Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

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

Parking Restricted 24 Hours A Day

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Parking Restricted 24 Hours A Day
Parking Restricted 24 Hours A Day

Parking Restricted 24 Hours A Day. San Jose, California. June 13, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photograph of a building wall with crack and black windows, sidewalk, and no parking sign.

This is another of those photographs that probably seems intended to perplex and baffle those who like my landscape and nature photography. (If it helps, think of it as an urban landscape.) The photograph was made not far from my home on a midday walk with my camera and a single prime lens. I shot the series from which this comes at what is usually regarded as the worst time of day for photography – close to the noon hour about a week or so before the summer solstice. And I did this on purpose! I think that any light can be good light if it is the light you want to photograph. So the game on this day was to go out and see what I could do with very harsh and bright light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shadows on Parking Lot Wall

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Shadows on Parking Lot Wall
Shadows on Parking Lot Wall

Shadows on Parking Lot Wall. San Jose, Califoria. June 13, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from light fall across a parking lot wall.

A photograph made on a walk with a body and a 50mm lens and not much else – a walk from my home. This wall has often intrigued me, as have these small lamps up near the roof line. On this day I was out in the “terrible light” time of the day – midday, when shadows are almost as close to vertical as they get around here. Not only was I attracted to the interesting slight diagonals of the long shadows, but also to the colors of weathered green paint, deep blue sky, and the messy textures of the parking lot.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)


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

Tire Shop and Palm Tree

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Tire Shop and Palm Tree
Tire Shop and Palm Tree

Tire Shop and Palm Tree. San Jose, California. June 13, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old and dilapidated tire shop with a single palm tree.

And now a break for something completely different from the Yosemite photographs I’ve posted for the better part of the past two weeks. Last weekend I had a couple hours of free time during the middle of the day – the toughest time for light, especially so close to the summer solstice. So I decided to go out for an urban walk and see if I could make some photographs that took on this bright and harsh light instead of trying to avoid it.

I have photographed this building before. It is an older garage that is now a tire shop. The building is, despite being painted and so forth, quite dilapidated – window and door frames don’t line up, the stucco is cracked and patched, and walls and roof lines intersect at odd angles. The paint job on the building couldn’t be more, well, boring. The building is roughly gray, with some blocky black lettering and the painted image of a tire. There is no vegetation and a plain sidewalk runs in front of it. The whole thing just seemed perfect for a harsh, midday light photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)


Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pipes, Shadow, and Brick Wall

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Pipes, Shadow, and Brick Wall
Pipes, Shadow, and Brick Wall

Pipes, Shadow, and Brick Wall. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. May 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white night photograph of pipes, shadow, and a brick wall at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California.

This is an example of the sort of thing I was looking for during my night photography shoot near the end of May at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California. The place is well-known among night photographers for its interesting and impressive abandoned (mostly) structures, some of which are very old. The most striking subjects for most shooters involve the massive ship yard equipment that towers above old brick factory buildings. I’ve made my share of photographs of those wonderful subjects!

But on this visit I resolved to not shoot the familiar large buildings and structures, and to instead look for odd little vignettes of the place that I had overlooked in the past. This pipe standing against a brick was was actually hard to really see in the very dim artificial light in the alley where it is located, but I thought that the pipe and its shadow on the brick wall might be interesting. At the time I made the exposure I wasn’t certain if it would end up being black and white or color, but after working with it in post I’m happier with this monochrome version.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 96mm
ISO 200, f/8, 96 seconds

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, historic, night, photography, minsy, nocturnes, brick, wall, weathered, worn, pipe, joint, shadow, old, black and white, monochrome, urban, street, landscape, detail, curb, stock