Tag Archives: standard

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Chimneys and Building Details, Standard Mill

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Chimneys and Building Details, Standard Mill
Chimneys and Building Details, Standard Mill

Chimneys and Building Details, Standard Mill. Bodie, California. October 13, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Details of buildings and chimneys at the Standard Mill, Bodie ghost town, California

On the final day of our October eastern Sierra visit we covered a lot of ground, starting with dawn virga and light snow near Mammoth Lakes before heading east into the high desert toward the Nevada border and then north by back roads past Mono Lake to Lee Vining, where we finally stopped for a very late breakfast. We headed north from Lee Vining, first stopping to photograph aspens near Conway Summit, and the snow that was still falling above along the Sierra crest. With this “interesting” weather still around, it seemed like it might be worth a trip out to Bodie.

I’ve been to Bodie a number of times, and while the historical story is fascinating and the presence of such a large abandoned town is remarkable, I have sometimes been frustrated by the stark and cloudless skies and the realization that the place has been photographed so darned much! But a number of years ago I made it out there on a spring day when there was light snow falling, and I realized that in the right conditions it is still well worth a visit. Since there was a possibility of similar weather this time – though snow did not fall after we arrived – and since it was the off-season, the drive seemed worth it. And it was. Along the way we saw high desert aspen groves, which have a very different appearance than those of the eastern Sierra. The weather gave us a combination of blue skies, partial clouds, and occasional mists covering hill tops – and all of this was constantly changing as the clouds thickened and thinned. As I have walked around Bodie in the past I have been fascinated by the large Standard Mill that sits across the Valley. Since it is fenced off and access isn’t permitted without a guide, I was not able to walk among the buildings… but I was able to get close enough to make some photographs of the interesting juxtapositions of stark metal walls, windows, and chimneys.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.

Equipment, Reviews

In Praise of the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS

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(Note: Though Canon no longer sells this lens, it is still around and may be a useful lens for photographers using DSLRs.)

Sometimes it seems like the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS lens doesn’t get the respect it deserves. It probably doesn’t help that it is often described as a “kit lens” because Canon bundles it with some of their full frame DSLRs. Having a maximum aperture of only f/4, it lacks the f/2.8 aperture found on some of  the other Canon L zooms. It uses a “telescoping” zoom design that extends the front element when the focal length changes, and some mistakenly associate this design with lower quality lenses. It certainly doesn’t have the panache of the high-end, large-aperture primes, with their big  f/1.4 or f/1.2 maximum apertures, nor of the big and impressive f/2.8 L zooms, nor the exotic and equally expensive tilt/shift lenses——nor does it have their correspondingly large selling price. Continue reading In Praise of the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS →

Commentary, History, Ideas

No Post Processing? Really?

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As I do from time to time, I’m reposting a response I shared in an online discussion somewhere else on the web. In that discussion, a proposal was made to come up with some sort of enforceable standard regarding what post-processing could be allowed in photographs. (In the context of the original discussion – wildlife photography – the idea wasn’t quite as crazy as it sounds here, but still…) It seems to me that there are always a few notions underlying these ongoing discussions: that the issue is one that comes up with “digital photography,” that there is some ideal photography that is purely and objectively “accurate,” and that we would actually want to do such a thing.

Here is what I wrote:

It seems so obvious that I’m almost embarrassed to point it out, but does anyone actually believe that there is such a thing as an objectively accurate photographic image, free of interpretation? Which acknowledged “great” photographers can you point to whose photographs are purely and objectively accurate? If digital post is a problem, what about camera movements, contraction/expansion of space via focal length, use of artificial light and reflectors, polarizing filters, graduated neutral density filters, choice of film/paper/chemicals based on color or contrast preferences, selective focus via DOF control, allowing motion blur with long shutter speeds, any night photography, and on and on…?

As I wrote somewhere else earlier this week:

If the goal of photography was to make objectively accurate reproductions of real things… I wouldn’t bother.

Have an opinion on this? Feel free to leave a comment…

 

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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.

 

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Sunset on Building With Columns, High Line Park

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Sunset on Building With Columns, High Line Park
Sunset on Building With Columns, High Line Park

Sunset on Building With Columns, High Line Park. New York, New York. August 14, 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light illuminates tall columns of the Standard Hotel along the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea, New York City.

This is another photograph from our Friday evening walk along the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea. We walked under the Standard Hotel, which straddles the park at this point, just as the warm and saturated pre-sunset light was peaking. Given the quality of the light and the beautiful evening, I was surprised that there were no people on the other side of the plexiglas wall – there were certainly plenty of us enjoying the evening along the walkway of the park.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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