Category Archives: Photographs: San Francisco

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blow Horn and Pipes

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San Francisco - Hand painted sign and various pipes and valves on a concrete wall in San Francisco, California.
Hand painted sign and various pipes and valves on a concrete wall in San Francisco, California.

Blow Horn and Pipes. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hand painted sign and various pipes and valves on a concrete wall in San Francisco, California.

This is one of those odd little photographic vignettes you can find if you poke your nose into the right (or wrong) little alleys while wandering around in a city. I have passed this general area many times before, and had often notice fenced-off or gated small alleys extending along the sides of some of the buildings. I had even attempted to photograph through the fences, but without much success. However, for some reason – or else a fortunate coincidence – on this morning most or even all of the gates were open and I could wander down along the sides of these old buildings with their interesting and weathered textures and subjects.

This collection of “stuff” was next to a door that looked like it might have been used as a loading area, so I imagine that the old “BLOW HORN” sign, hand-painted directly on the concrete wall, must have once supplied instructions to those coming to make pick-ups or deliveries. I still wonder though about the fact that the sign was squeezed in behind this has of pipes, given that there were large areas of clear wall just a foot or two away from this assemblage of pipes and valves.

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.
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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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Sports

Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay

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Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay - A sailboat in morning light on the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California.
A sailboat in morning light on the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California.

Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sailboat in morning light on the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California.

Taking a momentary break from the continuing stream of photographs from Utah, here is a photograph from San Francisco. On one of the first spring-warm days of the year, I took the train to San Francisco very early and then spent the morning wandering around with my camera and a few lenses. In many ways, this is my preferred approach to shooting in San Francisco – to travel light and walk – since there so many instantaneous and surprising subjects that come and go so quickly. This is sort of my own brand of “Photo Walk” for one.

On this morning I got of the train just after sun rise and first wandered through the China Basin area, taking time to photograph a large construction site before heading back over toward the Embarcadero to walk along the waterfront. As I walked past AT&T Park, I noticed the bright backlit and slightly hazy sky over the Bay and began to look for ways to photograph it. A moment later I found a gap in the shoreline “stuff” where I could get a clear shot of the water, and I stopped to put a longer lens on the camera. Right at that moment – lucky me! – I noticed this solitary sailboat coming into the scene from the right and by working quickly I had time to get about a half dozen shots of it against the minimalist backdrop of the bay before another boat joined it and cluttered up the image.

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.
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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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Third Street Bridge, Morning

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Third Street Bridge - The Third Street Bridge near AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.
The Third Street Bridge near AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.

Third Street Bridge, Morning. San Francisco, California. July 8, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Third Street Bridge near AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.

This bridges sits in a newly revitalized area of San Francisco next to the Giants’ AT&T ball park, which is visible in the background along the right side of the frame. In an area that was (and still is, if you look around a bit) somewhat “seedy,” there are now, for better or for worse, lots of new buildings including businesses and condominiums. This bridge seems like a sort of surprising structure to see in a place like this. It is a “draw bridge” that can apparently be lifted to allow boats to pass underneath to go in and out of a small inlet that extends from the bay (to the right of this photo) and inland a ways.

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 | Facebook | Google+ | 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.

Photographers, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: San Francisco

Arthur Tress, De Young Museum

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Arthur Tress, De Young Museum - Arthur Tress discusses his photographs with a group of photographers at his exhibit at the De Young Museum, San Francisco.
Arthur Tress discusses his photographs with a group of photographers at his exhibit at the De Young Museum, San Francisco.

Arthur Tress, De Young Museum. San Francisco, California. March 9, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Arthur Tress discusses his photographs with a group of photographers at his exhibit at the De Young Museum, San Francisco.

Back in early March, Adobe invited a number of San Francisco Bay Area photographers to meet with photographer Arthur Tress at his show at the De Young Museum, “San Francisco 1964.” (Thanks, Adobe!) After we assembled in the lobby and had a moment or two to speak to some of Adobe folks, including some working on the just-released new version of Lightroom, we adjourned to the gallery. In this photograph, the group listens to Tress (barely visible at the far side of the taller) as he walks through the gallery and talks about his work.

Tress and a photography curator introduced us to the show and shared some back-story and perspectives on the work it includes. The photographs are all black and white images shot in medium format during a period when Tress first came to the west coast in 1964, a year when a lot of interesting stuff was happening in The City – including the first US concerts by the Beatles, the “Goldwater” Republican convention, civil rights demonstrations, and more. Tress’s photographs are interesting on several levels: as a record of aspects of the period that we might not realize we have lost (especially to this photographer who was a child living in the Bay Area at that time), as a record of actual events, and as an often-witty commentary on much of what he observed.

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 | Facebook | Google+ | 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.