Dan's Outside

Visiting by Way of Two-Heel Drive?

Tom of Two-Heel Drive included this site in his blog roll earlier this week (Thanks, Tom!), so I’d like to welcome anyone visiting via his link. Since Tom pointed you here to see some photography, I’d like to give you a brief introduction.

I started this site primarily so that I could post photography of outdoor places I visit. You’ll find some recent photos below. However, this being a blog and all, the recent stuff scrolls of the page in a week or so. For this reason, you’ll want to check out the sidebar links on the right side of the page under Dan’s Outside Photography – there are hundreds of photographs there.

If you like the photographs, you may want to visit my main photography site, G Dan Mitchell | Photography, where I post a new photograph every day along with occasional commentary.

Thanks for visiting!
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August 3, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Visiting by Way of Two-Heel Drive?

Welcome to visitors from Yosemite Blog

Loyd at Yosemite Blog wrote a very nice link to one of the photos on this site. Thanks Loyd… and welcome and hello to visitors to this site who came via his link.

Scroll down to see recently posted photos and stories here. Check out links in the sidebar for many more photographs.

My real photography site is G Dan Mitchell | Photography, so wander on over there if you get a chance. I post a new photo (nearly) every day at that site.

You’ll find lots of photos of Tuolumne, Yosemite, the Sierra, and points beyond. You can subscribe to RSS feeds at both sites if you are interested.

– Dan
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July 29, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Welcome to visitors from Yosemite Blog

It's Warm Outside

From, somewhat ironically, Outside Magazine:

Iconic National Parks Endangered by Global Warming. New report highlights threats to 12 icons of the American West, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Death Valley, and Mount Rainier. [Outside Magazine Articles]

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July 26, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on It's Warm Outside

What? I wasn't the first? :-)

The black and white photo of Tenaya Lake I posted below no doubt looks a bit, uh, familiar – maybe because this spot has been photographed since the first people with cameras were there over 100 years ago. Oh, yes, and I hear some guy named Ansel took a nice shot there, too…

My friend Tom Clifton points to a picture he took from almost the same spot – I think you’ll enjoy it! (Thanks, Tom!)
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July 25, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on What? I wasn't the first? :-)

I've just gotta' say…

GO FLOYD!

C.W. Nevius at SFGate:

Thursday in the Alps a guy with a bum hip proved everyone wrong, including himself, with a wild chance that had no reason to succeed, and yet did beyond his wildest dreams. Over the next week he may win the Tour and then go straight to a hospital to have his hip removed and replaced with an apparatus made of space age material and incredible technology. Then he will attempt to ride in the Tour again.

That’s bike racing.

I’ll say!
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July 21, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on I've just gotta' say…

By the way…

… Happy first day of summer! :-)
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June 21, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on By the way…

Student still using my photography illegally

I thought I’d share an update on a story I posted a few days ago about a student who is illegally using my photography.

Travis Reed’s illegal adaptation of my photograph (see above) is still online. This is despite my initial very polite and, I think, sympathetic explanation to him of why I could not grant permission for this particular use, followed by several weeks of patiently waiting for him to remove the photo as he promised to do more than once.

While I appreciated his initial respectful request for permission to use the photograph (made after he had already posted it…), it is my impression that he had not considered what to if he did not get permission. At this point, I suspect that he may well have used the photo in his class project and probably gotten credit for it.

Frankly, if this turns out the be the case (and speaking as a college faculty member) there are serious ethical issues involved here that his teacher should consider. As a high school senior who is presumably moving on to college, Travis might wish to consider what the admissions office at his intended college/university might think about this. Travis attends Oakmont Regional High School in Ashburnham, MA.
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June 21, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Student still using my photography illegally

Thanks, Cutter!

I just discovered (5 months later!) a post at Cutter’s Blog that includes some very nice words about this web site and my photography – and I want to say Thanks!
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June 18, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Thanks, Cutter!

Complex Issue: A Student is Using One of My Photographs Without Permission

Last month a student at a high school on the east coast of the USA wrote to ask if he could use one of my photographs for a school project. His email was very respectful and I appreciated the fact that he was doing his job and asking for permission before – or so I assumed – making public use of the photograph.

In the past I have allowed students to make use of certain photographs depending upon the nature of the use and other factors. For example, a few months ago a student (in Australia, I believe) wrote to say that she was using one of my photographs for a class project. She wanted to know more about what I saw in the image and how I created it. We exchanged several emails and I gave her permission to use the photo for her project.

However, in this more recent case the student was using my photograph as the background for an animated cartoon figure chopping wood! Feeling that this was not exactly the most favorable presentation of my work, and knowing that he could certainly find other images that would be appropriate and available for unrestricted use, I wrote back and told him that regrettably I could not grant permission for this use. He wrote back and said he would remove the photo from his school web site when he got back to school on Monday. So far, so good.

Three weeks later the photo is still on the school web site as the background for the animation. I wrote again this weekend – politely – and told him that he does not have permission to use the image and that it must be taken down right away. He told me he would remove it “by the end of the week.”

Unfortunately, I feel like I’ve been had. He kept the image long enough – I presume – to get credit for his assignment. It has now come to the point where I had to write a pointed email including a deadline for removal of the image – and send copies to him and to the superintendent of instruction of his district.

And now, back to posting photographs…
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June 18, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Complex Issue: A Student is Using One of My Photographs Without Permission

Welcome

“Hello and welcome” to visitors arriving here from the sidebar of the article in the Washington Times about global warming skeptics. (“The Tempest“).

Not that I’m particularly sympathetic to the subjects of the article, obsessive skeptics of the evidence that global warming is an issue of concern. A quote:

“They sit in this ivory tower, playing around, and they don’t tell us if this is going to be a hot summer coming up. Why not? Because the models are no damn good!”

Well, no.

While the models are, well, models and, as such, cannot perfectly replicate reality, models certainly can be some “damn good.” Many of the skeptics’ arguments are, at their core, largely a recognition that the evidence from those who find compelling evidence of global warming are something short of absolutely perfect.

Unfortunately, I do have to agree with the following from the article:

The skeptics don’t have to win the argument, they just have to stay in the game, keep things stirred up and make sure the politicians don’t pass any laws that have dangerous climate change as a premise. They’re winning that battle. The Senate had hearings on climate change this spring but has put off action for now.

I am more hopeful that the tide is beginning to shift.
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June 14, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Welcome