Tag Archives: standing

Woman in Museum Doorway

Woman in Museum Doorway
A woman stands in a doorway to an empty gallery, Uffizi Museum, Florence.

Woman in Museum Doorway. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

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.

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Great Blue Heron, Fog

Great Blue Heron, Fog
A great blue heron, photographed on a winter morning of heavy fog along the Paciic Flyway.

Great Blue Heron, Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great blue heron, photographed on a winter morning of heavy fog along the Paciic Flyway.

Fog can make for lovely, evocative atmosphere when photographing birds. In fact, I often try to time my winter bird photography for foggy days. On the best of these days, the sunrise hours begin with slightly translucent fog, colored by dawn light. Then a transition begins as the sun rises and begins to make the shallow tule fog layer glow. The fog continues to thin and the light becomes more directional. Every one of these stages in the evolution of the light has its attractions, and such mornings are often quite busy.

Then there are the foggy days like this one. There is such a thing as too much fog, especially when it comes to bird photography. On this morning conditions were verging on the “I can hear them but I can’t see them” state — and at first I was unable to see most of the birds that I could hear off in the fog. I finally came across this magnificent great blue heron near the edge of a pasture, and I almost missed seeing it in the murk.


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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Cranes in Fog

Cranes in Fog
A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.

Cranes in Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.

Awake almost three hours before sunrise, I headed to the kitchen to make coffee — enough to wake me up and enough to fill a thermos for later. I had mostly packed the car the previous night, so I just had to grab a small bag and head out the door to begin a two-hour pre-dawn drive to a place where I expected to find migratory birds and plenty of tule fog, two subjects that I chase during the winter months. The fog began a half hour before I arrived at my destination, and when I arrived as the first light came to the sky I heard thousands of birds in the distance.

At first it was too dark and the atmosphere too opaque for photography, so I headed out to find the source of the sounds. Soon I encountered a large flock of snow geese which departed a moment later. Moving on I got to a spot where I could hear the easily recognized sound of cranes nearby. I could just barely see them though the thick fog, but I stopped and waited, and as the fog drifted a bit I was able to spot them and make a few photographs of a group standing in shallow wetlands.


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

Wiener Würstl

Patrons standing around a “wiener würstl” stand at night in Vienna

Wiener Würstl. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patrons standing around a “wiener würstl” stand at night in Vienna

I made this photograph on a late-August evening in Vienna. We had just returned from dinner, perhaps a bit early, and I realized that I had just enough time to head out and do some night street photography in the crowded nearby streets… which were absolutely filled with pedestrians. There was a lot to see and photograph — a nearby cathedral, shops and cafes, pedicabs, people passing by. As I neared the completion of my looping walk I passed a couple of the ubiquitous “würstl” stands, which seem to collect people in their circle of light.

This photograph is part of a genre that I’ve been pursuing for the past few years — handheld night street photography. It was just a few years ago that I realized that small contemporary digital cameras are now good enough in very low light that I can photograph street scenes using only available light, especially if I seek out sources of light such as this. I’ve been doing night photography for more than fifteen years, and I’m part of a collective of San Francisco Bay Area night photographs known as Studio Nocturne. As it turns out, we’re in the middle of our “fall season” right now, with several events coming up right away.

For more than 15 years we have exhibited every fall as part of the San Francisco ArtSpan Open Studio Event. This year our “open studio” is at ARCH Supplies in San Francisco. Our opening preview and artist reception is on Friday, October 26 at 6:30-9:00PM. Our exhibit and sale continues on Saturday and Sunday, October 27 & 28, from 11:00AM-6:00PM.

Studio Nocturne 2018 ArtSpan Open Studio October 26-28
Studio Nocturne 2018 ArtSpan Open Studio October 26-28

We’re also doing a San Francisco ArtSpan Open Studio “hub show” mini-exhibit at Farley’s Coffee in San Francisco all month, with a public reception this Friday, October 19 at 6:30PM-8:30PM.

Studio Nocturne 2018 Hub Show at Farley's Coffee
Studio Nocturne 2018 Hub Show at Farley’s Coffee

Why don’t you join us at one or both of these events? We look forward to seeing you!


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