Category Archives: Photographs: San Francisco

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Windows and Fire Escape Shadows

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Windows and Fire Escape Shadows
Shadows from a fire escape system fall across the facade of a San Francisco building.

Windows and Fire Escape Shadows. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from a fire escape system fall across the facade of a San Francisco building.

Yes, another of the photographs I make on walks in San Francisco — or used to make in the pre-pandemic days when I would regularly hop on a train to the City, something that would be unwise now. (The trains still run, on a reduced schedule, but it isn’t worth the risk to spend two hours or more on a train.) I look forward to the time when I can resume this happy habit and head back up there for some wandering!

I’ve thought a bit about what drew me to this subject. For one thing, my landscape-photographer eyes often see urban subjects as a kind of urban landscape full of its versions of peaks, valleys, cliffs, and more. I know that I’m also attracted to certain kinds of geometry and symmetry, usually the sort that is patterned but not quite perfectly. The very subtle colors also caught my attention — it mostly looks gray, but it actually is subtly colored, and in a few places the color becomes strong enough to register as being a bit outside the monochromatic continuum. Finally, those shadows really intrigue me, especially at this time of day on this day and in this season, when they fall almost perfectly across the front of the building.

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.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco

Detail, Palace of Fine Arts

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Detail, Palace of Fine Arts
Detail of a small section of the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

Detail, Palace of Fine Arts. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a small section of the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

Perhaps I was channelling my inner Atget when I made this photograph a few years back. I was wandering around San Francisco with a camera — a favorite activity in non-pandemic times — and I ended up at the Palace of Fine Arts near the waterfront. It is a remarkable place with a remarkable history. Originally constructed as part of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, it was the only structure that wasn’t taken down afterwards. Originally meant to be a temporary feature of the Exposition, it deteriorated and was eventually completely taken down in the 1960s and reconstructed by the mid-1970s. .

Something in the photograph illustrates how I do (and do not) see when I’m making photographs. One one hand I and other photographers often see things that others might miss. On the other hand, because we are focused on one way of seeing our subject we may entirely miss things that are completely obvious to others. Sometimes we “discover” these elements of our photographs later. (Someone pointed out that a difference between photography and painting is that the photographer cannot know everything in the image.) In this case, it was only years later that I noticed the rather striking symbols that appear on the surface of this building — symbols that no sane person would include today. This led me to some quick research that suggests that in 1915, and before the atrocities of WWII, the symbol in question had an entirely different meaning.

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.

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

Virtual Surfaces

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Virtual Surfaces
Distorted reflections in the windows of a San Francisco building.

Virtual Surfaces. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Distorted reflections in the windows of a San Francisco building.

Almost every time I photograph in big city (and sometimes small city…) downtowns I end up getting distracted by the things reflected in the windows of tall buildings, and by how they relate to the forms of these architectural structures.

Buildings of certain styles and vintages have exteriors that are largely glass. While these buildings have physical forms and volumes, what we see of them is more a result of what is around them than of their own shapes. I’m intrigued by how little of what we see when we look at such structures is actually the structures themselves — most of what we see is virtual, imaginary, and transitory. In this photograph, all you see of the buildings actual exterior are a few non-reflective areas between windows — some dark horizontal strips and a few lighter vertical panels. Everything else in the image is either inside the building (a few interior lights seen through the windows) or a distorted reflection of the building’s surroundings.

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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building and Reflections

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Buiolding and Reflections
One Front Street in black and white, San Francisco.

Building and Reflections. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One Front Street in black and white, San Francisco.

At this point it is probably no secret that I like photographing urban subjects — not just nature — and that the urban landscape is near the top of my list. I’m fascinated by city subjects, from the bustle of people-filled scenes to the almost abstract possibilities found in modern buildings.

This is an often-photographed San Francisco building that towers above pedestrians in the central downtown area. The parallel curved structures extending skyward capture and reflect light in all sorts of interesting ways. Here the reflections of surrounding structures merge with the forms of the building itself.

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.