Tag Archives: against

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Mono Lake, Photographs: People, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Busker, Lisbon

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Busker, Lisbon
A street musician stands in front of a wall near the St. George Castle, Lisbon.

Busker, Lisbon. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A street musician stands in front of a wall near the St. George Castle, Lisbon.

As I have mentioned, we like to walk when visiting cities, and we did a lot of that when we were in Lisbon this summer. Like many European (and the centers of some American) cities, the place is really quite walkable, though we did deal with some hot temperatures… and, of course, the famous hills of this city. The hills figured in this photograph and some others I made on this morning. We decided to go to the area of the St. George Castle. (We did not go in the castle grounds — we explored nearby instead.) We walked… and we bypassed the tempting options to get driven up the hill. This was a lot more work, but we also saw a lot more than we would have if we let someone carry us up there!

We wandered various narrow streets in the upper areas of the hill where the castle is located. At one point I came upon this solo busker, setting up to perform in a place that seemed unlikely to see all that many tourists. It was kind of out of the way, against a wall where a road more or less ended — and, if I recall correctly, we were about the only people around. I slipped a few euros into his basket and make a few photographs, including this one.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky

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Three Ross's Geese, Blue Sky
Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky

Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 21, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three Ross’s geese directly overhead against blue morning sky

These Ross’s geese obligingly flew directly over head against a blue sky and in morning light… and, no, they did not drop any, uh, payload on me. (That has happened. It comes with the territory. Someone told me that somewhere in the world – Europe? – it is considered good luck to get “bombed” by a goose. I could write much more on this topic, but I’ll restrain myself. You may thank me later! ;-)

In any case…a difficulty when shooting birds passing overhead is that the light source is often higher than the bird, thus putting the parts of the bird facing the camera into shadow. But in very early or very late light – near sunrise or sunset – the sun is so low that it can cast light on the undersides of the birds, as in this photograph. When shooting this critters as they pass overhead in flight, while I can and do think about their positions in the frame and relative to one another, in the end I have to take what the birds give me. There is a lot that I cannot control about this kind of photography. It comes down to being observant, being able to work quickly and intuitively, and a whole bunch of luck regarding the birds, the light, and the weather.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Yosemite

Two Trees Against Boulder, Ten Lakes Basin

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Two Trees Against Boulder, Ten Lakes Basin

Two Trees Against Boulder, Ten Lakes Basin. Yosemite National Park, California. August 25, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two small trees growing against the face of a large boulder in the Ten Lakes Basin, Yosemite National Park, California.

Earlier in the day I had wandered down from “lake three” to “lake two” in Ten Lakes Basin (where there are apparently actually seven lakes – go figure!). My goal was partly just to see one more of the lakes, but I also wanted to scope out some photographic possibilities during the day so that when I returned later in the evening I would be able to get to work more quickly. This pair of trees was on my “maybe” list, so when I returned in the evening I photographed the subjects on the “definite” list first and then turned my attention to a group of trees growing closely around a large glacial (I assume) boulder.

Whatever the aesthetic result, this was not an easy photo to do on a technical basis. Since it was late and the lake was in deep shade behind a large mountain ridge to the west there was not a lot of light to work with, and what light there was trended a bit strongly toward blue. On top of that the wind was blowing like crazy, making camera stability a bit of an issue – not to mention the problem of shooting waving tree branches with the long exposures the conditions required. In the end I resorted to a regular strategy that included making quite a few exposures, trying to time them for brief pauses in the wind, and being willing to accept a small amount of motion blur.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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