Category Archives: Photographs: Urban/Street

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brewery Window

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Brewery Window
A window at Hapa’s Brewery in San Jose, California

Brewery Window. San Jose, California. June 21, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A window at Hapa’s Brewery in San Jose, California

Today’s photograph is the result of something other than endeavoring to go out and make photographs, but it might also be evidence that some kind of photograph can be made almost anywhere at almost any time. We heard there was an event hosted by Fujifilm at a relatively new brewery not too far from where we live. We have been meaning to visit this place for months without ever quite managing to go, but the prospect of getting to play with a range of Fujifilm camera equipment and try out a new brewery was enough to get us to go.

The premise of the event was loaning various Fujifilm cameras and lenses to interested folks for fifteen minutes at a time. I already really on a Fujifilm system for my street and travel photography, but I thought it would be fun to play with their tiny rangefinder X100F, a small fixed-lens camera in the street photography tradition. I didn’t have a lot of exotic subjects to work with — basically a brewery full (mostly) of people trying out cameras! This photograph had two goals. The mundane one was testing the bokeh of the fixed lens on this small camera. The aesthetic angle was placing the window frame in such a way that it divided the background into four independent images rectangles that are quite different from one another.

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: Urban/Street

Metal Wall

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Metal Wall
A metal wall leads away toward a person standing in a doorway

Metal Wall. San Jose, California. June 21, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A metal wall leads away toward a person standing in a doorway

This certainly qualifies as an opportunistic photograph. We had heard that a local brewery was going to host a Fujifilm “drink and click” demo this evening. We’ve been wanting to try the place out, and the added attraction of being able to play with a whole bunch of Fujifilm cameras and lenses clinched the deal. A local camera store collaborated with Fujifilm to show up with a bunch of their x-trans camera bodies and good cross-section of their lenses. Since I already have the Fujifilm XPro2 camera, I was mostly interested in trying out lenses and the X100f rangefinder camera.

So I had the X100f for about 15 minutes, mostly inside the brewery but also just outside. I figured out the camera pretty quickly and then just made a bunch of handheld photographs, trying a range of techniques and settings to get a feel for the camera. For this image I was interested in seeing how the fixed 23mm f/2 would do with a narrow focus plane (at f/2) and what the resulting bokeh would look like. I think the camera passed the test pretty well.

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: Germany, Photographs: Urban/Street

Hauptstrasse, Heidelberg Altstadt

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Hauptstrasse, Heidelberg Altstadt
Pedestrians walking along a street in the Heidelberg altstadt

Hauptstrasse, Heidelberg Altstadt. Heidelberg, Germany. August 16, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians walking along a street in the Heidelberg Altstadt

During last summer’s stay in Heidelberg we managed to walk over the hill, up the river, and across the bridge quite a few times to get to the Altstadt. Yes, it is a bit touristy, especially on the main street, but it is also a wonderful place with narrow streets and old buildings and lots of people.

I don’t recall the specific context of this photograph, but it was one of a series made along this street and others nearby in which I waited as people walking into and out of the scene, populating this urban landscape. The low afternoon sun produced long shadows as several people walked up the street and further away from me.

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: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Restaurant Windows, Benches

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Restaurant Windows, Benches
Two benches outside the windows of a San Francisco restaurant

Restaurant Windows, Benches. San Francisco, California. April 30, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two benches outside the windows of a San Francisco restaurant

At the end of April I spent a couple of hours shooting through the golden hour and on into the evening in San Francisco, mostly exploring along The Embarcadero on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. Our group first wandered out on a pedestrian pier, where we hung up through sunset and into early twilight as the light faded from the sky and city lights came on.

Soon I left the group — I had a long drive back home — and wandered along the Embarcadero as I headed back to my car. Photographing into restaurant and club windows intrigues me. There is often a striking contrast between the interior world of people having dinner or drinks and the exterior world of very quite urban landscapes. Here a couple of unoccupied benches sit beneath windows, with more colorful lighting and a number of patrons inside.

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.