Category Archives: Photographs: Pandemia

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Masked Women

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Masked Women
Two masked women in conversation during the December 2021 Omicron surge, Manhattan

Masked Women. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two masked women in conversation during the December 2021 Omicron surge, Manhattan

Back in mid-December the pandemic surged again with the arrival of the omicron variant in the United States. Just when we (at least those of use who are triple-vaccinated) thought things were beginning to ease up, case numbers skyrocketed. We had made plans for a holiday visit to New York City, and as we watched the evolving news stories we wondered whether or not to go. In the end, while the “right” answer remained unclear, we decided to take extra precautions and continue with our plans… and embarked on a weeklong visit just before Christmas.

We love New York. We like the crowds and the energy, dropping into restaurants, visiting museums, walking through the parks, and all the rest of the Manhattan experience. It helps that two of our “kids” and their spouses live there. (They were our main reason for the trip.) Beginning with the carefully masked airline travel, much of this trip was unlike any New York visit we’ve made in the past. By the time we arrived, the city was in the grip of the omicron surge. The streets (at least by Manhattan standards) were nearly empty. The few restaurant meals we indulged in were at cold outdoor tables. Almost everyone was masked. These two women are perhaps emblematic of the experience — outdoors on a cold winter day, sitting masked in the open air on a bench for a few moments of conversation.

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

Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fence and Gate

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Fence and Gate
A gate in a fence along a trail, photographed on a neighborhood walk.

Fence and Gate. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gate in a fence along a trail, photographed on a neighborhood walk.

As I have shared in the past, during the pandemic I have cut way back on longer photographic outings, which sadly means less time in places like the Sierra Nevada and similar. (I still go to those places — carefully! — but much less frequently.) On the other hand, initially to compensate but now because it has become habitual, I’m doing a lot of walking in a radius of a few miles around our home. Walks are very close to daily events, and they vary between a couple of miles and up to occasionally as much as eight miles. Among other benefits, these walks open my eyes to local features that I would otherwise overlook. (I have informally referred to the resulting photographs as “postcards from Pandemia.”)

This photo comes from one such recent walk. The subject is simply a gate in a fence along a trail that I probably walk two or three times each week. After months of walking past this, for some reason the gate caught my attention this time. I’ve gone with a black and white rendition here — I’m leaning towards focusing on monochrome for this series now — and a very dark interpretation of the subject. For a long time all of my photographs have tended to try to put more light into the scene. Don’t expect that to stop, however I’m also starting to consider how I can explore images that lean toward darker tones.

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.

Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Urban/Street

Green Wall, Autumn Leaves

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Green Wall, Autumn Leaves
Doorway, green wall, roll-up door, a pylon, and autumn leaves at an urban business.

Green Wall, Autumn Leaves. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Doorway, green wall, roll-up door, a pylon, and autumn leaves at an urban business.

This is a photograph I made on one of my long, almost-daily “pandemic walks” that circle out from my neighborhood to include everything from residential neighborhoods to light industrial areas and more. This building is along one of my common routes, and I probably pass by several times per week, usually without paying it much attention.

Scenes like this seem to me to contain more than might be immediately apparent. Objectively it is just a door in the side of a boring concrete industrial warehouse. But a few of the oddities attract me —‚ the brightly colored pylon, the oddly tilting yellow pole with its shadow pointing to the door, various geometries, and that wild green color.

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.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stage Door

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Stage Door
The edge of a shadow falls across a stage door.

Stage Door. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The edge of a shadow falls across a stage door.

This photograph qualifies as part of the “postcards from pandemic” group, as I made it while on one of the long local walks that I’ve been taking in and around my neighborhood since the lock-downs began six months ago. Yes, it has been that long. The good news is that if all goes according to plan we might be almost half way to a vaccine and the beginning of a return to something like normalcy.

This photograph is also an example of something that afflicts most (though perhaps not quite all) photographers, namely an interest or even obsession with form, color, and various kinds of patterns, even when seen in mundane locations. This is a side door to a school theater — hardly an iconic subject! But as I walked past at just the right moment, the shadow diagonally bisected this very blue door, and the angles of shadows and stairways converged in interesting ways.

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.

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.