Category Archives: Photographs: Travel

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel

Central Park, Christmas Day

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Central Park, Christmas Day
A wintry Manhattan scene in Central Park on Christmas day.

Central Park, Christmas Day. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wintry Manhattan scene in Central Park on Christmas day.

When in Manhattan, walk! We learned that lesson on our first serious visit a few decades ago. That was a surprise to these California natives, who live in a world where people drive nearly everywhere. (Things are so spread out here that it is rare to be in a place where everything you generally need can be found in walking distance.) But it quickly became apparent that everyone walks, even if only from the subway station to their local destination, and that you’ll see a lot more if you are on foot, too.

We were in Manhattan again during the last week of 2019. (Funny story — the two times we are most likely to visit are in late December and August. I can hear New Yorkers groaning at that. And they are right.) As always, walking was high on our agenda for the visit, and we were out on foot every day. On this day, relatively “warm” for Manhattan winter, we walked up into Central Park, crossed it, and walked by down along its west side.

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: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Flower District, Manhattan

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Flower District, Manhattan
Vendors work on sidewalk plant displays on a winter day in Manhattan’s flower dsitrict.

Flower District, Manhattan. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Vendors work on sidewalk plant displays on a winter day in Manhattan’s flower dsitrict.

We were in New York City for a week near the end of 2019, visiting family, doing the usual New York stuff, and staying at a hotel located at an intersection in the Manhattan Flower District. If you have visited Manhattan, you are probably familiar with at least some of the various districts, where those in various specific trades congregated — the garment district, the meatpacking district, diamond district, and so on. The idea was that resources were all in one place and everyone knew were to go to find these things. As I understand it, the character of many of these districts is changing, as it does in all large cities, and in some cases the designation is more historic than real these days.

But you can still most certainly find flowers in the Flower District, even if there are now hotels, lounges, restaurants, and fast-food joints among the flower sellers. Every morning as we left our hotel and every evening as we returned we passed by these businesses, traveling along a sidewalk lined with plants and blooming flowers, even though it was winter. Each morning crews were hard at work moving the stock out onto the sidewalks (as you see here) and in the evening it was all moved back inside again.

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: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Mirrored Street Scene

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Mirrored Street Scene
Manhattan winter street scene mirrored in building windows.

Mirrored Street Scene. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Manhattan winter street scene mirrored in building windows.

One thing I enjoy about street photography is that often — though not always, believe it or not — tends to work quite differently than my landscape photography. When things start to happen, they often happen very quickly, and there can be so much to sort out quickly that it may almost be overwhelming. And there are plenty of missed opportunities — despite the fact that I know that I often can’t wait for a thing to happen. That would be too late, so often I have to photograph almost speculatively, preparing for what may happen as much as responding to what is happening.

There’s a lot of those things in this photograph, made on a recent winter visit to Manhattan. When I’m in “”photographer mode” there I usually have a small rangefinder-style camera out and held down low in one hand, ready to quickly raise it and make a photograph. Sometimes there isn’t even time to bring the viewfinder to my eye, and I photograph blind. That wasn’t the case with this photograph, though I did have to work pretty quickly. I think that I noticed the colorful umbrella on the food cart at almost the same moment that I realized the the windows produced an almost-mirror image of the scene, and then I had just time to start photographing as the two colorfully-dressed people walked toward me. It wasn’t until after the shot that I started to see other interesting form and color relationships and more.

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.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Window, MOMA

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Window, MOMA
A window at the Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan

Window, MOMA. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A window at the Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan.

Virtually every New York City involves a visit to one or more Manhattan museums. On this visit we spent a morning at the Frick Collection and a half of a day at the recently remodeled/updated Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). My reasons for visiting museums often go beyond the obvious one — seeing the collection — and include photographing people and architecture. For years I have been attracted to these exterior windows at MOMA, both for their views of Manhattan and for their own intrinsic opportunities to photograph form, light, color, and sometimes people.

About MOMA… the recent expansion and update has gotten a lot of attention, and one reason we chose to visit was that this was our first opportunity to see the changes. Mostly I think they are fine and even positive. But based on this one visit (admittedly during a holiday peak period) I have a concern: it was so incredibly crowded that in some cases the experience was seriously degraded. In some rooms the crowds were so thick that it was literally impossible to move at times. There’s a ton of wonderful work at MOMA and it is worth visiting… but try to go at a less-busy time if at all possible.

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.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.