Vacant Retail Space. San Jose, California. December 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
An empty retail space after being vacated by a departing tenant.
Switching gears from the natural to the constructed, this is a photograph of a large and very vacant retail space in San Jose, California – shot on a late-December walk in a part of the city not far from where I live. This was once the location of a very busy and popular retail establishment that got caught by the current economic problems and some changes in technology that put their business model at risk. Only a very few hints of the nature of the original business remain at this point. The facility has now been vacant for several months, and despite new construction nearby it does not yet show any sign of new occupants coming in.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Mark, thanks for you kind (and insightful) words and for recognizing the exposure complexity of that shot! Making it worse, I was out shooting with just a handheld camera and a single prime. I ended up bracketing since I knew that no exposure was going to get the shadows and a bit of detail in that very bright doorway – I knew I’d have some work to do in post.
I really enjoy trying to see photos in things that are, by all appearances, very mundane subjects. It is always gratifying when someone else “gets” what I’m trying to do – since not everyone who likes my landscape and nature work is sympathetic to this sort of urban stuff.
Dan
Once again, you have taken what should be a mundane scene and made it interesting. Also, GREAT exposure, you’ve captured the interior well, but also some detail from the very bright outside through the glass doors.
Nice job.