Category Archives: Photographs: New York City

Driveway, The Cloisters, Winter

Driveway, The Cloisters, Winter
Driveway, The Cloisters, Winter

Driveway, The Cloisters, Winter. New York City. December 30, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The curving driveway at the Cloisters Museum, New York City

We were in New York City during the final week of 2013, visiting family and doing the usual New York things – which, for me, always includes visiting museums and making photographs. We had visited The Cloisters, now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art but far uptown, on a previous visit – but having not planned very well we arrived on a day when the place was closed! So we only were able to wander around the grounds outside and the surrounding park lands and then down into town below. This time we checked more carefully, and found that not only was it open but that we could use our Metropolitan of Art passes that we used the previous day.

It was a cold day, and when we got off of the long subway ride up from lower Manhattan we were a bit surprised by the wind blowing at Fort Tryon and we didn’t waste too much time in heading over to the museum. I recalled this curving, cobble stone driveway from our previous visit, when we walked up it to get to the front entrance. This time we came from the side and saw it from the top, curving away and toward the barren trees around the museum and cold scene of the city down below the hill in the distance.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.

Winter Trees, Central Park

Winter Trees, Central Park
Winter Trees, Central Park

Winter Trees, Central Park. New York, New York. December 28, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Low-angle late afternoon sun on winter trees casts shadows across Central Park lawns, New York City

For this photographer, New York provides a much wilder landscape than anything in the Sierra – though here “wild” may have a slightly different meaning. I like New York a lot, and I find the pace and density energizing, at least for a while. Most of the time, it provides an almost completely different sort of shooting for me (with only some of my San Francisco photographs being a bit similar in concept). I shoot entirely handheld, with a small camera, and almost entirely with a single prime lens. (Contrary to what you’ll here, a reason for shooting with the prime is that it requires less thought, since there are fewer options to consider, thus allowing me to work a lot faster.) I make many photographs, the great majority of which are not wonderful and which will never been seen by anyone else. But every so often something happens in front of the camera that is worth the search.

But this is not that kind of photograph. It was shot handheld and using that very same prime lens, but it is a landscape. On this afternoon in Central Park the winter sun was low in the sky, and beautiful light filtered through hazy sky. There were thousands of people out in the park, having a different sort of “outdoor experience” than I’m used to – not a solitary sort of thing at all. There was the usual assortment of pedicab and carriage rides, food stands, people walking dogs, bike riders and runners… and always beyond the winter-bare trees the skyline of tall buildings. In this corner of the park I found a place to point my camera towards some trees and into the low afternoon sun.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.

Dock Structures, Red Crane

Dock Structures, Red Crane - A red crane among extensive dock structures at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
A red crane among extensive dock structures at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

Dock Structures, Red Crane. New York, New York. August 19, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A red crane among extensive dock structures at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

I recently posted a photograph of a slightly different view of this subject in black and white, but I couldn’t give up the color of the red construction crane peeking over the wooden structure in the upper section of the scene. This is the extensive wooden construction around the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, photographed from one of the boats as it left on its run back to Manhattan. The photograph prompts me to wonder about at least one thing: Does someone actually walk that precarious plank extending over the water in the lower part of the frame!?

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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.

Dock Facilities, Staten Island Ferry

Dock Facilities, Staten Island Ferry - Pilings, piers, and other docking facilities for the Staten Island Ferry
Pilings, piers, and other docking facilities for the Staten Island Ferry

Dock Facilities, Staten Island Ferry. New York, New York. August 19, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pilings, piers, and other docking facilities for the Staten Island Ferry.

This is another of my Staten Island Ferry photographs from last summer. Although it may be a bit hard to see in this small jpg, I was impressed by the extensive wooden structures at the Staten Island end of the route at the ferry terminal. Pilings are placed about as close together as possible, and in densely packed rows. Beyond them, a walkway and wooden fence rises, and beyond that more similar structures. In front of all of that are several very dilapidated looking wooden structures that seem to me falling apart and almost useless… for whatever it is that they were designed for.

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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.