Category Archives: Photographs: New York City

Smile More

Smile More
A Manhattan street scene.

Smile More. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Manhattan street scene.

May I just say that I miss Manhattan? I really miss Mahattan. After a year of keeping my “social distance” from people, I would love nothing more than to be in the middle of a loud, busy, Manhattan street overcrowded with people, perhaps heading into some very small and crowded restaurant. We’re not there yet, but I’m starting to imagine a time when this will again be possible.

Oddly, this Manhattan photograph looks about as empty as one would expect during a pandemic, even though it was made on a normal New York day a few years ago. Perhaps it was the particular neighborhood or perhaps the time of day, but there was almost no one on the street when I made the photograph, aside from a young father who walked though the scene at one point with his child. “Smile more” says the sign.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Evening Fog, Pacific Ocean

Evening Fog, Pacific Ocean
Fog begins to appear near dusk along the Pacific Coast below San Francisco.

Evening Fog, Pacific Ocean. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog begins to appear near dusk along the Pacific Coast below San Francisco.

Today’s photograph is… quiet… and peaceful. While the world at large is never completely that way, I suppose that the intensity of the craziness has been dialed back at least a bit during the last week or so, and I’m glad for that.

I’ve long had a fondness for this “big landscape with horizon” photographs that don’t really feature any single, central element. Instead they hope to evoke the experience of being quietly in such a place and slowly taking all of that in. The lack of an identifiable primary visual focus is perhaps even the point. I had headed over the hills to the closest section of the coast on this spring day, and as dusk came on the fog gradually began to appear again above the quiet sea.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

A Sidewalk Vignette

A Sidewalk Vignette
A passing moment along a Manhattan sidewalk

A Sidewalk Vignette. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A passing moment along a Manhattan sidewalk

This is just one of those fun instants that you come across in the urban environment, and which I notice more when I’m carrying a camera and making pictures. Most everything in this frame is more or less exactly what you might expect to find on a Manhattan sidewalk. Except for one thing — the child in her winter jacket, bent over with pleasure about something that is outside of the frame.

I miss New York about now, even more because the prospects of going there soon do not look too good… and because we have two sons and two daughters-in-law who live in that city. What I would give right now to take a stroll down a crowded Arthur Ave with them, or sit in a crowded restaurant, or even — seriously — take the subway somewhere. Maybe a year from now?


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Christmas Day, Central Park

Christmas Day, Central Park
Visitors congregate in Manhattan’s Central Park on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day, Central Park. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors congregate in Manhattan’s Central Park on Christmas Day.

As I have previously written, we spent a week in Manhattan right around Christmas and New Year’s Day, mainly with family visiting in mind but also, of course, to see Manhattan and other parts of New York City. We have visited during this season many times, and we’ve seen quite varied weather. The time before this we experienced recording-breaking cols, but this time the weather was hardly cold at all — the light and atmosphere looked winter-like, but temperatures were 20 or 30 degrees above what we experienced on that earlier visit.

On Christmas Day we took a long walk up the east side of Central Park, then crossed it before heading back down the west side. To no one’s surprise — this being Manhattan! — even on Christmas Day there were crowds everywhere. This large collection of people in Central Park may have been around a frozen pond, though the clear skies and sunlight took the edge off of the cold this time.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | FacebookEmail

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.