Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Interior Study

Image 2 Comments
Interior Study
The interior of a San Diego, California building.

Interior Study. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The interior of a San Diego, California building.

Photographs like this one are, for me, something like visual “palate cleansers.” It is really only about composition, shapes, densities, lines, and, of course, light. Whether you feel that understanding these things is central to photographs or, alternatively, simply underlies the other things that photographs are about, the fact remains that these basic visual qualities are a big part of what attracts many of us to the medium.

I’m not 100% sure where I made this photograph. I know it was in San Diego, and I’m pretty certain that it was at Balboa Park, and I strongly suspect that it was inside the Museum of Photographic Arts. To me, the photograph is a bit deceptive and is a bit more complex than it might initially appear. I’ll leave it to viewers to explore that notion.

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.

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.

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

Tower, Night Sky

Image Leave a comment
Tower, Night Sky
A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Tower, Night Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This is not the first nor the only photograph I’ve made of this structure. It comes from the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the place where I did my first serious night photography almost two decades ago. (It happened on more or less a lark when I saw an announcement of a free event, showed up, and became hooked.) This structure is one half of a pair of gigantic overhead tracks that I believe originally supported some sort of lift mechanism that moved heavy mechanical systems (probably engines) to ships that were under construction. The buildings were originally various shops connected to the shipbuilding work, though today, years after the facility was decommissioned, many of them have been taken over for other purposes.

The relationship between night photographs and objective reality is a complex thing. I think of it as revealing “what the camera sees” more than as capturing what we see at night. In truth, in places like this and in lightning like this… we can’t really see much at all. But by extending the exposure times we can make images out of what is largely unseen. (A close examination of this photograph will reveal star trails made as the earth rotated beneath the night sky over the course of a several minute exposure.) In the end, many decisions about such images — luminosity, color, and more — must be subjective, since there really is no objective reality that corresponds to what the camera sees.

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.

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.

Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

696

Image Leave a comment
696
Rollup doors on building 696, San Jose.

696. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rollup doors on building 696, San Jose.

This photograph is a bit of a study in “accidental geometry” that I encountered while on a walk earlier this fall. The two roll-up doors are almost but not quite perfect mirror images, but the surrounding walls are almost opposites, light and dark, and the whole thing is set off by horizontal areas at the top and bottom. There is one little asymmetrical element in the numbers next to the right door — but even there you can find a certain interesting formal pattern if you look for it.

This probably doesn’t seem like my usual subject, but I can assure you it is the sort of thing I see quite often — more often, in fact, than autumn aspens, rugged seashores, deserts, and alpine mountains. It is the terrain of my regular pandemic walks in a circle that extends across a several mile radius from our home. In one direction I often end up passing through light industrial areas, including some that might seem just a bit sketchy. In fact, as I made this photograph I was standing within feet of the temporary pandemic homes of trailer-dwellers parked on the street.

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.

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.

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

Fence and Gate

Image Leave a comment
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.

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.