G Dan Mitchell | Photography

Cattle. Mission Peak. January 29, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This is probably not a sight that most people associate with San Francisco Bay, but there you are. These cattle were grazing contentedly early in the morning last weekend as I took a little-used trail to the top of Mission Peak. There was no one else around and as I crested this rise the cattle showed no inclination to move off of the trail for me, but at least the were obliging about posing with the Bay in the background.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.31.2006 :: Photographs: Central California :: Comments Off

Near the Summit. Mission Peak. January 29, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.29.2006 :: Photographs: Central California :: Comments Off

Someone in an online forum I read asked for example images from sharp Canon 17-40mm f4 L lenses. I posted the following images from mine. Both are 100% crops from 8MP originals shot on a 1.6x crop sensor body and, as such, they comprise a very tiny excerpt from the full original image.

(For those who are unfamiliar with the “100% crop” terminology… you are looking at a display in which each pixel of the original image occupies one pixel on your computer monitor. Another way to think of this is that if the 100% crop came from a 12MP original, the crop is roughly equivalent to looking at a tiny section of a print that is about 5 feet wide.)

The upper half is an unprocessed image. I converted it in Adobe Camera raw, then took it into Photoshop to crop and save as a .jpg. The second one was slightly sharpened in Photoshop using the Smart Sharpen tool. Pretty sharp, I’d say!

UPDATE: Here is another example of the potential for image sharpness with the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L lens. This is a 100% crop of a photo of some old mining equipment at Bodie, California.

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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.28.2006 :: Equipment, Tests :: Comments Off

Mt. Hamilton, Fog, and Clouds. Almaden Quicksilver Park. January 28, 2006.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.28.2006 :: Photographs: Central California :: Comments Off

Another Cow. Mission Peak. January 22, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.25.2006 :: Photographs: Central California :: Comments Off

Mission Peak Trail. January 21, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.24.2006 :: Photographs: Central California :: Comments Off

The fate of his images has provoked feuds and threats, and above all, a philosophical disagreement over the nature of photography and the concept of authenticity. By MICHAEL RIPS. [NYT > Arts]

The story of this discrepancy - how a pocket-size print, sold for a few dollars in a neighborhood shop in West Africa, became a wall-size photograph that sold for $16,000 in an upscale SoHo gallery - begins in colonial Mali in the 1930’s and continues into the future: a new show of Mr. Keïta’s work opens at the Sean Kelly Gallery in Chelsea on Friday.

It is a story that includes screaming fights, a lawsuit and charges of theft, forgery and perjury. It survives the photographer himself, who died in 2001. And it touches on the broadest channels of human history, from colonialism to capitalism to revolution to race. But it also involves a conflict of the most rarefied sort - a philosophical disagreement over the nature of photography and the concept of authenticity.

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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.21.2006 :: Photographers :: Comments Off

At The Online Photographer Mike Johnston comments about an article by Charles Cramer that compares medium format digital to scanned 4×5 film. I think one of Johnston’s comments is especially intriguing:

I have a principle I call “the confluence rule.” What I’ve noticed is that the closer two of anything are to each other, the more people tend to work to discriminate between them, and the more passionate their arguments become about which is “best.” This is backwards, in my opinion. To me, the closer two of anything are to each other–the more confluent they are–the less it matters which one you choose.

By the way, The Online Photographer has become one of my favorite photography blogs recently.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.21.2006 :: Ideas :: Comments Off

From SFGate:

People who lived through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake will recall the jumpy, weak-kneed feeling that haunted them until denial set in again. They should prepare to experience that sensation once more, though faintly, when they see “1906 Earthquake: A Disaster in Pictures” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and “After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire” at the Legion of Honor.

I’m currently reading Simon Winchester’s book on the 1906 quake, A Crack in the Edge of the World, I live 50 miles south of San Francisco, I have learned to recognize the many (many!) signs of California’s earthquake-affected geography, and I do remember the jumpy, weak-kneed feeling that I experienced during the 1989 quake.
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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.21.2006 :: Shows :: Comments Off

From SFGate: Parcels near 2 of his homes about to be sold

A coalition of neighbors who live in the sprawling homes that surround the land, along with environmentalists and Adams admirers has formed in hopes of preserving the property and one day turning it into the Ansel Adams Grove — a place where visitors could stroll, see the homes, be surrounded by the nature that inspired Adams and visit a monument that pays tribute to the native San Franciscan who many have no idea ever stepped foot in the city.

“Nobody knows he’s from San Francisco,” said Tom McAfee, a neighbor who is leading the charge to have the land preserved as open space. “There’s no memorial anywhere. There’s no designation … most people figure he was probably born in Yosemite or New Mexico.”

But their dream to dedicate the land to Adams may be just that.

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G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.20.2006 :: News :: Comments Off