Tag Archives: mike

Morning Musings, Photographers, Tongue in Cheek

Morning Musings: Secret Lives of Landscape Photographers (9/12/14)

Leave a comment
Secret (Banjo) Lives of Landscape Photographers
Landscape photographers relaxing with a little banjo music. (L-R: Scot Miller, Charles Cramer, Annette Bottaro-Walklet, Mike Osborne, Karl Kroeber, G Dan Mitchell)

Secret (Banjo) Lives of Landscape Photographers. Sierra Nevada, California. September 5, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Landscape photographers relaxing with a little midday banjo music. (L-R: Scot Miller, Charles Cramer, Annette Bottaro-Walklet, Mike Osborne, Karl Kroeber, G Dan Mitchell)

I know the romantic notions about the daily lives of landscape photographers: days full of stunning golden hour light, incalculable beauties everywhere at every moment, the sublime life, rainbows, unicorns, etc. But the truth is more complex. Up before dawn and out into the cold without breakfast, shooting for hours until the light turns “blah,” then a long, boring midday period before the beautiful light returns hours later, then photographing into the frigid darkness.

It is often a struggle to find something useful to do in the backcountry during those midday hours. There are meals to eat, tents to tidy, and naps to take, but the hours are still long. We think we’ve found a solution. There’s nothing like a few hours of backcountry banjo ensemble music to make the time pass more quickly. Here the group nears the conclusion of the Adagietto movement of Mahler’s Symphony #5.

So, the next time you are in the Sierra Nevada backcountry and you pass a group of heavily laden photographers with tripods, folding chairs, and banjo cases on their backs, stop and say “hi.” ;-)

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Commentary

SF Gate Reviews ‘First Light – Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness’

4 Comments

I see that Carl Nolte has offered a review of “First Light – Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness,” a book featuring the work of Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne and Keith S. Walklet.

If you are a Yosemite aficionado, someone who loves the Sierra back-country, or a lover of great landscape photography, I recommend this book. The five photographers have a tremendous amount of experience in the Yosemite back-country, and all five are talented and highly-regarded photographers in their own right. (I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a bit of time with them “on location” in recent years.)

Update: links to the online work of the five photographers are included in the links in the sidebar on this page.

Commentary, News, Photographers, Publications

First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness

Leave a comment

So, you like landscape photography, right? And you are aware that some of the most beautiful photographic subjects can be found in the back-country of California’s Yosemite National Park, right? And you very much enjoy looking through and absorbing the work of photographers who know the place especially well, right?

You need to pick up a copy of First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness, published by Heyday Press.

The book features the wonderful photography of a group of photographers whose experience in the park is extraordinary and varied: Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne, and Keith S. Walklet. Right now copies of the book autographed by all five photographers are available from the Ansel Adams Gallery.

(For the record, I have no financial interest in this book and if you purchase through the links in my post I receive no compensation from the sale. I just like the book and the photographers a lot and think you might, too!)

Commentary, News, Shows, Workshops

Night photography news – time to catch up!

2 Comments

It has been far too long since I’ve posted on the subject of night photography, one of the subjects that interests me a great deal. There is so much other stuff for me to photograph during the summer months – urban and natural landscape, “my” Sierra Nevada, the coast, and so on – that I tend to slack off on the night photography this time of year. However, as summer draws to an end, night photography is one subject that seems to increasingly begin to interest me again.

So, with that in mind, a few notes related to the subject.

Late last week fellow SF Bay Area photographer Ivan Makarov contacted me to say that he was organizing a group of photographers to do a night photography shoot at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard. He knew that I have shot there in the past (lots of examples in my night photography gallery) and asked for some advice about access and locations. I shared with him a bit of what I know about the location and also connected him with Tim Baskerville of The Nocturnes, the SF Bay Area night photography group since Tim is our local guru of all things related to night photography. After consulting with Tim and getting permission from the folks at Mare Island, Ivan got back to me and I decided to join his group. I won’t spoil the fun by saying too much here, but I’m currently working on photographs from the outing and they will show up here in a few weeks. (Impatient readers can get an early look by checking out my Flickr stream.)

So, since the pump was primed with that bit of night photography last weekend, I’ll catch up with the night photography news.

One great source for night photography information – and especially for coverage of shows featuring night photographers – is Andy Frazer’s Night Photography Blog. Recent news at his blog includes the following:

  • An opening this week of a night photography show in Alameda featuring the work of several well-know local night photographers: Troy Paiva, Mike Hows and Joe Reifer. Follow the first link in this bullet to find more info about the location, times/dates, and the opening reception.
  • Also during the month of August Any kept up a steady stream of posts highlighting a number of compelling examples of night photography – visit the blog and take a look.

Over at The Nocturnes Night Photography Blog you’ll find some seemingly random quotations… mixed in with some very interesting posts on local night photography events and shows.

I’m hearing rumors of an upcoming Mare Island Reunion for previous participants in The Nocturnes workshops. If you are a  past Nocturnes participant and you haven’t heard from Tim… you might want to check this out.

Finally, if you are looking for some information on how to do night photography, let me point out two resources:

  • The Nocturnes web site is the portal to a ton of information on the subject, ranging from technique to photographer to workshop opportunities. I strongly recommend that you visit!
  • For a very quick list of some basic considerations for night photography, take a look at my own Hints for Night Photography post.