Sidewalk and Steel Plates San Francisco, California. July 12, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Patterned steel plates criss-cross a sidewalk in San Francisco, California.
This pattern caught my attention as I walked behind the Ferry Building toward the waterfront – the plates apparently cover underground utilities of some sort. The odd angles and the glow of the diffused light from overhead fog created interesting patterns and texture. At first I thought of keeping this as a color image, but in the end the colors were so soft and so close to monochromatic that I decided to go with this version.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/16, 1/125 second
keywords: san francisco, california, usa, north america, city, urban, sidewalk, driveway, cement, concrete, steel, texture, plate, reflection, glow, criss-cross, diagonal, minimalism, ferry, building, the, embarcadero, stock, abstract, black and white, monochrome
Thanks, Nancy! I went back and forth on this one in BW and color, as I do from time to time. The question was whether the very subtle colors of the original (which were very close to being monochrome) were interesting enough in their own right or whether putting it into black and white would focus more clearly on the texture/form subject.
In some cases I know when I make the exposure that the image is heading towards black and white. In this case, my recollection is that I thought there was a very good chance that it would end up in monochrome, but that I wasn’t totally committed to that idea at the time of exposure.
Dan
Nice capture of texture. I didn’t even notice that it was monochrome until I read your write up.
I got caught up in sand textures one dawn at a local beach. Pretty much the same situation – great lighting on some great texture. Pull my camera lens right in. http://inancy.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/shifting-sands/