G Dan Mitchell Photography

About

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, the redwoods, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, street photography, and night photography.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

P.O. Box 8655
San Jose California 95155-8655
408-504-3266

[email protected] (or [email protected])

You may also use the contact form at the bottom of this page to send me a direct email message.

Web Site

G Dan Mitchell | Photography – http://www.gdanmitchell.com/

Other

Find me on:

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• LinkedIn

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Dan Mitchell. Mission Peak. November 23, 2006. © Copyright Tom Clifton. Used by permission.

Among other things I use this site to post “photographs of the day,” along with information and observations about the photos. I have been doing so for several years as a sort of “assignment to myself,” since the process encourages me to shoot more often and to seek out images in my archives that I may have overlooked. Practice may or may not make perfect, but it does help.

All photographs and text are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved unless otherwise explicitly indicated. My photographs have not been placed in the public domain, and any use requires advance permission. Many images may be purchased as prints and/or may be licensed for other uses with permission. See the Purchasing Photographs page for more information.

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Photography and Me

I can’t tell you what year I first used a camera, but I’m sure it was in elementary school. My father was a professor of instructional technology and a talented and dedicated amateur photographer. He had camera gear (including a big old Graflex) and a darkroom he would set up in the bathroom. He taught me to print black and white and he gave me a lot good advice that I probably didn’t appreciate nearly enough at the time.

By the time I was in high school I shot a lot of black and white, developing the film myself and printing at home or using the equipment in school darkroom. I now look back at a very large black and white image of some oak trees from that era which appears on the inside of the cover of  my high school yearbook… and recognize that I was already “seeing” in some of the same ways that I do today. I believe that I acquired my first SLR around this time. By the time I was in my mid-twenties I had acquired a couple of Pentax 35mm cameras (MX and ME) along with a small set of lenses that I used a great deal on backpacking trips.

As time went on I began to feel that the camera gear was interfering with my backcountry experience, and the latter became more important to me than the former. Eventually I stopped carrying the Pentax cameras and extra lenses and “slipped” to the point that I was carrying only a small Olympus Zoom camera and mostly just recording my experience, as opposed to making photographs. I continued to spend a lot of time in the backcountry, but at that point in my life I felt unburdened when I left the camera gear at home. Ah, well…

Then came digital photography. I was doing digital quite early, initially using some cameras that seem remarkably crude by today’s stands, such as the early Apple “Quicktake” camera. I could make lots of photographs and quickly see and edit them, learning quickly from the process, and I could share pictures on the web. All of this rekindled my interest in photography.

Ultimately I learned that digital cameras and digital post-processing (e.g.  – the “digital darkroom”) provide the means for creating very, very fine photographic images and prints. I am absolutely certain that many great photographic masters of the past would have embraced this equipment and these techniques wholeheartedly. I know that many of today’s masters do.

Dan Mitchell. Point Lobos. December 27, 2005. © Copyright Jameson Mitchell.

Disclaimer

The information I post at this site should be regarded as representing only my own personal experience and opinions, and I cannot guarantee that your experience will be the same or that information I post is always accurate, up to date, or the best available. I urge you to seek out a variety of competent and expert opinions and information, especially including that from the manufacturers of products you use or may consider buying.

Note about product reviews and commercial links

As of this writing, I have never been compensated by a vendor for reviewing or writing about their product or for recommending their service.

This web site displays advertisements from affiliate vendors and manufacturers. When site visitors make purchases by clicking on these links I may receive a small payment based on a percentage of the purchase price or some other formula. Your purchases through these links help support the blog – and I’m grateful for that!

Finally, the real me, photographed by my brother, Pacific Northwest photographer Richard Mitchell:

Contact Form – Please fill out this form to send me an email message.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.