Your Take contributor profile: Jeff Mitchum
World-renowned photographer Jeff Mitchum may have Las Vegas galleries under his belt, but he has just debuted on Your Take like thousands of other contributors.
One of Mitchum's recent contributions to Your Take features Range of Light — a photograph that was in the works for 20 years — in honor of mentor Ansel Adams' piece Monolith,The Face of Half Dome.
After keeping the vision locked in his memory, Mitchum devised his plan to capture the image, keeping close eye on the weather to plot a trip to Yosemite National Park. When the perfect time came, he survived the hike up Half Dome with his late friend Richie Copeland.
"It's like playing chess with nature, and it doesn't always say, 'I'm gonna dance for you tonight,' " Mitchum says. "But it's a romance."
Once Mitchum reached the "Diving Board," a rock in front of the face of Half-Dome where Adams shot Monolith, he set up the shot using his Phase IQ180 camera with a Hasselblad body and lenses. Then he released the shutter for 10 seconds to expose the light that lit up the Half Dome.
Mitchum says while he was shooting Range that he was mindful not to "step on Ansel's toes" — to be respectful in his own composition.
Now that the image is finally exposed, Mitchum has released only 25 artist's proofs, because he believes, "rare moments require rare prints." The Bellagio and MGM Grand galleries both installed Range of Light, but Mitchum has also shared the image with Your Take.
For aspiring photographers, Mitchum's advice for great photography is simple: "Get it right in the field."
Although he owns every camera system imaginable, Mitchum says it's important to "be focused on the creativity, the composition and what the camera can create instead of the software a man made."
To see more of Mitchum's Your Take submissions, visit his contributor profile here. You can learn more about his photography at jeffmitchum.com.
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