Category Archives: Photographs: Architecture

Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. New York, New York. August 15, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exterior detail of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

After traveling uptown to the general area of Columbia University for a breakfast visit to a bakery that had been recommended to us we wandered across the street to the grounds of this famous and imposing cathedral. We began in the sculpture building next to the church, and this photograph was made from that general area, taking advantage of the soft and diffused light of this overcast day.

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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Brooklyn Bridge Cables, Lower East Side Buildings

Brooklyn Bridge Cables, Lower East Side Buildings
Brooklyn Bridge Cables, Lower East Side Buildings

Brooklyn Bridge Cables, Lower East Side Buildings. New York, New York. August 19, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Buildings of the lower east side of Manhattan, seen through the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge.

My son kept suggesting a walk across – or at least on to – the Brooklyn Bridge, so when the weather finally cleared up on our last full day in New York City and we found ourselves wandering around Lower Manhattan near the entrance to the pedestrian walkway across the bridge, we really had no choice.

It is hard – perhaps impossible? – to make a truly new photograph of the bridge, at least for this first time photographer of this New York icon. I do have a few frames of the masses of cables ascending to the tower closest to Manhattan, a scene we’ve all seen before, and I probably won’t be able to resist posting at least one of them eventually

I have no idea whether or not a shot like this one is familiar to those who have seen more photos of the bridge than I have, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is a typical view. In any case, I was fascinated by the dense web of cables, the fact that they are much thinner than bridge cables that I’m familiar with, and the appearance of the many buildings along the east short of Manhattan Island both north and south of the bridge.

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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Portal, Wall, and Cable

Portal, Wall, and Cable
Portal, Wall, and Cable

Portal, Wall, and Cable. New York, New York. August 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Looking through a portal in a yellow wall towards a white wall beyond, lit by diffused light.

This is almost, but perhaps not quite, a “photograph of nothing.” As we walked through this New York City museum I was distracted by the way the light hit different surfaces, especially because the light was especially diffused on this cloudy morning – and I was intrigued by the juxtapositions of different colors and shapes and types of lighting that I could find as I moved through this space. This minimalist image consists of an open portal with what must be a safety cable along the bottom sill, with a large room with white walls beyond, and another similar portal and a corner breaking up the white walls near the left side of the image.

Ideally it would be best to shoot this from a tripod at low ISO and a long shutter speed and perhaps with a prime. However, here I had to improvise, shooting hand held at 1/20 second (yay for IS!) with a zoom lens that required some distortion correction in post.

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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.

Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain

Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain
Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain

Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain. New York, New York. August 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Diffused light from a cloudy sky casts a soft shadow across a wall with a faint stain.

This is perhaps a subtle photograph. Originally it was in color, but the colors were so subdued – almost invisible, actually – that I decided to go with this black and white rendition. This wall is in a New York museum and is located next to a window. It was overcast, so the light coming through the window was particularly soft and diffused. It wasn’t until I looked at this photograph in post that I realized that there is a “flaw” in the scene – the slightly darker stained area on the upper wall.

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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