Category Archives: Photographs: San Francisco

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Preparing to Open

December 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning on a San Francisco street, as a man prepares a store for opening

This is another in my small series of photographs made on a recent two-day visit to San Francisco. Since we were there primarily to attend a couple of event musical performances, we had time during the day to combine general laziness with street photography and walks in the area. We weren’t up exactly at the crack of dawn — and then there was breakfast — but we were up and out on the street before things became very crowded.

From where we stayed, the walk down toward the Hayes Valley area near the opera house and symphony hall gradually evolved from a mostly urban residential to a mostly commercial area of shops and restaurants. This market was roughly at the midway point, where there were still residences (of the old style rather than newer condos) but there were also a few businesses, including this corner market, outside of which an employee was doing a quick clean up before, I presume, opening up for the day.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

From The Gallery Window

December 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A San Francisco street scene viewed from the window of a photography gallery

We came to this place more or less by chance. It was a somewhat lazy day for us — we had attended a concert the night before and stayed overnight near the venue. Since we had another concert coming up on the second evening we decided to not have any serious plans in the morning. We got up late and finally wandered down past City Hall, through a farmers market, and then headed down Market Street. At one point I happened to look across the street and see the sign for “SF Camerawork” above an unlikely looking storefront, so we walked across to take a look, noticed that it was scheduled to open in less than 10 minutes, and decided we would stick around and take a look.

It probably seems odd that I hadn’t ever visited before, especially since this organization has existed in the City for decades, but sometimes odd things happen. In any case, the door finally opened, we climbed the long and marrow stairway, and arrived to find them in the process if installing an upcoming show: Landmark: Yosemite Through The Lens of Contemporary Landscape Photography. Despite the unfinished state of the installation, they allowed us to poke around and see the work that was already hung. They had one of Jerry Uelsmann’s fantastical landscape, several of the Mark Klett & Byron Wolfe juxtapositions of classic photographs collaged with modern photos of the same locations, a few witty Ted Orland pieces, and more. The exhibition space itself is very nice — open and with good light — and at one point I wandered to one of the street-facing windows and took advantage of the upper story location to make a few photographs of the street below.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Restaurant Counter

December 16, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A work counter in a San Francisco restaurant

In early December we took a couple of days off and stayed in San Francisco. Usually we would simply drive there and back or take the train, but we had concerts to attend on two nights in a row and the thought of doing that drive up (in rush hour traffic) and back (at around midnight) twice in a row was enough to persuade us to simply find a place to stay. Of course this meant we had a lot more time to wander around the City with cameras and to more opportunities to grab a meal at some new place. This restaurant is very close to a location where we frequently attend concerts, but it was the first time we tried it. It is a casual place, but that was just right this time.

Typically one might not want to be this close to the food preparation areas (and the entrance to the kitchen) but in a tiny place like this that cannot be avoided. Plus it gave this photographer an opportunity to photograph things that are more interesting — to me anyway! — than the people sitting at nearby tables. (And less likely to get me kicked out than if I had started photographing other diners!) The photograph is also a reminder of how good — and even fun — it can be to always have a small camera along, even when your primary goal isn’t photography.

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

Hair, Bus, Sun

December 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street vignette in San Francisco

The camera is tilted. The guy is hanging off the edge of the frame. The sun is blown out in the center of the sky. It was underexposed. Darned bus appeared in the frame. That’s street photography, and I like it. There isn’t a whole lot to say about the photograph itself — or perhaps there is more to say that will fit into two paragraphs. The fellow caught my attention as we were walking along. As he passed, with the sun backlighting his wild hair, I had just enough time to squeeze off a shot without even raising the camera to my eyes.

Doing street photography reminds me of an important thing, namely the crucial role that several things play in photography, things that don’t often get quite enough attention among some photographers, especially those who tend to gravitate to landscape photography and who (with good reasons!) like to attend to the careful calculation of many aspects of picture-making. (Don’t worry, I like to take those things into consideration, too.) The things too often left unsaid have to do with the role of luck and with the importance of being able to respond very quickly, even intuitively, at times. We simply cannot control all aspects of a photograph. In a few situations — perhaps working in the studio with inanimate objects — we can come rather close, but in almost all other sorts of photography it is as much about finding a thing and then recording it in the best way possible during the time we have to work with it. Clearly, this photograph is highly reliant on things I could not control. But, honestly, the same could be said about wildlife photography, and even about many landscape photographs.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: San Francisco

Preparing to Open

From The Gallery Window

Restaurant Counter

Hair, Bus, Sun

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.