Category Archives: Photographs: Urban/Street

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

Tortaria

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Tortaria
A woman walks past a Manhattan tortaria with a red pickup truck parked in front.

Tortaria. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman walks past a Manhattan tortaria with a red pickup truck parked in front.

I made this photograph about four years ago, and the brief tale of how emerged now is perhaps worth telling. Recently I was involved in a discussion of tilt/shift lenses. Part of the discussion drifted to image changes that could be made in post-processing rather than by using shift to correct converging perspective lines. I went looking for example files I could use, especially those that might have been shot with a very wide lens and in need of correction. I figured that urban photographs would provide good examples, so I started digging into my New York raw files. Eventually I ended up back in 2014… and to my surprise I found a group of images that I had almost completely forgotten about and which I never finished reviewing and processing.

Four years later I don’t even remember making this photograph, nor do I remember the location. (I could figure it out easily enough.) I’m betting that the initial attraction was to the contrast between the bright red pickup truck (and all of the things that it can symbolize) and the teal-colored front of the Tortaria. It may have been good fortune that the woman walked into the left side of the frame at this moment. I like the juxtaposition of the red and green-blue colors and the potential cultural and other symbolism of the big, red pickup truck.

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: Urban/Street

Xing School

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Xing School
Street crossing marking on the roadway in Chinatown, Manhattan

Xing School. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street crossing marking on the roadway in Chinatown, Manhattan

I’m going to divert briefly from the Death Vally photographs today and return to a much different place, the urban world of New York City. I made this photograph about four years ago and only rediscovered it today. Sometimes as I work my way though files after returning from such a location I get interrupted by another project and occasionally I leave work unprocessed. I think that is what happened in this case, as this wasn’t the only photograph in the batch that I had overlooked. (I only went back to these images because I was looking for something to use as an example in a reply to someone’s technical question.)

The location is Manhattan’s Chinatown, and I’m pretty sure it is a section of my favorite street in this neighborhood. (I have a kind of informal project of photographing this East Coast location and its West Coast equivalent in San Francisco.) I did something a bit unusual with my post-processing interpretation of the image. I suspect that it may not be obvious to viewers, but I played with the color levels and actually diminished their intensity quite a bit — I think this provides a little different sense of the quality of this location.

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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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

Blue Metal Structure

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Blue Metal Structure
Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Blue Metal Structure. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I was at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to spend the evening doing night photography with my friends from the original Nocturnes group, and I had arrived well before sunset. After meeting up in the Mare Island Museum for pizza and conversation we realized that the end of the day was coming. I went outside about a half hour before sunset, and I thought of some old industrial buildings that I had passed on the way in. Instead of staying where I was and starting my typical routine of wandering on foot with my gear I decided to take short drive back to those buildings and see if I could make a few quick photographs in the end-of-day light.

I soon arrived and made a few photographs in golden hour light, but the sun quickly dropped below the horizon and I was left with that post-sunset glow. This light can be quite warm if clouds reflect some of the remaining red, yellow, and orange tones of sunset, but if the sky is clear what remains is the intense blue of early twilight. The latter light is what evolved, and I soon moved back to this unusual structure whose blue paint’s color was even more intensified by this twilight illumination.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Alley, Night

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Alley, Night
“Alley, Night” — Interior lights spill into an alley between two industrial buildings

I photographed both familiar and new subjects at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard again this past week. During the evening I gradually worked my way across the core of the place,eventually heading south from where I began. I had photographed the other side of the building on the right, which contained a large open interior space with many windows. When I came around the other side of the building I was surprised by the complex pattern of light between the two receding buildings. I had photographed here in the past when the building to the right was abandoned, and this alley had been a very dark place.

On this evening those of us who have photographed at Mare Island for a long time — some for several decades — lamented some of the changes that are coming to the place. It lay almost dormant for years, but now many of the old buildings are being refitted for modern users. On one hand this changes the lonely and forlorn character of the island. On the other hand, it means that once the buildings are rehabilitated they will likely stand for a long time. But right now construction is going on everywhere, some interesting places now are off-limits, and fences have been erected around the construction work. That posed a problem for this photograph. In the past I could walk right up this alley, but now a portable cyclone fence cuts off access. I solved the problem by extending my tripod as high as it would go — well above my head! — and photographing over the top of the fence.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.