Category Archives: Photographs: Architecture

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building Facade, Reflections

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Building Facade, Reflections - The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.
The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.

Building Facade, Reflections. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.

I enjoy looking for reflections in large, glass-facade downtown buildings in San Francisco and other urban centers. I find the reflections fascinating, especially when they hold complete images of other buildings or sky, the way that they acquire various distortions, and when the reflections begin to visually merge with the image of the building itself.

I spotted this building as the train approached the Fourth and Townsend Caltrain Station in San Francisco, so by the time the train stopped I had figured out that I needed to wander on over to this spot to see if I could find a photograph. I made a bee-line for the general area of the building that I had seen, and I soon figured out who to put together an image that included a wide range of materials: the building itself, the interior spaces beyond the window glass, the reflections of sky and clouds, and more. I especially like the bits of orange reflection from a building behind my camera position.

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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Industry Noir

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Industry Noir - A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.
A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Industry Noir. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Given some of the other iconic and impressive things that may be photographed at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, this is sort of a normal looking scene. However, as one who has photographed there quite a bit at night, somehow it seems to capture – for me, anyway – something about the way the place feels. Wandering about among very old, very abandoned, and very dilapidated old structures in the quiet of the night, sometimes things can feel just a bit strange, and a glow from inside a window on the second story of a building or the reflection of a soft interior light can sort of make you wonder just a bit.

To be honest, I’m rarely scared or nervous when shooting there. For the most part the experience is a very quiet, slow, and contemplative one. But I recall one night that was a bit different. I had arrived early – before the sun set – and had met up with a group of fellow night photographers. They had some plans to shoot in a particular area, but I really wanted to shoot something else at first. So I told them to go ahead and start and that I would find them a bit later after shooting my first subject. Finishing with that work a half hour or so later I headed off in the direction they had gone, stopping to make more photographs along the way. But I never saw them again. I continued shooting along, wandering along deserted old streets and up alleys behind abandoned buildings. Finally at one point I suddenly became aware of being very alone in a very dark place and, for the first and only time at MINSY, I became nervous – and quickly packed up, returned to my car, and left. This photograph reminds me of that just a bit…

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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District

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Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District - Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof on a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington
Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof on a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington

Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof of a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington.

Yet another photograph from the early May photo walk I joined up with in the Fremont district of Seattle. A viaduct crosses the water high above this section of Seattle, and the structure more or less dominates portions of the view here. After shooting some of the buildings near where the photo walk began, I decided to head over towards this bridge and see what I could find to shoot there. I shot straight up at it from underneath, towards it from further away, along its length, and eventually made a few close-up photographs of details.

For this photograph I decided to create a more or less abstract juxtaposition of the underside of the bridge, almost straight overhead, and a bit of the underside of a building with a blue roof. Usually I might prefer to shoot such a thing from the tripod and perhaps even combine multiple exposures in post as a way of dealing with the wide dynamic range, but this time I simply composed the shot handheld and made a single exposure. Well, actually I made two slightly different versions, but still. :-)

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man Crossing Bridge

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Man Crossing Bridge - A man crossing a bridge in the China Basin area of San Francisco, California.
A man crossing a bridge in the China Basin area of San Francisco, California.

Man Crossing Bridge. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man crossing a bridge in the China Basin area of San Francisco, California.

Two bridges crossing the inlet that passes AT&T Park (including “McCovey Cove”) are visible in this photograph. I’m not enough of a historian to have really researched these bridges, though I think that both are or were draw bridges and that at least the far one dates to the early twentieth-century. They are interesting anachronisms in areas that are now quite different from when the bridges were built – much of the surrounding area is not filled with new office and apartment/condominium buildings (one of which is barely seen along the waterfront at the far left) and often crowded with people attending San Francisco Giants games.

As I often do when photographing certain subjects, I began here by trying to create a composition that just included the structure of the bridge, especially with the pattern of the metal grate the forms the roadway here. Then I noticed that a pedestrian was approaching, so I thought I’d see if he might end up in interesting places within the composition. My original idea was to make the exposure before he reached the spot where his is located in this frame, but at the exact right moment a car crossed the bridge in front of him!

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.