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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Smoke Shop

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“Smoke Shop” — Night photograph of a man approaching the Millennium Smoke Shop in Lower Manhattan.
““Smoke Shop” — Night photograph of a man approaching the Millennium Smoke Shop in Lower Manhattan.

Something a bit unusual happened regarding this photograph. I originally posted “it” a couple of week ago, but in a version that used a”portrait” mode aspect ratio. In my initial way of seeing the photograph, that is what I had in mind, partly because I wanted the figure to look very small by comparison to other features and partly because there was something in the upper part of the frame that I thought I wanted to include. But literally within minutes of sharing the image I reconsidered and began to feel that a square crop would be more effective. It allows the figure to be a bit larger, removes an unnecessary distraction that dominated the upper frame, and generally seems to produce a more effective composition.

These things happen! And because one of my reasons for sharing daily photographs is to reveal the ongoing “practice” of making my photographs, I am willing to be a bit open about my thinking and its evolution. First choices are often good choices… except when they aren’t. The particular trap I originally fell into is one that I’m usually on guard against, namely getting so attached to some marginal element of a photograph (in this case it was a sign in the upper portion of the frame) that I failed to see past it and recognize that the image would be stronger by removing that secondary subject.

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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

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian, Painted Wall

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Pedestrian, Painted Wall
A pedestrain walks past designs painted on a brick wall, Manhattan

Pedestrian, Painted Wall. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pedestrain walks past designs painted on a brick wall, Manhattan

Photographing street art almost always raised an ethical question or two for me. At one end of the spectrum, when photographing what might be regarded as graphic vandalism I wonder if I’m contributing to defacement by potentially sharing it. Sometimes I forego the shot and on one or two occasions I have intentionally altered “tags” in post so that they are no longer recognizable. (Most often I leave them as they are.) At the other ends of this spectrum lies what I refer to as “street art” — work that stands on its own merits as a completed concept. At times it seems a bit strange to be making photographs of someone else’s art, yet these pieces figure in a few of my favorite photographs, just as my “je sui bleu” photograph from Paris.

This bright and colorful display, contrasting with the rather gritty Manhattan surroundings, fit into the second category. It is visually interesting on its own, but just photographing someone else’s visually interesting creation seems like a less than creative act. So here, as in some other photographs of mine, I treat it as part background and part subject. It becomes, in my view, part of a visual geometry in the scene and also one element of a set of contrasting components. It also becomes the stage for passing pedestrians, such as the fellow in this image. (I have one other photograph of this scene, but with a small group of passers-by. That one may also eventually see the light of day.)

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: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Mirrored Street Scene

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Mirrored Street Scene
Manhattan winter street scene mirrored in building windows.

Mirrored Street Scene. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Manhattan winter street scene mirrored in building windows.

One thing I enjoy about street photography is that often — though not always, believe it or not — tends to work quite differently than my landscape photography. When things start to happen, they often happen very quickly, and there can be so much to sort out quickly that it may almost be overwhelming. And there are plenty of missed opportunities — despite the fact that I know that I often can’t wait for a thing to happen. That would be too late, so often I have to photograph almost speculatively, preparing for what may happen as much as responding to what is happening.

There’s a lot of those things in this photograph, made on a recent winter visit to Manhattan. When I’m in “”photographer mode” there I usually have a small rangefinder-style camera out and held down low in one hand, ready to quickly raise it and make a photograph. Sometimes there isn’t even time to bring the viewfinder to my eye, and I photograph blind. That wasn’t the case with this photograph, though I did have to work pretty quickly. I think that I noticed the colorful umbrella on the food cart at almost the same moment that I realized the the windows produced an almost-mirror image of the scene, and then I had just time to start photographing as the two colorfully-dressed people walked toward me. It wasn’t until after the shot that I started to see other interesting form and color relationships and more.

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Birds in Winter Dusk Sky

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Birds in Winter Dusk Sky
A small flock of birds flies toward the last dusk light on a winter evening.

Birds in Winter Dusk Sky. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of birds flies toward the last dusk light on a winter evening.

It is easy for me to imagine some viewers of this photograph asking questions like, “That’s not real, is it?” or “You photoshopped that, right?” I can’t blame them — or you — for wondering, so I’ll share a few things about the photograph: how it was made, how it came to look the way it does, and why the colors are so atypical for bird photography. But first, of course it is “photoshopped,” that that probably doesn’t mean quite what people intend to imply when they say or write it. Everything in the image appeared just as you see it, and aside from some color balancing and a few other adjustments, the colors were actually just this unusual. (Almost no one ever presents a photograph that hasn’t been optimized in post-production. Virtually all photographers regard the post-production process to be as integral to achieving the final image as all of the things that take place before the shutter is released.)

So, what is going on here? First, and probably most obviously, I used a relatively long shutter speed that allowed the bird’s motion to blur. I often do this at the very end of the day when photographing birds — rather than fighting diminishing light with high ISO and big apertures I go the other way and embrace the blur! The fact that there was so little light is another clue to the colors. I made the photograph significantly after sunset when the last colorful clouds appeared, and I tracked the birds until they crossed a particularly colorful patch of sky. But why are the birds so blue? The answer is that they actually were this blue — though if you had been there your visual system would have “corrected” and told you that you were looking at white birds. While the distant sky was wildly colorful, the close side of the birds was lit by darker sky that was quite blue. (There’s a lot more that could be said about the way we see color non-objectively, but that will have to wait for another post.)

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.