Category Archives: Photographs: Night

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Outside The Vesuvio Cafe

Image November 8, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The end of Daylight Savings Time — which I look forward to every year! — opens up additional night opportunities for me, especially with it comes to night street photography. I live close enough to San Francisco that I can get there and back by rail, which is often a better option than driving, provided that I can return before it gets too late. Now that the sun is setting at close to 5:00 PM I have time to photograph twilight and early darkness — typically the best time for this sort of photography — and still catch a reasonably early train.

This week I took advantage of this change for the first time this fall, arriving inThe City to in the early afternoon, photographing for a few hours in (fog-muted) daylight, and then sticking around as day changed to night. Photographing in such a location is almost visually overwhelming. There are details everywhere — people, shops, passing traffic, buildings, and more — and it can be hard to make visual sense out of them. Everything is in a constant state of motion, so there is often little time to carefully consider a photograph. Instead, I operate by instinct, working quickly and knowing that only a small percentage of exposures will be worthwhile. As I walked up toward the North Beach area I looked up an alley and spotted this fellow standing alone in this graffiti-covered alley as the artificial lighting began to supplant the natural light.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night

Mono Moonrise

Image October 22, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The light of the rising full moon reflected on the surface of Mono Lake.

This is another of the autumn photographs that isn’t really an autumn photograph, except perhaps by extension. I was in the eastern Sierra for about eight days in the first part of October, primarily to chase the fall aspen color. But that most certainly is not the only thing worth seeing in and around the Sierra at this time of the year. The night before we had watched the moon rise well after dark and speculated about when (and precisely where) the full moon would rise the next night. We did not have any authorities to consult, so we made a good guess that it would probably rise just after sunset, which still provides enough ambient light to illuminate the landscape a bit and to reduce the contrast between the bright moon and its relatively darker surroundings. As sunset approached we left the place where we had been photographing aspens and I pulled over at a likely spot… which turned out to be almost precisely the right place to be.

We looked up just in time to see the first sliver of the moon emerge above the small peak barely visible at the left end of the ridge beyond the lake. We were set up and ready to go by the time it cleared the ridge, and we spent the next few minutes continuing to photograph as the moon rose, the surroundings darkened, and the reflection on Mono Lake become more prominent.

Special Announcement: Sharing this night photograph of mine is timely, as later this week I and my colleagues from Studio Nocturne SF, a collective of Bay Area night photographers, are offering an “Open Studio” as part of annual the San Francisco ArtSpan event in The City. We are showing our work at Big Daddy’s Antiques, 1550 17th Street on the following schedule:

Friday: October 25, 6:30PM-9:00PM — Artist Reception
Saturday, October 26: 11:00AM-6:00PM — Open Studio
Sunday, October 27: 11:00AM-6:00PM — Open Studio

All three events are free and open to the public. If you are in the Bay Area, please drop in and say “hi,” enjoy our photography, talk with us about our work, and acquire a photograph for your collection.

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 | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Night Cyclist, Florence

Image August 1, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The curve of this narrow street, with its backwards “HOTEL” sign, turned out to be a productive spot for photography during our 2016 visit to Florence. Florence is a popular and crowded place during the tourist season, but very early in the morning and late and night the crowds thin and it is possible to find empty and near-empty streets.

Imagine it is a very hot Italian evening. People are out walking in the narrow streets, stopping to get something to eat or drink, and sitting in the warm outdoor air. It is not deserted by any means, but things are slowing down and most streets, especially those away from the main points of tourist interest, are quiet. A cyclist emerges from around the curve and passes by, and it is quiet again.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (Click the title to see the full article and to comment if you are viewing it on the home page.)

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bar Vittorio Emanuele

Image July 19, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People gathering in Bologna on a warm summer evening.

A few years back we drove from Heidelberg to Florence and then into the Tuscany hills where we stayed for more than a week. The drive took a few days, with the first night spent in Munich and the second in Bologna. (Florence wasn’t that much farther than Bologna, but we wanted to visit.) Our arrival was a very strange and even uncomfortable experience. We came into town in the evening, finding the area we were in mostly deserted. We eventually found a place to leave our car and set out to find our “hotel” rooms. That was a strange and complicated story that would take to long to describe here.

We finally got our rooms and decided to head out. It was now dark, there were no street lights in the area, walls were covered profusely with graffiti, it was hot (as expected), and there seemed to be no one else outside. We finally found an open restaurant, got a table, and ate at the nearly deserted place, wondering what we’d gotten into. Then, a bit after 9:30PM, we started to see people. Over the next hour the crowds increased in size and by 10:00PM or so there were lots of people out and about, eating, drinking, hanging out… and enjoying the cooler evening temperatures.