Tag Archives: report

Eastern Sierra Aspens Post Updated

I just updated a post that I first shared last year regarding photographing the fall color of the eastern Sierra Aspen trees: Sierra Nevada fall color season – coming sooner than you think! I have updated and modified some of the information, and in keeping with my concerns about damage caused by too many visitors I have added a section addressing related issues.

Photo Equipment I Use: Two Resources on the Blog

Since (believe it or not… ;-) people sometimes ask me what equipment I use and why, I have created a page listing some of the products I use these days: See G Dan Mitchell’s Equipment List. In addition, there is also a Reports, Tests, and Commentary page that serves as an index of posts that I have made about equipment and other related topics.

Enjoy, and feel free to post questions and comments.

An Itinerant Photographer and His iPad: A First Report

I returned last night from a week-long visit to New York City. While this wasn’t just a photography visit, enough photography was part of the plan that I had to carry a reasonable amount of equipment. Typically I would bring along my Macbook, but this time I decided to leave the laptop at home and see if I could get by with just an iPad instead.

I knew that this would necessitate some compromises in the way I usually operate on the road. For example, serious photography applications like Photoshop and Lightroom simply don’t run on the iPad, so there would be no possibility of doing real post-processing work on the road. The iPad doesn’t have a “real” keyboard, instead providing an on-screen “virtual keyboard” – more on that below. On the positive side, the iPad is positively tiny compared to any real laptop. It makes my 13″ Macbook seem terribly bulky by comparison. The iPad slips easily into the external pocket of my Crumpler Eight Million Dollar Home camera bag, and doesn’t add enough weight to the package to be worthy of note. The battery life is tremendous and the charger is very small.

What follows is an early report on certain aspects of iPad use by the traveling photographer – or at least this mobile photographer. Continue reading An Itinerant Photographer and His iPad: A First Report

A Visit to B&H: A Brief Report

I’m in New York City for business and pleasure and to do some photography. It turns out that I am staying about a ten-minute walk from the renowned B&H Superstore. Since this blog is a B&H affiliate and because I had recently been in touch with someone from B&H, I mentioned to them that I would be in the area… and was invited to take a tour.

I am going to write more about this later when I can type on something other than my iPad “virtual keyboard,” but I thought I’d share a few things today.

We started in a building close to the one housing the well-known store. My guides took me through several areas that you might not think about – several floors teeming with employees handling the technical aspects of their online presence and other information systems, and a floor where customer support takes place. (As I understand it, support desks are staffed by people who have expertise in particular product areas.)

Next we took a short walk over to the store. I had been there briefly the day before with my son, but I had missed a lot since the two of us had headed straight to areas of the store focusing on our individual interests. Today’s tour showed me much of what I had missed – for example a very impressive video studio facility. (To my brother Ed who is a video guy… you have to see this!) The range of products available is remarkable, both in terms of the types of gear (video, audio, computers, and, of course, cameras and related equipment) and the levels of equipment available – at one information/demonstration booth you could ask about and handle a $99 point and shoot camera… or the $6000 DSLR body about two feet away. You can also see and handle just about any tripod made, and the same holds true for a large range of other products.

As I mentioned above,there is much more to write about this, but I’m going to save more for later. For now I’ll end by thanking Yechiel and Herschel for a very complete and informative tour!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.