Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

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

Columbus Tower

August 16, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The green exterior of Columbus Tower, San Francisco.

This striking “flatiron” style building stands on a thin corner along Columbus Avenue which angles across San Francisco between the financial district, through North Beach, and eventually toward the waterfront. I had seen the building for many years, but hadn’t stopped to wonder about its story at all until I made this photograph. It was apparently constructed right after the 1906 earthquake, making it now over a century old. Much later in its interesting history it apparently begin to fall into disrepair. Eventually it was purchased by Francis Ford Coppola, who used it for his businesses.

On one of my “personal photo walks” though sections of San Francisco, I passed by after stopping for coffee in North Beach and heading back toward Market Street. The building is striking in many ways. The flatiron design always stands out, as the building is very narrow and very tall and stands at the end of a very narrow block of buildings. The intricate exterior would be worthy of attention even without its striking copper green color. I photographed the building from very close – an approach that I’ve been working with recently – placing a street lamp in front of the building and allowing the perspective distortion to remain in the shot.

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

Man in the Window

August 12, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflections in the windows of a financial district building, San Francisco, California.

I’m fascinated by the reflections in and among the windows of urban buildings, especially those whose surfaces are primarily glass. It often seems when I look at them that the building barely has a real surface at all, and instead most of what I see when I look is the often distorted reflections of other surrounding buildings and signs and perhaps some sky or clouds. So when I walk in San Francisco with my camera I’m often looking up, not so much to simply photograph the buildings but also to watch for these transitory conjunctions of reflections

I made this photograph while walking a narrow street in San Francisco’s financial district late in the day as fog was softening the early evening light. I was momentarily almost shocked to see the face of this man who, divorced from the full context of the sign on which he appeared, looking like huge and intense figure in the windows of this building. And aside from the two horizontal ledges and the thin structures between the window panes, everything else in the image is also a reflection of the surfaces of buildings around and behind me.

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

Exterior, One Maritime Plaza

August 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.

This photograph focuses on details of the exterior frame of Maritime Plaza Building, in the general area of the financial district and not far from the Embarcadero and San Francisco’s waterfront. I photographed in “interesting” light – the weather provided a combination of high clouds, lower clouds that were dropping sprinkles of rain, and incoming ocean fog. Oddly, even with tall these sources of atmospheric opacity, there was still some light. Some came through the clouds, while some came from nearby areas that were a bit more clear.

As I have been doing a bit more recently, I chose to shoot towards a corner of the building, allowing the darker side on the right to seem to recede a bit. Meanwhile, the strongest ambient light fell on the “front” of the building facing to the left. I chose a black and white rendition of this photograph partly because, frankly, there wasn’t much interesting color in this subject, but also because I felt that black and white abstracted the image a bit more.

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

Buildings, Wires, Fog

August 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall buildings soar into foggy sky in the financial district of San Francisco, California.

I’ll keep the commentary short on this one – it is part of a series that already includes the commentary, and today I prefer not to write a lot. The photograph was made on a San Francisco walk that eventually took me across a short section of the Embarcadero and then up into the area just north of the financial district. From there I walked into that district and focused on photographing the tall buildings found there, looking for odd and interesting juxtapositions and thinking about how I could use the weather conditions – which included high clouds, sprinkles of rain, and ocean fog sliding in over the City and obscuring the tops of the buildings.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

Columbus Tower

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Man in the Window

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Exterior, One Maritime Plaza

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

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