Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Escalator, Windows

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Escalator, Windows
Afternoon light from nearby windows on an escalator, the Louvre

Escalator, Windows. The Louvre, Paris. August 11, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon light from nearby windows on an escalator, the Louvre

We spent the better part of a day during our recent Paris visit at the Louvre. Anyone who has been there knows that a day is far from sufficient time to really see the place and the art that is housed there. We managed one full floor of one (of three) wings and a bit of one or two other areas. Clearly we have no choice but to return to Paris!

It is no secret that I, like lots of other photographs, am entranced by geometric shapes, effects of light, angles, and juxtapositions. Sometimes there is time to see these things and carefully consider how best to photograph them, but sometimes we don’t have the luxury. In this case, I had very little time, as the view is from a moving escalator! Fortunately, I had my camera in hand as we rode down to a lower level, so I was able to quickly raise the camera and make a few quick exposures of this view as it evolved and rolled past.

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: United Kingdom, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Utah

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall

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Walking Man, Mirrored Wall
A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Here we have (yet another!) photograph of someone using a smart phone in the urban world, though here there are, I think, a few other elements that got my attention. I’m sure that I was paying attention to the continuous stream of people moving along this sidewalk, and I like to think that some sense of their motion comes through in the photograph. The mirrored wall that contains most of the subjects not only let me capture a “double” of the primary subject, but it also let me bring him forward from the reflected background of all the other people who are only visible in the mirrored image. You might also notice some interesting things related to color.

And there are some surprises. I read somewhere that one of the differences between painting and photography is that while the painter personally puts everything on the canvas (at least mostly) and therefore can know it fully, the photographer cannot possibly know every element of the scene. In fact it is common to only realize that the photograph contains unintentional elements after the fact. One of those is present here — look at the head of the man in his reflected image.

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: United Kingdom, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man On The Phone

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Man On The Phone
A man walks along a London street while conversing on the telephone

Man On The Phone. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man walks along a London street while conversing on the telephone

Recently I’ve been realizing that the image of people using cell phones is quite probably going to one of defining images of this period in time. Being part of it, I’m not sure we are quite conscious of how ubiquitous it is nor of how profoundly it has changed the activities of people and how they act in the urban environment. For example, a few years ago I joked that it used to be that you could tell tourists in the big city by how they wandered around gazing upwards — but that now you can identify them by looking for people walking around while staring straight down and screens.

So this photograph is partly a reference to and inspired by this idea about the phone and its ever-present visually defining role in the current era. Of course it is also about the fellow himself, who has, at least to me, a fascinating appearance. It is also about the surrounding urban landscape with its colors and angles and so forth.

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: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman, Smoking Cyclist

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Woman, Smoking Cyclist
A woman walks into an alley past a smoking bicyclist, Florence/Firenze, Italy

Woman, Smoking Cyclist. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman walks into an alley past a smoking bicyclist, Florence/Firenze, Italy

My impression, from about three days in Florence, is that this beautiful city is very much about tourism. (No surprise, right?) In the daytime, starting by mid-morning, and on into the evening it is a busy place, and most of the people seemed to me to have come from some other place. There are restaurants and shops all over the place and, of course, the folks selling trinkets in every square and along popular streets.

Occasionally I did manage to encounter scenes that seemed a bit less polished, especially when we went out early, avoided the most popular through routes,  and wandered into some of the narrower streets with fewer businesses. Here, in the morning, a fellow with a bicycle pauses to lean against a wall and smoke, and a woman in what I suspect could be so-called “traditional dress” of some sort furtively ducks into an even small side alley.

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.

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