G Dan Mitchell | Photography

Traveler, Seattle Airport. Seattle, Washington. January 4, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I pass through the Seattle airport a few times each year, and I always like to spend some time in this part of the main terminal watching for photographic subjects. The main feature of this structure is a curving “wall of windows” that can create some very interesting lighting when conditions are just right.

(keywords: woman; traveller; sit; bench; windows; clouds; stormy; sky; seattle; airport; seatac; washington; travel; black and white; street; photography, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.31.2008 :: Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: People :: No Comments »

Earlier I posted a panoramic photograph of the Seattle skyline shot at night from West Seattle. Just for fun, here is a small section from that image. Can you locate the original source?

Hint: if the full panorama were to be printed at this resolution its dimensions would be more than three feet tall and about fifteen feet wide! (And, no, I do not have a printer that is even close to printing at that size.)

While I’m on the subject, a bit more about getting this shot. I go to Seattle somewhat regularly, having a number of relatives living in the area, and I’ve come to enjoy photographing Seattle quite a bit. My son lives in downtown Seattle and knows far more about the area than I do, so I welcome his suggestions about interesting things to see and places to go.

He had mentioned that the view of the Seattle waterfront from West Seattle is stunning. I’d never been over there, though I’d seen the area from the air on approach to SeaTac. In any case, I had the idea of getting out there at night in the back of my mind during my last visit. One rainy evening I took him back to his place in the Capitol Hill area and - miracle of miracles! - the rain seemed to let up. I quickly decided to head over to West Seattle and see if I could find a place to do my photography.

Having no idea what the roads are like in West Seattle, I pretty quickly ended up in the wrong place - on a road heading across the area and away from the Seattle view. I finally just decided to take the next right turn and see where it would lead. After wandering around on a bunch of random streets I finally made it down to the waterline where there seemed to be some kind of park. I stopped, checked out my surroundings, grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod and went to work. The rain held off just long enough for me to grab a few panorama sequences, and a couple of them turned out quite well.

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.30.2008 :: Commentary, Technique :: No Comments »

Seattle Night Skyline Panorama. Seattle, Washington. January 2, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Photographed from the Puget Sound shoreline in west Seattle on a winter evening. This small version obviously does not show the high level of detail found in the original panorama, which was composed by stitching together a set of 12 megapixel digital exposures.

(Note: panoramas created this way possess an astounding level of detail and can be printed very large.)

keywords: seattle, downtown, skyline, skyscrapers, night, photography, color, time lapse, time exposure, lights, city, waterfront, puget sound, reflections, urban, metropolitan, washington, travel, pacific, northwest, scenic, stock, panorama

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.30.2008 :: Photographs: Night, Photographs: Pacific Northwest :: No Comments »

Street Scene, Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, Washington. January 3, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This seems like a typical downtown winter Seattle street scene to me: gray, wet but not pouring rain, people continuing about their business, and so forth. Photographed from the new Seattle Art Museum entrance.

(keywords: seattle; street; scene; urban; union; cars; neon; signs; blue; umbrella; rain; drizzle; wet, sidewalk; crosswalk; cars; lights; reflections; stop; washington; urban; downtown; metropolitan, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.29.2008 :: Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Urban :: No Comments »

Birds, Rocks, and Surf at Dusk. Point Lobos State Park, California. December 30, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

One more from the End of 2007 Point Lobos Series. That line of shore birds was very obliging to fly into the frame behind the rock so close to the horizon as if on cue. (I made several exposures of this scene, and I am starting to like another version better.)

(keywords: rock, surf, birds, waves, haze, point lobos, state park, california, seascape, ocean, pacific, coast, usa, scenic, travel, landscape, monterey, carmel, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.28.2008 :: Photographs: Ocean :: No Comments »

Back in college - and I’m not going to confess how long ago that was - I knew a talented keyboard player by the name of Charlie Cramer. It turns out that my wife and her family knew him as well from their church - and he even played organ at our wedding.

Yes, that Charles Cramer - the very talented and highly regarded landscape photographer. (If you don’t know his work, take a look at his web site. Even better, try to see some of his prints. His large scale prints are wonders of form and detail and color and really must be seen large to be appreciated.)

This week I finally had a chance to visit with Charlie. On a very rainy afternoon I drove over to his home and spent a couple hours in his studio talking about old times and about photography. Charlie is a warm and generous person, and I am grateful to him for sitting and talking with me - and for sharing some wonderful insights into photography and the tools of the trade. (Yes, Charlie, I’ve already applied “selecting smaller” and “to make it lighter, first you must make it darker” and I’ve now done “the thing that Ansel couldn’t do.”:-)

(By the way, I understand that Charlie does workshops and I hear that they are excellent.)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.27.2008 :: Photographers :: No Comments »

Pelican Flock, Dusk - Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Park, California. December 30, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

There will be a series of these during the next few weeks. At the end of 2007 on day I drove down to Point Lobos late in the day, arriving just before sunset, and spent an hour and a half photographing the rocks, the surf, the sunset, and the passing birds.

(keywords: flock, pelicans, birds, offshore, shore, shoreline, sunset, dusk, water, waves, reflections, pacific, ocean, seascape, landscape, scenic, travel, california, usa, monterey, peninsula, carmel, pacific coast highway, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.27.2008 :: Photographs: Ocean, Photographs: Wildlife :: No Comments »

Bird Rocks, Dusk. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. December 30, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Photographed in the last decent light on this late December evening, I was trying to capture the interesting color in the sky behind the small silhouettes of the birds on these offshore rocks. The long exposure created the misty effect on the water.

(keywords: birds, rocks, sunset, point lobos, state, preserve, reserve, park, california, surf, dusk, colorful, sky, time exposure, landscape, seascape, travel, scenic, outdoors, ocean, shore, pacific, monterey, peninsula, carmel, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.26.2008 :: Photographs: Ocean :: No Comments »

Pelican Sunset. Point Lobos, California. December 30, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

There I was, with a long lens on my camera to photograph something else, when I noticed the flocks of shorebirds flying along the coastline in the dusk light.

(keywords: pelicans, birds, shorebirds, flock, fly, flight, pacific, ocean, coast, sunset, dusk, evening, point lobos, state park, california, usa, carmel, monterey, peninsula, scenic, seascape, landscape, travel, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.25.2008 :: Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean :: No Comments »

Golden Hour on Lembert Dome - Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite National Park, California. July 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I like this photograph because it evokes the quiet and warmth of early evening summer light in the Sierra. This group of university students was bunched together on the summit of Lembert Dome above Yosemite National Park’s Tuolumne Meadows, quietly watching the sunset scene unfold.

(keywords: yosemite, tuolumne, meadows, lembert, dome, summit, hiking, outdoors, scenic, summer, travel, cathedral, peak, national park, california, usa, evening, golden hour, sunset, people, camping, scenic, landscape, stock)

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.24.2008 :: Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People :: No Comments »