Mitchell "Mitch" Amundsen grew up in Larkspur in Marin County outside of San Francisco. During his high school years he became interested in still photography and studied film at the Montana State University in Bozeman. There, he took classes on motion pictures, which sparked his interest in cinematography.

In 1980, Mitch left the university to work for $100/week on the production of the Francis Ford Coppola film One from the Heart (1981), and his subsequent features, Rumble Fish (1983) and The Outsiders (1983), working as a production assistant. He worked his way up as a camera assistant, then a camera operator, and debuted as a cinematographer on the comedy The Country Bears (2002).

Mitch has continued to amass credits as a cinematographer working on tent-poles such as Transformers (2007), Wanted (2008) and Now You See Me (2013). In 2008, he was named one of Variety's "10 Cinematographers to Watch". Mitch lives with his wife in Mammoth Lakes, CA.