Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Windows, Ramp, and Asphalt

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Windows, Ramp, and Asphalt - The side of a metal building with windows reflecting an asphalt parking area with painted lines, Seattle, Washington
The side of a metal building with windows reflecting an asphalt parking area with painted lines, Seattle, Washington. The side of a metal building with windows reflecting an asphalt parking area with painted lines, Seattle, Washington

Windows, Ramp, and Asphalt. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The side of a metal building with windows reflecting an asphalt parking area with painted lines, Seattle, Washington.

This is the third in the short series of urban geometry photographs from my early May visit to Seattle, on which I had an hour (only an hour!) to photograph in the Fremont District with a group on a Seattle Photo Walk. After starting in “downtown” Fremont, meeting up at the Lenin statue, wandering over beneath the Aurora Bridge, and walking back along the waterfront, I climbed the stairs to another bridge that took me back toward my starting point.

This bridge turned out to be an interesting subject and vantage point. I made a few photographs of the bridge itself, mostly focusing on details, but for the most part those did not end up being images that I’ll share. However, once I got up on the bridge and started to walk across it, the vantage point it provide across the tops of buildings and down into areas below was interesting. The subject of this photograph is probably some of the most banal looking office space around, especially since I narrowed the composition down to simply showing a wall, some windows, a bit of concrete, the shadow of the bridge on which I was standing, and a painted out section of an asphalt parking area. It is what it is, and you get to figure out what that might be! :-)

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: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Driveway, Arrows, Yellow Line

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Driveway, Arrows, Yellow Line - White arrows and a yellow line painted on a parking lot driveway, Seattle, Washington
White arrows and a yellow line painted on a parking lot driveway, Seattle, Washington

Driveway, Arrows, Yellow Line. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

White arrows and a yellow line painted on a parking lot driveway, Seattle, Washington.

Another in the series of photographs of urban forms, shot in Seattle in early May. The story, and this isn’t the first time that I’ve mentioned it, is that I had a free hour during a visit to Seattle. I found out that there was a “Seattle Photo Walk” going on in the Fremont District, which I think I may have passed through before but where I had never photographed – so I met up with the group and spent an hour wandering around in the Fremont area.

I made quite a few photographs during that short time, and near the end of my hour I crossed back into Fremont by walking across a bridge, and this bridge turned out to figure in several photographs, either as a subject or as a vantage point. In this photograph it is merely the vantage point, as I shot into this driveway leading to an underground parking area while walking across the bridge. The opposing arrows were an obvious interest, but I also was intrigued by the single yellow line cutting through the scene and the overall concrete grayness of this spot.

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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: People, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bicycle Rider, Brick Wall

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Bicycle Rider, Brick Wall - A bicycle rider in orange rides past a brick wall, Seattle, Washington
A bicycle rider in orange rides past a brick wall, Seattle, Washington

Bicycle Rider, Brick Wall. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bicycle rider in orange rides past a brick wall, Seattle, Washington.

This is going to be the first in a small series of photographs from Seattle, Washington that focus on what might be described as urban geometry – odd or interesting juxtapositions of shapes and colors and so forth. I made this photograph back in early May when I joined a group of Seattle photographers for a “Seattle Photo Walk” in the Fremont District. I had only an hour to shoot, but I managed to work intensely for that hour and come back with some stuff that is interesting to me in one way or another.

One thing that I enjoy about photographing the urban environment is that potential subjects come and go almost constantly and often last only for a brief instant. I have to react so fast that I certainly cannot see everything in the frame in a conscious way while making the photograph, though there is something to be said for perhaps have an intuitive understanding of what is there. When I made this photograph I was walking along a bridge the heads back into Seattle’s Fremont district. I had been looking at these brick buildings which feign being old – they are actually new but with old-looking brick walls. The geometry of the buildings attracted me, but I hadn’t really seen a photograph in them at this point. Then, as I looked, I saw the cyclist coming along wearing this very bright orange shirt and helmet and wearing an orange pack. I quickly framed up a composition that included the building, the walkway, and a portion of the road and then waited for the rider to enter the frame. As he passed through I quickly squeezed off three frames. In two of them, a car obscures the cyclist, but in the final one, taken just before he exited the frame, he is all alone against the patterns of the road and the building. (I didn’t notice until later the windows reflected in the middle row of windows on the building.)

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.

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

Door Number Fifty-Five

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Door Number Fifty-Five - Door #55, rusted frame, and weathered concrete wall, San Francisco.
Door #55, rusted frame, and weathered concrete wall, San Francisco.

Door Number Fifty-Five. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Door #55, rusted frame, and weathered concrete wall, San Francisco.

This will be the first in a series of three “door photographs” I made in one small waterfront alley along San Francisco’s Embarcadero one morning in April. This alley lies behind a steel gate that has often been closed when I have passed by before. I’ve been intrigued by the spot, but unable to do more than try to look through the closely spaced mesh of the gate, but on this morning the gate was wide open and people seemed to be coming from and going to some businesses or offices beyond, so I just walked in and made some photographs of the appealingly decayed parts of the old buildings on this pier.

Several of the doorways, featuring large roll-up doors, were marked by numbers simply stenciled directly on the rough concrete walls. All of the exterior surfaces showed signs of neglect and the whole scene had a utilitarian quality about it – not a thing appeared to have been done to intentionally improve the look of the place. The concrete was marked with seemingly-random splotches of paint, the large check mark you see here and more. The rusted frame of the doorway looked someone might have run into it with a truck or some other large thing at some point, leaving it bent awkwardly inward.

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.