MMVIEWS.COM
The
photography of Mitch Mitchell
About
the Photographer
I'm a true armature photographer; that means I take pictures just because I enjoy it! Photography has been my
primary hobby since 1980 when my college
roommate sold me his old Olympus OM-1 SLR camera. I briefly
experimented with using photography as a business but found that took
all the enjoyment out of it. Still, I worked in photo labs for 15 years where I got to meet some of the best
photographers and artists in California and learned a lot. At
the last lab I worked at, I studied under a brilliant retoucher who
showed me lot of technical secrets to "recreating" portions of an
image. I stared using digital cameras around 1997 and purchased my
first DSR in 2002. I started learning Photoshop techniques
using the skills I had learned in the photo lab business and what I had
learned from other great photographers like Jay Jones. I
don't shoot people as a rule. My favorite photography
(obviously) are the images that I take on vacations. My motto
is, "Travel is a good excuse to take pictures and taking pictures is a
good excuse to travel."
About the Images
Although
I do still have a large collection of slides and negatives from
1980-2000, I have yet to digitize more than a handful. All
the
images on both this site and the Luminary.net are from digital cameras,
mostly Canon DSLRs. I now shoot nearly 100% of all images in
RAW format and post process them so as to have complete control over
color, density, contrast and digital noise. This is analogous
to using a negative and a custom darkroom to do printing as opposed to just
taking the film to a 1-hour photo lab. I typically shoot any
given picture several times, varying the angel, F-stop and exposure so that I
can choose the best one. Each frame then gets reviewed and processed
in a RAW program. That's followed by making adjustments and final crop in a image
editor where they can also be printed. Last, I using a gallery creator program to produce the web pages.
In the case of the galleries from Oct 08 the post processing probably
took around 100 hours (I wasn't actually counting) including some custom enlargements.
About the Hardware and
Software
I own several cameras and lenses. My DSLRs are Canon brand as
are most of the lenses. I have found that spending more money
on the lenses has made a very significant improvement in the quality
oft the images I take and how big they can be enlarged. My
Canon L-series lenses have been worth the extra money that I
invested in them. I also have a Canon G9 which is a high end
point-and-shoot that includes the much needed RAW mode. I do
also shoot with a couple of point and shoot cameras, but those images
are more often of friends and events and don't usually end up in these
web galleries.
The photo software I use is Adobe Lightroom, and Corel PaintShop;
most images require both programs. I also have Adobe
Photoshop Elements as there is a very small number of images that come
out better in the program. The web gallery design program I
use us Jalbum; a freeware program that was well worth making a donation
to support; I haven't seen a retail software that does better.
I also use KompoZer for editing minor details and layout;
also a freeware program. I create, maintain and update all my own
domains. I use Filezilla for uploading. The panorama
stitching program I am now using is Panorama Factory; I'm very
satisfied with it's ease and flexibility. I also own an Epson
R-1800 printer
that can handle up to 13x19 inches. This is a semi-pro
printer that handles landscape images well, but isn't quite as good as
other printers for skin tones. I rarely print over
8 1/2x11, but do manage an occasional 11x17 or 13x19 from some of the
better images. All my prints are for myself, family or gifts
to a few friends. I don't sell any prints.
Other galleries
I also own THELUMIARY.NET.
I have several galleries up at that site.
You can email me at this address
All images are taken by and copy write Mitch Mitchell. A very
large amount of time, effort and money goes into creating these
galleries. Please do not copy, print or otherwise distribute my
images without my express permission..
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