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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Sunset

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Winter Sunset
Sunset in California’s Central Valley, on a winter evening with a weather front approaching.

Winter Sunset. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset in California’s Central Valley, on a winter evening with a weather front approaching.

I often ponder the California landscapes that are not so widely known, at least not among visitors to the state who are (justifiably) attracted to better know subjects: San Francisco, LA, well-known spots in the Sierra, the Big Sur coast, perhaps desert locations such as Death Valley. I guess that we Californians can be grateful that we get to keep a few of these less obvious spots for ourselves!

The Great Central Valley, stretching from just below Mount Shasta in the north to the mountains ringing the northern edge of the LA Basin in the south, and bounded on the east by the Sierra and the west by interior ranges is such a place. It is huge — hundreds of miles long and many tens of miles across — but even though it is one of the most rapidly growing regions of the state, many people mostly know it from driving through, not from pausing. This photograph comes from a winter evening when an incoming Pacific weather front was just starting to cloud up the western sky.

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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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Restaurant For Rent

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Restaurant For Rent
A group of passers-by along the sidewalk in front of a Manhattan building underoing renovation.

Restaurant For Rent. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of passers-by along the sidewalk in front of a Manhattan building underoing renovation.

There’s a conversation I’ve had a few times with painters in which we’ve addressed one of the most important differences between photography and painting. In most cases (ignoring exceptions that come with certain approaches to painting for the moment) the painter “knows” every element of the piece since he or she placed them all. It would be very surprising (though not quite impossible) for the artist to later discover some element that had previously been unobserved or that wasn’t where it was placed. A photograph is usually (though, again, there are a few exceptions) quite different in that the photographer can rarely know every single element of the subject. Instead, the photographer finds a scene/subject whose broad outlines and primary focus are “right,” makes a photograph (and, yes, there are a few other steps I’ve left out) and cannot know every single component of the image, leaving the possibility of later discovery.

I think this is true in just about all photography, but it is especially the case with street photography, where the scene is often very complex and the elements and their interactions are evolving quickly and constantly. Often the photography must work very quickly and intuitively, frequently with little time for reflection before making an exposure. And then, what we end up with is a tiny fractional slice of what was “happening,” a slice that takes on a sense of painting-like permanence, even though it derived from something that was wholly in flux.

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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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.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Abandoned Glove

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Abandoned Glove
“Abandoned Glove” — An abandoned glove in a gutter between red and white lines

From my point of view, this is one of those photographs that is about what it is and about what else it is. (Admittedly, it is also a photograph whose capture may have led a few people around me at the time to… wonder.) The objective facts are straightforward. I had paused at the curb to wait for a green crossing light. I looked down into the gutter and saw this scene, in particular the plastic white glove between the red and yellow spaces. I made a few exposures before continuing as the light turned green.

You can make what you want of such a photograph. It is partly a reflection on finding things of visual interest everywhere, even in gutters. In addition, perhaps you may see some interesting graphic, abstract quality to it that goes beyond the literal objects in the frame. If you look closely you can see a bit of a reflection. Beyond that… I’ll leave it to 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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Snow Geese In Flight

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Snow Geese In Flight
A small group of snow geese in flight against an overcast winter sky

Snow Geese In Flight. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small group of snow geese in flight against an overcast winter sky,

Photographing winter birds, especially the larger migratory birds and those that flock together, is a special pleasure during this season. All up and down “my” west” coast birds arrive from very distant locations, many from the arctic, and reveal connections between far flung parts of the planet. I’ve photographed them from Southern California all the way up to Washington’s Skagit Valley.

In one way photographing a set of birds like this is a simple thing: just be there with a camera and be ready to photograph when they appear nearby. But the truth is more complicated. Groups of birds in flight are complicated things. Often they are headed the wrong direction, their positions obstruct one another’s heads, foreground stuff gets in the way, the light of the sky overwhelms the scene, and they move fast! This photograph manages to avoid many of those pitfalls — each bird’s head is visible, their arrangement seems interesting and appealing, and the muted light lets us see details.

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.