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

Brick Wall, Pearl District

June 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A brick wall with green windows and a small garden in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon

This is another photograph from my recent trip to Portland, Oregon. As car-free (and almost carefree) visitors to the city, we did a lot of walking, wandering more than once a day up and down between portions of the Pearl District and the downtown area where we were staying. Since I was carrying a very small and light camera on this trip (my Fujifilm X-E1) I was able to do a lot of “casual” photography of various things we saw on these walks.

There is quite a variety of buildings in and around the Pearl District, including many brick buildings. (To this California near-native, that seems like a disaster waiting to happen, but I digress…) They range from rather old structures to newer architecture seemingly intended to capture that old Portland semi-industrial/working class look. The subject of this photograph is simply the back wall of a large apartment building that we walked past on a partly cloudy and intermittently showery afternoon.

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.

Deals and Sales

$200 Price Drop on Fujifilm X-Series Mirrorless Cameras

June 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

I just heard about a $200 drop in price on Fujifilm X-series Mirrorless cameras, including body-only models and body/lens kits and several different bodies: X-Pro1, X-E1, X-100s, X20.

I have the X-E1 and it is a really fine performer. In fact, today’s “photo of the day” was made with the X-E1 and the excellent Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 R Ultra Wide-Angle Lens. (See my previous posts about this camera at the blog: Fujifilm X-E1: From DSLR to Mirrorless and More Thoughts About the Fujifilm X-E1. Links to Fujinon lenses for the cameras are also included in those posts.)

Fujifilm X-E1 Digital Camera Kit (Black) $1199 – includes the 18-55mm lens – was $1399.
Fujifilm X-E1 Digital Camera Kit (Silver) $1199 – includes the 18-55mm lens – was $1399.
Fujifilm X-E1 Digital Camera (Black) $799 – body only – was $999.
Fujifilm X-E1 Digital Camera (Silver) $799 – body only – was $999.
Fujifilm X-Pro1 $1199 – body only – was $1399 – this model has a hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder system
Fujifilm X100s $1299 – was $1499 (?) – optical viewfinder with 35mm equivalent non-interchangeable lens.
Fujifilm X20 Digital Camera (Black) – $599 – mirrorless body with fixed zoom lens)
Fujifilm X20 Digital Camera (Silver) – $599 – mirrorless body with fixed zoom lens)

Though they are not, to the best of my knowledge, part of the current sae, I have included a list of Fujinon lenses for these cameras below.

* I use these lenses on my X-E1
** This lens is available for pre-order and is supposed to be released next week. (I have ordered one.)

Links to go site-sponsor B&H Photo. I do not know how long these prices last, but some rumor sites are suggesting that it might be a very brief sale.

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

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

June 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Midday light inside beneath the skylight in the atrium of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

For the time being I’m not going to write all that I could write about this photograph – that would be far too much to post here. Nonetheless, this might be a slightly longer “photo post” than usual.

The subject is the skylight in the turret at the top of the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Just below the skylight there is a catwalk that crosses from one side of the cylindrical upper area of the atrium to the other, and this is a place of magical light in almost any conditions. I visited this past Friday since the museum closes after today (June 2, 2013) for two years for renovation and expansion, and I wanted to have one last chance to wander around in the museum and I wanted to see the wonderful Garry Winogrand exhibit.

During the “wandering” part of my visit I went to this catwalk and thought about how I could photograph it. It is almost embarrassing to photograph in this spot, since it is one of the most obvious iconic places to grab an iPhone shot, and many other visitors were doing just that. I first made a few symmetrical photographs looking up at the skylight in a more direct way and then thought that I’d try a few “off kilter” shots, perhaps with the Winogrand images – which often tilt and twist in surprising ways – still in my mind. Having also just spent time in the museum’s wonderful exhibit of classic black and white work by other photographers, I was in a bit of a black and white state of mind, and I was pretty certain that this would end up as a monochrome image.

(For those who wonder about such things, this photograph was made with the small Fujifilm X-E1 camera and the wonderful Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 lens.)

Photographs: Northern California

Pier at China Camp

June 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The old fishing pier at China Camp, California

This is another photograph from my first visit to the China Camp site along the northern San Francisco Bay, a place I had thought about visiting and photographing for several years. It was a Chinese immigrant settlement in the 1800s and apparently there was a thriving shrimp harvesting operation there. Today it is essentially ghost town, though one that has been stabilized and fixed up and which incorporates some “interpretive” facilities. I ended up there in conjunction with a “long-exposure photo walk” weekend that photographed a number of Bay Area locations over the course of three days. Though I did not participate in the entire event, I did join up with them on one morning to photograph dawn at the Golden Gate and then to travel up to China Camp.

This pier was the subject of several of my photographs on this day. It is an interesting and compelling subject in a bunch of ways. Its historical context of course makes it interesting, but there are several interesting visual aspects to it, too, and the overall feelings are of quiet and space and perhaps a bit of desolation. The pier itself is unlike most that I’ve seen. Power poles with utility lines run along its length. Ladders descend to the waterline for entry into small boats. Birds sit on top of high points along the pier. The water in the China Camp lagoon is almost completely still, and there is a great expanse of open water beyond with only low hills on the far horizon. (This quality reminded me just a bit of some views of Mono Lake.) For this photograph I used a 9-stop neutral density filter so that I could extend the exposure to last many seconds, further smoothing the surface of the water. I made about a half-dozen exposures, trying to get on in which the darned birds would hold relatively still for 5-10 seconds… and they finally cooperated on the last shot.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Brick Wall, Pearl District

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$200 Price Drop on Fujifilm X-Series Mirrorless Cameras

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Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

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Pier at China Camp

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.