Category Archives: Photographs: Architecture

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fire Escape Ladder, Brick Building

September 22, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

On the final morning of our August (2011) visit to New York City, we took the subway down toward the lower end of the island to meet our son – the plan being to walk though Soho and (I think) the West Village, ending up at a gallery in Chelsea. After taking care of the most pressing bit of initial business – coffee – we wandered on through Soho… and I think this photograph was made there.

New Yorkers undoubtedly know exactly is going on with this light, but for the rest of the world… the morning sun was passing through a relatively narrow gap between buildings to strike this brick wall and partially pick off this green emergency exit zigzagging down the front of this building. In a lot of ways, this isn’t totally different from shooting natural landscapes – go out early, look for interesting subjects, find good light, make photographs. It isn’t totally the same – duh! – either. Not only can you walk here from coffee, but we (my son and I) shot without tripods, and I stuck to a single 50mm prime to keep things simple.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Driveway and Brick Homes

September 20, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Black and white photograph of a concrete driveway between tightly-spaced brick homes, New York City.

I’m actually not precisely sure where in Manhattan this scene is any more. We were walking somewhere towards Chelsea when we passed through a little neighborhood of brick homes, and I just happened to notice this little scene as we walked past. Aside from plastic trash receptacles with plastic liners and the air conditioners, I don’t think there is much in this scene to date it, which is one of the reasons that I chose to go with a black and white rendition.

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

Bridge, Olympic Sculpture Park

September 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bridge crosses railroad tracks at the Olympic Sculpture Park, Washington.

Back in 2008 I travelled to Seattle on mostly family business. I arrived a bit early and ended up spending some time wandering around the Olympic Sculpture Park, a place I enjoy both for the art and for the architecture and other features of this public space.

The bridge across the railroad tracks had interested me previously, but I’ve found it a difficult subject to photograph – somewhat surprisingly, since it seems to me like such an obvious thing to photograph. So in this image I more or less obscured most of the bridge itself, leaving not much more than the white vertical supports along its exterior and its overall shape and mass. I thought that the relationships between the texture of the metal bridge and the concrete underneath was interesting, as were some of the relationships between various shapes and angles. As I have done in a few other recent photographs, I played around with “pure” color and black and white renditions of the image – in the end deciding to sort of split the difference, thinking that a somewhat de-saturated color image might be most in line with my memory of the place and the scene on that winter day.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Doorway, Battery Spencer

September 9, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning sun on a doorway at historic Battery Spencer, Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The Marin Headlands area of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just across the bay from San Francisco, is full of old military installations that once guarded the entrance to San Francisco Bay. I’ve been intrigued by these facilities for some time, but my interest was sparked again after seeing the San Francisco Opera production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle earlier this year, in which some sets were inspired by these structures.

Battery Spencer is one of the most accessible of these sites, though in some ways it may be overlooked since many people simply walk through or past it on their way from the parking area to a very popular and spectacular viewpoint just above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. But in the right conditions of atmosphere and light this area can provide a lot of interesting photographic possibilities. This open doorway, lit my morning light, is along a passageway between a number of structures that are half buried in the hillside here.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.