Category Archives: Photographs: United Kingdom

Photographs: United Kingdom, Photographs: Urban/Street

Crowd in Tunnel

Leave a comment
Crowd in Tunnel
Crowd in Tunnel

Crowd in Tunnel. London, England. July 4, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A crowd of tourists walks through a brick tunnel in London, England

With this photograph I move in the street photography direction – and there are plenty of options to shoot such subjects in London. We had gone south across the Thames for some afternoon and evening “business” and we ended up walking around a bit between business A and business B, more or less wandering with the crowd through busy, narrow streets in this popular area. (I have been told that it wasn’t all that long ago that this was not nearly such a busy place, but that recent development, perhaps encouraged by the success of the New Globe Theater, has really changed the character of the place.) This gave me quite an opportunity to put my small Fujifilm X-E1 camera through its paces, as it is a small, rangefinder-style camera that brings to mind cameras typically used for this sort of photography in the past.

This photograph may not be everyone’s, uh, cup of tea – at least for those who might be more interested in my nature and landscape photography – but there are some things that I like about it quite a bit. To my eye, there are some very interesting things about the light. The distance area outside the tunnel is in full sun and is very bright, to the point that it almost over-exposed and its light spills over into the darker tunnel. This also backlights the people in the tunnel, though those closer to me pick up a bit of light from the other end of the tunnel behind my shooting position, and the shadows of the people on the shiny cobblestone create rays that spread across the lower part of the frame. I also like the sort of v-shape formed by the people at the instant I shot this, with what appears to be a family in the center and front and in slightly better light. There is, for me at least, a bit of humor, too – think about a comparison between the child at the very bottom of the frame and his concentration on his hands… and the man with the cell phone and his very similar focus.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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: Night, Photographs: United Kingdom

River Thames Reflections, Night

Leave a comment
River Thames Reflections, Night
River Thames Reflections, Night

River Thames Reflections, Night. London, England. July 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Nighttime lights from the Southwark Bridge reflect on the surface of London’s River Thames.

As we walked back across the Millennium Bridge toward the north bank of the River Thames in the evening light, I saw many colorful lights on bridges, boats, and buildings that were reflected in the surface of the river and which stood out against the somewhat hazy blue hour atmosphere. This bridge provides a great location for photographing the reflections since it is, obviously, right above the water and because it is easy to align reflections with various other elements by moving back and forth across the bridge. In this photograph most of the interesting reflections are coming from the Southwark Bridge, with the white lights on the Tower Bridge just visible further along the river.

On a technical note, I relied on a very different sort of photographic gear on this trip. Since our plan was to keep our luggage down to carry-on size – for a three-week trip to three countries – we decided to take some radical steps to downsize the amount of camera equipment we would carry. I normally shoot a full frame DSLR and typically carry a very large tripod and multiple (sometimes many!) large lenses. My normal load of camera gear alone, at least for car-based shooting, would exceed the carry-limits that we would deal with on our international flights – and would also weigh me down more than I wanted during a trip that would include a lot of walking. So for this trip I left my Big Gear at home and instead carried a Fujifilm X-E!, a small cropped sensor mirrorless camera, and only three lenses: a 14mm prime, a 35mm prime, and a 55-200mm zoom. All of this fit in a small messenger bag with room left over for my (small) laptop and lots of other necessities. I bring this up because this photograph was shot handheld with this camera, using the 35mm prime – in a situation and of a subject where I would normally assume that a tripod was necessary. (I’ll be writing more about the experience with this alternate gear soon at my blog.)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: United Kingdom

Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Evening

Leave a comment
Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul's Cathedral, Evening
Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Evening

Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Evening. London, England. July 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Millennium Bridge spans the Thames River and leads toward the Saint Paul Cathedral, London

The first week of our July 2013 overseas trip was spent in London. As you can imagine, we did a lot of walking! London is no place for this American driver to even attempt to drive, for all the reasons you can imagine – driving on the “wrong” side of the road, narrow and convoluted street layout, parking, and all the rest. So, as many do, we got around by underground, bus, and a lot of walking. Fortunately, once you get where you are going, this is a very walkable city.

On a few occasions we crossed to the south side of the Thames river – to see a play at the New Globe Theater, to visit the Tate Museum, to meet people for dinner, and to generally wander around in interesting looking places. Each time we found ourselves there in the evening we walked back across on the Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian-only bridge located near St. Paul’s Cathedral. On this evening we started across at sunset and managed to stretch out the trip long enough to arrive on the other side in near darkness. Although I had no tripod, I did manage to do a series of low light and almost-night photographs of the river and the surrounding city, including this photograph that looks across the river from the south bank along the bridge toward the iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.