a bit deeper, beyond my description, and even consider potential metaphors, not all of which may be immediately obvious. Some of them were not even obvious to me when I made the photograph, and I only saw them later. Yes, I’m being a bit opaque about this. Have fun…
The backstory is pretty simple. I was staying in Manhattan, a few blocks south of Central Park, while visiting my sons and daughters-in-law. My usual plan is to get out for a bit of a walk in the morning before connecting with them, though the constant wet weather interfered a bit with that. But I did head out for a random walk with my camera. I passed this planter before thinking that it might make a photograph, so I backed up and framed a couple of shots, mainly thinking about colors, the petals on the ground, and a few other odd juxtapositions.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
A line of cherry pickers along a San Francisco street.
Since the previous photograph I posted featured cranes (of a different sort!) I suppose that you could, from a certain perspective, regard this as part of a series. Well, these are sort of cranes, right? I encountered them along a San Francisco street a couple of years ago, in an area under extensive construction as part of the underground expansion of the City’s transit system. I can’t explain why there would be quite so many cherry pickers lined up in a row, but they certainly caught my attention.
I think this photograph my be an example of how the act of carrying a camera can change how you see. I know it changes how I see. Normally, I might give this sight no more than a moment’s notice before moving on: “Interesting. Cherry pickers parked along the road.” But with a camera in hand I start to ask visual and other questions: Who thought to segregate them by color? Do they always store them this way or did someone carefully extend them so their angles nearly matched? Am I the only person who thought they looked like gigantic anthropomorphic figures marching to the right?
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Equipment poised to clear a channel in agricultural land, Central Valley.
As I queue up this photograph for posting in the next week or two at the website, it seems oddly appropriate that I’m sharing a winter photograph on the final day before autumn begins. My photographic interests evolve seasonally, and I’m usually thinking a season or two into the future. These Central Valley landscape, along with the migratory birds that visit them each year, become my focus in the late autumn and winter.
Aside from the current — and deeply concerning — climate changes, there are variations from year to year. In the Central Valley they might be seen in the onset of the first rain, the overall humidity of a season, and whether or not there is enough rain to leave flood pools in the lowlands. There were back in this year, and I made this photograph on a very foggy morning, when I came across a piece of equipment staged to clear out one of the flooding channels in an agricultural region of the valley.
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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