G Dan Mitchell Photography

I spent last week in New York City doing a variety of things: photographing a couple nights of “Così fan tutte: Some Assembly Required,” exploring museums, eating a lot of wonderful food, visiting family, taking a personal tour of the B&H “superstore,” getting lost on the subway, and more. It has been a decade since I’ve been there, and this was my first chance to try to do photography in NYC. As many of you know, that is an almost overwhelming endeavor – there so much to see and do there that it is barely possible to skim the surface of the possibilities. But I tried. And some of the photographs will begin to appear here very soon.

G Dan Mitchell :: Aug.22.2010 :: Commentary, Locations, News, Site News :: No Comments »

Earlier today I posted (elsewhere) a photograph of an interesting, unusual, and perhaps somewhat fragile natural bridge located in a part of California that I frequently visit. Although I did not give directions to the feature or even narrow down its location within less than perhaps a 25 mile radius, shortly after posting the image a person replied… and included a photograph of someone standing on top of the bridge.

Sheesh.

I’m astonished at the self-centered behavior of some visitors to the wild world. They apparently don’t realize that their momentary thrill risks the very ability of later visitors to experience the thing that drew them there. Why in the world a person would go to all the trouble to find and visit these sometimes remote sites and then show little respect for them is beyond me.

I was brought immediately back to a conversation I had with my friend Mike earlier this summer. Mike is a retired national park ranger who has a deep love for wild places. He had expressed concern and reservations about the clarity with which I sometimes described the locations of my photographs. Mike’s concerns were several, but among them was the worry that too much information shared with too many people who have too little invested in the protection of these places might endanger them. At first I wondered how my little web site could have any significant impact, but after checking into some internet statistics I began to see that a fair number of people might be reading my descriptions.

The particular feature that I’m thinking of today is a delicate and rare natural arch in a place where such features are not common. Although it seems like a sturdy thing, being made of rock, it is actually quite fragile in the geological sense. There are cracks in the arch at both ends, and any time a person adds his/her weight to the structure stresses are created that can only hasten its eventual collapse.

But people do such things. I’m more inclined than ever to refrain from offering specifics about many of these locations, especially those that are potentially subject to visits by too many people and/or that are by their nature fragile.

G Dan Mitchell :: Aug.11.2010 :: Commentary, Ideas, News :: 9 Comments »

Michael Frye has announced at his new blog that he will be doing a weekly online photo critique. As I understand, it works like this: Readers can submit their photographs. Once a week Michael will select one and offer a detailed critique of the image, and discussion and reader participation will follow. You can read more at the link to the critique announcement above.

This sounds like a great opportunity for all, and Michael is to be commended for his generosity. (He is also to be commended for his recent embrace of online media!) Every participant to submits an image will gain from his or her own careful consideration of their own images, the selected photographer will get feedback by a fine and highly regarded photographer, and we’ll all benefit from reading and participating in the critiques. I’m very much looking forward to this!

G Dan Mitchell :: Jan.16.2010 :: Commentary, Community, News, Workshops :: No Comments »

I was recently interviewed by Rachel at the Induro Blog, and the interview is now online there along with a selection of some of my photographs. Even those of you who follow my blog may learn a new thing or two about me and my photography!

(For those who may not already know, Induro manufactures and distributes a range of excellent monopods, tripods, heads, and accessories. I’ve used their C313 tripod for several years now.)

G Dan Mitchell :: Dec.10.2009 :: News :: 2 Comments »

I see that the Ansel Adams Gallery has scheduled a couple of interesting winter season workshops.

• Digital Printing and the Zone System With Michael Frye on January 19-23, 2010 – Michael Frye is both a well-known and highly-regarded photographer of Yosemite and other subjects and the author of the well-known guide book to photographing in the Valley.
• Winter Light II With Keith Walklet on February 17-22, 2010. Walklet is a long-time Yosemite Park photographer whose experience and knowledge is extraordinary. (As I write this I have an mental image of him disappearing over a far ridge above upper Cathedral Lake last summer as he headed out to photograph some high, austere terrain.)

Both workshops take place during the beautiful winter season in the Valley and those trying to get “their shot” of Horsetail Fall may have a chance during Keith’s workshop in mid-late February.

G Dan Mitchell :: Nov.29.2009 :: News, Workshops :: No Comments »

A while back I posted about serious problems with the Epson 2200 printer when used with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6.x “Snow Leopard” operating system. I won’t recount the whole story here (that’s what links are for!) but the short version is that Epson had not updated their drivers when Apple released the OS update, and then Epson failed to communicate with their customers or update the drivers in a timely fashion – leaving photographers who used several of their printers including the 2200 “high and dry.”

The good news is that Epson did release updated drivers during the past week. The updated driver appears to resolve the very serious printing problems that rendered the 2200 essentially unusable for several months.

G Dan Mitchell :: Nov.28.2009 :: Equipment, News, Software :: 5 Comments »

So, you like landscape photography, right? And you are aware that some of the most beautiful photographic subjects can be found in the back-country of California’s Yosemite National Park, right? And you very much enjoy looking through and absorbing the work of photographers who know the place especially well, right?

You need to pick up a copy of First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness, published by Heyday Press.

The book features the wonderful photography of a group of photographers whose experience in the park is extraordinary and varied: Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne, and Keith S. Walklet. Right now copies of the book autographed by all five photographers are available from the Ansel Adams Gallery.

(For the record, I have no financial interest in this book and if you purchase through the links in my post I receive no compensation from the sale. I just like the book and the photographers a lot and think you might, too!)

G Dan Mitchell :: Oct.27.2009 :: Commentary, News, Photographers, Publications :: No Comments »