Category Archives: Photographs: New York City

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Old Police Headquarters, Evening

Image February 20, 2020 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The dome of the Old Police Headquarters on a Manhattan winter evening.

This is another photograph from our long afternoon and evening walk from more or less Midtown down to Lower Manhattan along a route that kept us off many of the main streets and gave us a look at somewhat more intimate scenes along the way. All of the recent evening photographs that I have posted from Manhattan were made on this walk. (Eventually we ended up at Manhatta, on the 6oth floor of a building with stupendous views over the city and its surroundings.)

When I went to work on this photograph I realized that I had no idea what the dome-topped building is. By looking at photographs made just before and after this one, and by enlarging the image enough to (barely) make out the name on a street sign, I was eventually able to identify it on a digital map of Manhattan. Apparently it is, as the title states, the “Old Place Headquarters.” It is, at least from this angle, a pretty notable piece of old style architecture, especially with that impressive dome.

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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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Three Guys, Crosswalk

Image February 17, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three men crossing a Manhattan street, looking into the light.

One thing I like about photographing in New York City — or, for that matter, in any really busy urban area — is that challenge of picking subject out in the very dynamic environment. Once you tune it to it there are things happening all around you, often so fast that you barely have time to react… and you are absolutely certain to miss a good number of them. It requires a very different approach to photographing than one might use for, say, landscape photography. Not only that, but honing this alternative and fast approach, actually has benefits for other kinds of photography like, say, landscape photography!

There are so many potential angles that one can focus on when shooting street. It could be the people themselves. It might be the light. It may be color and texture. It could be compositional interest. Sometimes it is spontaneous relationships between elements that suddenly appear and this disappear. That was the case here. I already had the camera out and was photographing passing people when, for a brief instant, the three men in the cross walk glanced to the side at the same moment.

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Lady Liberty Of The Sidewalk

Image February 15, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A familiar statue in a perhaps-metaphorical location on a Manhattan sidewalk.

As I have described before, we like to walk when we visit New York… and by “walk” I mean that we only use the subway or other forms of Manhattan urban transportation if walking will do. As Manhattanites know, New York City is mostly a very walkable place, and it lots of circumstances it is the better way to get around. From our perspective, as visitors and as photographers, walking has even more pluses. I almost always have a camera out (attached via a wrist strap) or close at hand when I’m there, and I try to grab little quick vignette like this one while I’m on the move.

As with so many such photographs, there are many ways that you could consider this one. I would understand if you took a quick look and asked, “Why would Dan want to make a photograph of a scene like that?,” especially if you mostly think of me as someone who likes to photograph beautiful landscapes. This is not that!. If you like to look for meaning beyond the pure visual quality (which may actually reveal something about the visual quality that you would otherwise miss), I think there are quite a few possibilities here. Do you like metaphors? Have at it! :-)

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Manhattan Food Cart, Night

Image February 13, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People walking past or stopping at a Lower Manhattan food cart on a winter evening.

This photograph ties together several things that interest and fascinate me about photographing in the urban environment, particularly at night. One feature is how the night can transform subjects that would look quite different in the daytime — and now that modern cameras are good enough in very low light to permit us to do street photography at night we can more readily work with these transformed subjects. At night the light of cities, which some sometimes be almost as fascinating as state lighting, highlight particular aspects of the scene and can create a kind of mystery that isn’t there in the day time. After all, how much attention might you pay to a couple of people being a quick meal from a food cart during the day?

The initial subject here was the two individuals standing at the cart and placing an order with the fellow who works there. They are the center of the image for compositional reasons, for narrative reasons, and because they are in the light! But that reflective sidewalk is interesting to me, too, and having it broken up by passing figures makes it more so — and the two dark figures frame the central focus.

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