Landscape photographer creates vibrant, memorable images

Bears typically come out of the bush, eat a little and then go back into the shelter of foliage to catch a few z’s. Mitchum had observed these bears’ routines for a couple of days and felt comfortable enough to move a little closer to squeeze off some shots when the bears re-emerged in a few hours from the bush.

But the mother bear apparently wasn’t sleepy and suddenly reappeared. Mitchum immediately realized he had made a huge mistake and froze in his tracks. The bear’s eyes simultaneously locked onto the advancing intruders, and within seconds she launched into a full charge toward Mitchum and his terrified party.

Fortunately, just as quickly as the charge began it ended with the bear grinding to a hammering halt within a few feet of the group. As Mitchum tells it, he could actually see the grizzly’s bloodshot eyes, punctuated by a very, very angry face.

Mitchum reacted, not by screaming in terror, but with a quiet and soothing voice in an attempt to reason with the bear. He told her he was sorry for invading her space. He pleaded with her not to attack him and his friends. He asked her to please go back to her cubs and return to the bush. They wouldn’t bother her anymore.

Surprisingly, the bear took his suggestions and slowly turned away and returned to her cubs. Mitchum and his friends also quickly retreated to safer ground, where they decided to call it a day. They had their photos and now a heck of a story to tell their grandchildren someday.

Mitchum shares this story and other adventures he’s experienced as a world-renowned landscape photographer at his Jeff Mitchum Gallery in Bellagio’s Pool Promenade. His large-format panoramic prints are saturated with vivid colors, depicting wilderness scenes from all over the world.

“Return from Sea,” for example, features a rusting 1800s Turkish freighter lodged on Israel’s coastline. It’s one of 18 prints from Mitchum’s “Israel Unveiled” collection that he spent 24 years shooting throughout Israel’s countryside. Smaller panoramic Israel landscape prints have been uniquely mounted in rusted iron bunker window frames the photographer unearthed from the desert of the infamous Israeli Six-Day War that took place 40 years ago.

Mitchum’s works depict picturesque and isolated regions of Yosemite National Park, coastal regions throughout California, desert sandstones from Arizona and countless other wilderness regions throughout the United States.

Mitchum is called the “Ansel Adams of Color.” He met Adams, his mentor, as a teenager while working as a dishwasher at the Tioago Pass Resort in Yosemite in the early 1970s. Back then, Mitchum was shooting on his days off with a little Brownie camera his father gave him. He stumbled across Adams in Cooks Meadows and immediately recognized the famous photographer.

“I was just a kid and trying to find out through my mistakes about taking pictures,” Mitchum remembers. “When I met Ansel, he was in full costume with his big hat and giving seminars in the meadows. He looked at my Brownie, what I was doing and said, ‘This works.’ ”

That’s when the young aspiring photographer knew he wanted to make photography his career, specifically landscape photography.

“There is something about making your own food and getting out in the wilderness,” Mitchum says of the adventure. “It takes a lot of planning. Today, you have to be part meteorologist, travel agent, survivalist and environmentalist. … I like the hiking. It (landscape photography) is the most difficult to shoot. I like the range of lighting because it’s not canned.”

To get the isolated wilderness shots he wants, Mitchum says he has to work hard at his craft. On one trip to Yosemite, for example, he hiked 17 miles into the mountains to an elevation of 7,000 feet. He did all this carrying 30 pounds of camera equipment, camping gear and food on his back. Being a triathlete — he competed in Hawaii’s Ironman Triathlon — has been a tremendous conditioning aid to his craft. He also is an avid runner.

Usually, when Mitchum treks into the wilderness, he spends on average two weeks patiently measuring the light and waiting for the right moment to snap the shutter of his film camera. He constantly follows weather patterns.

“You are never on the couch when there is bad weather,” Mitchum says of his hectic schedule. “The lighting is so good when chasing storms.”

One of the artist’s favorite photographs, though not a traditional landscape, is a photo he took and partially manipulated on the computer called “Origins.” The image depicts a night scene of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Seven phases of the moon are shown haloing the twisted metallic structure.

“I wanted to do something that was a metaphor for brain disease,” Mitchum remembers thinking in planning his photograph. “I decided on a moon with seven phases. Each phase represents a stage in Alzheimer’s disease, research, scientific commitment, fundraising and the family. The moon represents the evolution of the healing process in seven phases. Maybe we are only into two phases now. The full moon will be the eradication of brain disease.”

Since opening his only gallery at Bellagio in April 2011, Mitchum has rapidly gained a loyal following. Perry Dunn, a Canadian visiting the hotel at the time of the opening, hadn’t planned on purchasing anything, but ended up buying the “Third Day” photograph and one of Mitchum’s books.

“Jeff’s whole idea of nature and preserving it and how mankind can work in balance was inspiring,” Dunn says. “It seemed like Jeff always takes the time of day to talk to everybody. He treats you like family.”

Since his original purchase, Dunn has bought a second photograph and says he plans to buy another. Marge Becker of Las Vegas has yet to buy a print, but says she hopes to purchase one very soon.

“When you get to know Jeff, you see how much he cares and respects nature,” Becker says. “Jeff is spiritual and he has an eye for finding the perfect lighting and perfect time of the year. He is very sincere and an all-around good person.”

The Jeff Mitchum Gallery inside Bellagio is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit jeffmitchum.com or call 800-763-3074.