Tag Archives: macro

Photographs: Still Life, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Kitchen Tools #1

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Kitchen Tools #1
Close up photograph of kitchen implements.

Kitchen Tools #1. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Close up photograph of kitchen implements.

Indeed, I made more than one photograph in the kitchen this week. Will this be a new stylistic direction in my photography? Stay tuned and find out! Like yesterday’s photograph, this subject was on the kitchen counter. I needed something to test out a new camera with a macro lenses, no tiny bugs were handy, so here we are.

As I pondered these two kitchen photographs it stuck me that the patterns, especially with all of the soft blur in the images, reminded me of some close-up photograph s I have made of grasses and similar plants.

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.

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Photographs: Still Life, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures

Kitchen Tools #2

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Kitchen Tools #2
Close up photograph of kitchen implements.

Kitchen Tools #2. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Close up photograph of kitchen implements.

When looking for subjects to test (otherwise know as “get to know”) a new camera or lens, it is amazing what things one can find to photograph! This week I’m trying to get up to speed on a new camera — more about that below — and how it works with some lenses I already have. On this evening I slapped a macro lens on the thing and headed to the kitchen to photograph… a whisk, blender blades, coffee cups, and others stuff that was lying around.

It is important to me to both understand objectively how my camera equipment functions and to develop an intuitive familiarity with it. The former helps me make smart decisions, and the latter is very important in the field, where I don’t want to get stuck wondering how the gear works. In this case, the new equipment is a Fujifilm X-T5 that I got to upgrade from the XPro2 that I’ve been using for my “small camera” photography for the past few years. For this photograph and a few others like it I put the Fujifilm 80mm macro on the camera.

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.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Nature

Succulent Leaves, Detail

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Succulent Leaves, Detail
Black and white close-up photograph of succulent leaves.

Succulent Leaves, Detail. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Black and white close-up photograph of succulent leaves.

There is a tension in photographs between viewing them as “captures” of reality and their ability to show subjects as something other than or in addition to their appearance. One of my favorite observations about photographs comes from Minor White: “One does not photograph something simply for ‘what it is’, but for ‘what else it is’.” To observers who want to “get” photography, I suggest keeping this idea front and center.

You may have seen a plant just like the one that was in front of my lens when I made this photograph. We know that the thing in this picture is very small plant, perhaps of a sort we are familiar with. But the idea here is not to show you “what the plant looks like,” much less “what the plant is.” It is — perhaps obviously! — to suggest that you look at the familiar plant for what else it might be.

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.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Nature

White Flower

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White Flower
The center of a white flower.

White Flower. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

The center of a white flower.

This photograph comes from one of our spring visits to a large formal garden in the San Francisco Bay Area. We timed our visit to coincide with the tulip bloom, but there was a lot more to see. While macro photography isn’t my main thing (which is not to say that I don’t enjoy and appreciate it), photographing flowers gives me a good excuse to break out the macro lens and get close.

To be clear, this is not remotely intended to be viewed as a “realistic” depiction of this flower. If anything, it might be about “flower-ness” — the patterns, shapes, and forms of blossoms. You are looking at the center of a larger flower, and one that was actually subtly colorful. My intention was to begin with what the “capture” gave me to work with, and then use that as a departure point for what I wanted this photograph to be.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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