“An Traits Libres” — An Traits Libres, alternative comic book store, gallery, artists’ workshop, Montpellier.
We were out on one of our random walks, wandering to who-knows-where, on this damp evening in Montpellier, France this past December. Recently I tried to reconstruct our route using online maps and satellite photos of the city, but I’m at a loss to recall precisely where we went — with the exception of this building, which shows up on those maps.
It is a little hard to know for sure, but I think that this place is a sort of a shop – one online source describes it as an “alternative comic store., book store, gallery, artists’ workshop.” We did not stop to go inside, and I’m not sure if it was actually open. But it appeared as a bright apparition on a quiet, dark street. I spent a moment photographing it, and we moved on.
A woman stands in a doorway to an empty gallery, Uffizi Museum, Florence.
Most of this museum in Florence, Italy consists of galleries filled with some of the culture’s greatest art. There is so much of it that it is truly overwhelming, and eventually it becomes Impossible to register all of it. But then something odd happened. We walked to this door and on the other side was simple an empty room with a spot of light glowing on the far wall. I stopped to photograph the light and quickly realized that the people passing in and out of the doorway were a more interesting subject — including this woman who pauses and twisted her body around to look backwards.
In much of landscape — thought not quite all of it — we often have time to think about what we are photographing and how to photograph it. We can move the tripod a bit to improve the composition, perhaps try more than one version and multiple variations of exposure and composition. One of the things that fascinates me about photographing urban subjects is that scenes happen so quickly, often assembling themselves spontaneously and then disappearing just as quickly — and the photographer has to work quickly and instinctively
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.
We were in Berlin for a few days last summer, as one stop on our 40-day sojourn through (mostly) Europe. Our routine is mostly to travel light — carryon only — and to walk a lot in every city we visit. In fact, once we arrive in a city, with few exceptions we either walk or occasionally take public transit to get where we want to go. In Berlin it was entirely a matter of walking.
On this day our walking loop took us past the East Side Gallery which, despite the name, is one of the few remaining sections of the old Berlin Wall. It became a sort of outdoor gallery when artists took over sections of the wall and created a wild display of street art. I wanted to photograph some of the work, but I didn’t want to just come back with photographs of someone else’s art so I decided to look for coincidences and juxtapositions between the images on the wall and the people who passed by.
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.
Photographs by David Hoffman and G Dan Mitchell February 16th to March 14th, 2019 at Stellar Gallery, Yosemite Gateway Gallery Row 40982 Hwy 41, Suite 1, Oakhurst CA 93644
Artists Reception, Saturday Feb 16th – 5 to 8 pm
BIRDSCAPES features works by two photographers best known for landscape photography. Both Dave and G Dan are not only inspired by the beauty of wild lands and natural places, they are inspired by their flora and fauna as well. Birds are an integral part of most environments. Their nesting habits, migration patterns and survival strategies express volumes about the places they live, and ultimately our own habitat as well.
David Hoffman
Over the many years during which I have been involved in photography, I would have described my field of interest as landscape and nature with the emphasis on landscape. Wildlife of any sort was usually something that fortuitously showed up to be incidentally included in a landscape photograph.
In recent years I began photographing winter wetland landscapes in the Pacific Flyway and migratory birds naturally became a feature of many of the landscape images. As time went on, the birds went from being a mere feature of the landscape to being deliberately featured in their wetland habitat.
The photographs that I have included in the exhibit Birdscapes run the gamut from huge flocks of geese in the Pacific Flyway to a portrait of a hummingbird.
G Dan Mitchell
I have photographed the landscape for years, but more recently the photographs have included birds. I began to photograph birds in the locations I visit — geese and sandhill cranes in California’s Central Valley, brown pelicans along the Pacific coast, tundra swans and golden eagles near Oregon’s Klamath Lakes, trumpeter swans in Washington’s Skagit Valley. Migratory birds connect us to remote landscapes where they breed. Their presence brings landscapes to life. The sound of thousands of geese and cranes in the pre-dawn cold of a winter morning always makes me smile.
The photographs in “Birdscapes” come from several of these locations. They represent multiple ways of “seeing” birds. Some look closely at individuals, often focusing on the beauty of the birds in flight and the moments of take-off and landing. In others thousands of birds fill the sky. Almost all reflect the light and atmosphere of the places where birds are found —morning and evening twilight, colorful light of dawn and sunset, fog and clouds, or crystal-clear winter skies.
The galleries at Gallery Row in Oakhurst offer a wide selection of fine art and fine craft, and host exhibits and special events that support the arts in the Yosemite area. Thank you for supporting the arts!
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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