Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Building In Muted Light

February 20, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cloud-muted light on an urban building near SFMOMA

This building is becoming something of a theme for me, and I often end up treating it in black and white. I made the photograph from one of the outdoor terraces high on the side of the new section of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), from which there are interesting and varied views of the surrounding downtown San Francisco neighborhood. This building is perhaps the closest to the museum, and its form and the texture of its surface are interesting.

I originally thought that it would be a color photograph. The soft light played in interesting ways on the subtle colors of the stone and the pastel color of the windows. But the more I worked on it the more something persuaded me to let go of that nod to realism and instead go with a rather highly processed monochrome interpretation. There is a school of architecture photography that makes heavy use of techniques that darken areas of the image and then compensate by selective lightening. This is often complemented by some techniques involving blur — a sort of masking effect. I used these and more, including some heavy dodging and burning to get this photograph to what you see here — perhaps for no more reason than that I wanted to explore some of these techniques.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Sandhill Cranes in Flight, Dawn

February 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two sandhill cranes fly in dawn light

I think that the sandhill cranes may have become my favorite birds in the California Central Valley wetlands. (OK, ask me again later — I may change my mind if I’ve just had a white pelican flyover or discovered a surprise group of tundra swans or photographed a bald eagle, or… ;-) On my first visit to the wetlands, the result of a set of coincidences that I’ve described before, I was completely ignorant about what I was seeing. There were lots of birds, but heck if I knew what they were. Then I became entranced by the Ross’s and snow geese, with the white bodies and black-tipped wings in huge flocks. I photographed this pair in lucky conditions — on a morning that was foggy nearby it cleared enough right here to let the sunrise light strike these birds as they flew above my position.

I saw the cranes, but they seemed on those first visits to be less interesting birds. Their color is less striking. (Though the brilliant red of their heads is attention-getting.) While they flock together, their numbers are typically smaller than those of the geese. But the pump had already been primed for potential interest in the cranes, all the way back in college when I read (but didn’t really fully understand) Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac. The main thing I recalled about that book, for some reason, was the sandhill cranes. (And if this isn’t an example of how a college experience that seemed to mean little at the time planted a seed that sprouted later, I don’t know what is.) In recent years, the more time I spent in the wetlands the more the cranes became central to the experience. In fact, their cries are my primary auditory association with these places, both when heard from birds flying invisibly in the early morning tule fog and the mass returns of these noble birds after sunset.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Via dei Girolami

February 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An arch along the Via dei Girolami, Florence

During our too-short visit to Florence last summer — about three days at the very end of five weeks of travel — we spent a lot of time wandering the very narrow street “canyon” of the city. I fell in love with the place, especially its architecture and its photographic potential. I photographed from early morning on into the night almost the entire time we were there. Can I go back yet?

In a city of narrow streets, the Via dei Girolami stands out. There are narrower passageways, but whole sections of this street pass beneath buildings, supported by arching structures. As with so many things during our visit, especially since I prefer to not research too much ahead of time, we “discovered” this street by taking an unintended detour. The first time we began near the Ponte Vecchio, but the second — when I made this photograph — we walked through from the other direction.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Weathered Sandstone Wall

February 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A weathered and cracked sandstone wall in Utah canyon country

It has been about four-and-a-half years since I visited this spot and made this photograph, but I remember it distinctly. We had followed the twisting course of a small stream down a canyon as it wound back and forth between the tall sandstone walls. Eventually we perhaps began to think it was time to turn around, but it was hard to resist finding out what was around “one more bend” — until we had passed through quite a few more of them! I remember three things about this particular wall. It was huge — a monumental expanse of nearly solid granite broken in a few spots where giant flakes of rock had fallen. The stream passed right along the base of the wall. And there were odd circular patterns inscribed into its surface — so regular in shape that I first thought they must have been made by humans.

This spot is in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a place that we might have believed to be safely protected for future generations. But these days, when America has been turned upside-down, things we took for granted are now threatened. And, yes, there are forces in the state of Utah that are working to take land out of this incredible monument and turn it over to extractive industries to dig it up and take out shale oil, uranium, and whatever else they can get their hands on. There are many things we can do about this. One very important step is to get the attention of the people of the state of Utah and remind them that one of their greatest assets is the beautiful system of parks, monuments, national forests, and other lands that draws visitors from all over the world — visitors who support a thriving tourism and recreation economy in the state. Since their legislators don’t seem to respond to reason or shame, perhaps they will respond to economic pressure. This week a consortium of outdoor manufacturers announced that they are moving their annual convention out of Utah. Lots of us are vowing to not visit the state until they stop trying to destroy it — and we won’t be staying in their motels, eating in their restaurants, buying gas there, or anything else.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Building In Muted Light

Sandhill Cranes in Flight, Dawn

Via dei Girolami

Weathered Sandstone Wall

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