Tag Archives: valley

Double Bass, Backstage

May 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A double bass rests back stage during a break in a rehearsal of Symphony Silicon Valley

This is a photograph from my ongoing project related to classical music performing groups and the musicians who belong to them. It falls into a category I have mentioned before, namely photographs of people and things that happen to turn up in the small areas of interesting backstage light that I have discovered. As I have worked several venues over the past two years I have gotten to know many things about them intimately, and one of those things is the location of the many little unexpected pools of interesting light. Sometimes I “stalk” those spots, just waiting for someone or something to happen there, and I always check them as I walk around the theater with my camera.

This is, obviously, a visually simple image—just a double bass lying on its side during a break in a rehearsal. (I was attracted by the contrast between the warm colors and interesting textures of the instrument and the “industrial” surroundings with their signs of heavy use and even minor damage.) From my point of view, however, it could lead to thoughts of a whole range of other things. I’m fascinated by what an instrument is and what it isn’t. Instruments, musical and otherwise, are often remarkable things in that they allow us to do things that we can’t otherwise do with our minds and bodies alone. The instruments of classical (and many other types of) music are fundamentally pretty simple things and often the result of some really “primitive” technologies, yet they are remarkably adapted to the purposes for which they are intended, generally as a result of a long and complex evolutionary process. But in the end, I would argue that even the most beautiful and sophisticated instrument is no more than a tool, and the really interesting things are how the tool is used by a person or persons to produce something far more meaningful and interesting than the instrument itself.

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Photographs: Music & Musicians

Cymbals

May 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Cymbals on a rack, ready for use at a Symphony Silicon Valley rehearsal

The percussion section of a classical symphony orchestra, especially when somewhat modern music is performed, can be a rich source of photographable objects, shapes, colors, texture, and reflections. Between pieces, or during breaks, I get to stalk the stage and have free rein to wander around that find and photograph these interesting objects.

The subject here is pretty straightforward. When not being played, cymbals are kept safely (and quietly!) stashed on covered tables or in holders. Here a line-up of multiple cymbals was in racks, waiting to be picked up and played.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White Faced Ibises, Clouds and Sky

May 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white-faced ibises is silhouetted against early spring evening sky above the San Joaquin Valley

I have what almost amounts to a tradition of making a weeklong visit to Death Valley near the end of March and beginning of April, that time of year when this desert landscape oscillates between winter and summer conditions and when the flowers bloom.. After a week or so in that austere landscape I am usually quite ready to see green and a greater density of living things. I’m also ready to get home! On a typical final day of the trip I do a bit of photography in the morning and then leave the park well before noon and start the long drive home. During the last few years I have made it my practice to leave early enough that I can just make it to one of my favorite San Joaquin Valley bird locations before the sun sets.

It has been a series of drought years in California and this was the worst one so far. When I drove do Death Valley things were still just as dry as we would expect in such a year. But while I was in the park a series of winter storms swept across the state—finally! I saw some rain and snow in DEVA, but by the time I got to the Central Valley is was clear from the puddles and ponds that a real storm had come through. I drove on up highway 99 and turned west toward my destination and found fields that were actually green. And on arriving at the wildlife refuge I was greeted by the smell of damp air and plants and the sounds of birds. What a contrast to Death Valley! Close to dusk we found a large flock of dark-colored birds in the shallow water nearby, and a closer inspection showed them to be white-faced ibises, settling in where the now departed geese would have distracted us from such quiet birds a few weeks or months earlier. As the evening wore on, large groups flew in, circled, and then descended to join the flock… including this group that passed in front of delicate dusk clouds and blue hour sky.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Panamint Mountains, Spring

May 8, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Cloud shadows pass across valleys of spring-green high desert plants in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park

I like to think of this photograph as one that may offer a more truthful presentation of the character of Death Valley. As photographers, almost all of us to looking for the extraordinary—momentary instances of astonishing light, brilliant color towering clouds, dramatic light, and more. And, of course, there is nothing remotely wrong with that. It is these things that draw us to these places and which drive our search once we get there. We will often put up with, sometimes patiently and sometimes not, hours or days of what some call “blah” light in order to be able to photograph brief instance of something atypically powerful. But we must be aware that what we find and show in this brief slices of time is often special precisely because it is unusual.

A few years back I started thinking more about my relationship with the landscape of Death Valley and the surrounding terrain. I had been focusing on the extraordinary—and I still do—and on the way to such places I often passed through other areas, sometimes without taking the time to think about what I was seeing in those moments. I think that it was partially out of frustration that I arrived at the idea of trying to see these subjects more clearly and try to figure out how to photograph them. After all, I knew—at least once I stopped to think about it—that my love of this places was not limited to just the unusual and extraordinary moments, but that it also included midday quiet in the heat and subtle colors of sage country, a series of simple overlapping ridges, a bit of rock. And once I recognized this I started to think that these things, and not just sunrises and sunsets and impressive formations and unusual clouds, might make worthy subjects if I slowed down and tried to understand them. And this is one of those photographs. There is no single, impressive subject in this frame. Instead we have the almost uniform pale green of the arid mountain plants on an early spring day after rain, when the plants produce a subtle but surprising green coloration that varies as the land alternates between gullies and the tops of low hills and clouds from a cleaning storm move across the landscape.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: valley

Double Bass, Backstage

Cymbals

White Faced Ibises, Clouds and Sky

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.