Tag Archives: photograph

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes

Imaginary Landscape — Rocks

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Imaginary Landscape — Rocks
“Imaginary Landscape — Rocks” — An abstraction from a photograph of colorful shoreline rocks.

I decided to experiment a bit with this image. What is a photograph, anyway? No photograph is “real” and every photograph offers only a limited and incomplete view of its subject. This image begins as a photograph of some rocks. (The original image appeared at this website previously.) A very close look might reveal the underlying subject, though it is not easy to see. But I had an urge to use it as a starting point for experimentation.

From time to time I have played with altering photographic images more than usual, partly as a way to develop my “chops” and partly because, well, this fascinates me. The immediate inspiration for this one was an online conversation a few days ago that considered how far a photograph can be “pushed.” Years ago I decided to refer to these experiments as “imaginary landscapes,” in part to acknowledge that they forego photographic realism.

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: Abstract, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature

Winter Landscape

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Winter Landscape
A California winter landscape photograph reduced to its compositional fundamentals.

Winter Landscape . © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A California winter landscape photograph reduced to its compositional fundamentals.

This photograph fits into a category I describe as “imaginary landscapes,” a type defined loosely by where it sits along the continuum between supposed representational reality and abstraction of landscape-derived materials. That might seem an overly-wordy way to describe it, but I’m always cognizant of the fact that no landscape photograph is truly objective or fully “real” — all photographs and certainly all landscape photographs necessarily are subjective. This could be due to something as basic (and obvious!) as the fact that the photographer chose to point the camera at some specific thing (and not at other things). It includes equipment choices( length of lens, aperture, etc.), basic interpretive choices (color or black and white, and how to handle either of those), and much, much more. In my “imaginary landscape” photographs I think I’m simply making this stuff more plainly obvious.

This one also illustrates, I think, something that figures into the landscape (but not just landscape!) photographs of virtually every photographer that I know of — the photograph is not just about the ostensible subject of the image. For most photographers other things also appeal — the shapes of things, their colors (a huge topic, by the way), how the components fit together, how things may be suggested rather than declared, and more. Allow me to make a musical analogy here. There’s a famous (or infamous) piece by composer/philosopher John Cage called 4’33”. In it a performer, takes the stage in the manner of any classical performer, then sits in front of a (usually) piano silently for 4′ 33″. One way to look at this is to recognize that Cage gave us every element of a musical performance but the one we think is central, thus forcing us to think about all of those “other details” and their central role in our perception of music. A photograph with no details (“the horror!”) may work in a somewhat similar (though not quite identical) way. Or maybe you just like the colors? ;-)

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Commentary, Ideas, Thinking Aloud

Improving Your Odds: That’s Why They Call It “Exceptional”

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This is the first of what will be a series of articles looking at steps you can take to improve your chances of producing compelling photographs.

A recent stay in Yosemite Valley during my Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residency reminded me again that while many aspects of photography are out of our control, there are things we can do to increase the odds of success.

On this visit I had three late April spring days to photograph in the park, which mostly means “in Yosemite Valley” at this time of year when the high country is still snowed in. By non-photography standards, the Valley was beautiful — if a bit crowded.  The sun was out, the sky was blue, temperatures were comfortable, rivers were full of early snowmelt, the waterfalls were flowing, there were hints of green in the seasonal vegetation, and too many tourists were already showing up!

I did the usual things: I got up before dawn to find the early light. I stuck around until the last light faded. I returned to subjects that I knew from past experiences to be promising. I considered where the light would be at different times of day. I went looking for new subjects in likely places. I wandered. I kept my equipment with me at all times.  I made photographs, and some of them are even pretty good, but at times it was hard to “see” something special in these conditions.

What’s not to like, right? From a photographer’s point of view these are not ideal conditions for photography. As pleasant as nice weather is for hiking and camping and picnicking, it can be hard to find exceptional photographs in such everyday light. I and many of my fellow Sierra photographers prefer interesting and unusual conditions — precipitation, broken light, mist and clouds, some haze.

On the final morning I was up and heading into the Valley well before sunrise. The light was unspectacular, with thick overcast cutting off the morning light. But then I caught sight a bit more light in the east, and soon I saw some breaks in the clouds. Within fifteen minutes the conditions opened up and I was treated to an exceptional spectacle of light and clouds and landscape that lasted for several hours, during which I photographed continuously.  I made more interesting photographs during these few hours than during the rest of the visit.

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon
The morning sun breaks through clearing clouds above Merced Canyon

To state the obvious, “exceptional” and “unusual” conditions are not the norm. The blue-sky “blah” light is. If you show up on ten randomly selected days, nine of them are going to be, literally, unexceptional,  and if you are looking for something unusual and beyond-the-norm you aren’t likely to find it.

The basic lesson is simple: The more you are out there the more likely you’ll be out there for something great. Continue reading Improving Your Odds: That’s Why They Call It “Exceptional” →

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Pose

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The Pose
A woman stands on a sidewalk as a man and a woman photograph her and another talks on a phone

The Pose. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman stands on a sidewalk as a man and a woman photograph her and another talks on a phone

In many of my street photographs that include people, I am seeing some kind of momentary tableau — almost an arrangement that one might imagine and then pose the figures to produce it. These ephemeral arrangements constantly appear and disappear on the street, and I’m fascinated by the arrangements themselves and by the prices of trying to see them fast enough to make photographs.

This one was a bit more static than some — in fact I may have been the most active participant, as I more or less made this and a couple other photographs very quickly as I continued walking past. The primary interaction was between the young man sitting on the step with the camera and the woman with her back to my camera position. Another woman at right was making, with her smart phone, what may have been a documentation or informal photograph. To the left, leaning against a column, another woman seems unengaged with the main action, looking away and holding a cup of coffee.

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 and Amazon.
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