Two Ships, Two Gulls, and Ferry Dock. San Francisco, California. May 9, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Black and white photograph of a scene on the San Francisco Bay waterfront including two ships, two gulls, and a ferry dock.
This photograph is not in the public domain. All use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
keywords: California, San Francisco, Spring, bay, water, waterfront, ferry, dock, pier, landing, structure, two, gulls, sea, seagulls, reflection, sun, light, ships, boats, scenic, landscape, urban, AT&T, park, giants, stadium, stock, black and white, morning
Interesting. I also started in a basement darkroom – really a closet, that my father, brother and I built. It was about 10×3 and no running water, but I spent hours upon hours there developing my own Tri-X and Plus-X and printing 5×7 and 8×10 prints. I think it emphasizes composition, in part, because you do it twice – once in the camera, and again when you print, with the enlarger. Watching that image form on the paper under a safelight is something sweet, and I miss it sometimes when I’m just on a computer. I’ve been talking about setting one up again, I still have the enlarger, so it wouldn’t cost much, and it would be nice to not have to send my film away. Some guy named, “Ansel”…you crack me up ;-)
Hi Rob:
I did start with black and white… a long time ago. :-)
When I was a kid, my dad was something of a photographer. I don’t think I realized at the time how much he was “into” it, but he owned a number of interesting cameras and he did his own processing a printing in the “bathroom converted to a darkroom.” Each of us kids started with a pretty basic little film camera, but as we got older he let us use his cameras, and he taught us to print. He even took me to a lecture by some guy who did landscape photography and printed black and white once… I think his name was “Ansel” or something… ;-)
Even though most of my photographs today are initially conceived in color (though not all) I often find myself drawn to black and white. I think that the attraction for form may well be a part of the reason.
Dan
Nice use of the natural elements here to create a perfect composition. Did you start by shooting b&w Dan – because your sense of composition is really nice, and I find people who were trained in b&w tend to have this strength.