Tag Archives: abandoned

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California

Abandoned Umbrella

April 11, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An umbrella lies abandoned, Getty Center

Perhaps every year or so I get a chance to visit the Getty Center in Los Angeles. This striking facility is on the top of a ridge that runs along highway 405 as it passes Los Angeles. I first visited quite a few years ago when our oldest son was at UCLA, then later when our daughter was a UCI, and since then on other visits to the area. The collections and exhibits at the center are always worthwhile, and many of the photography exhibits are especially notable.

In addition to the content of the Center, the architecture itself is very interesting and provides a compelling photographic subject for me. If pressed I will admit that I probably go to the Getty as much to see and photograph the place (and people) as I do for the art! The square shapes cover the wall and columns, and are extended into the walkways and elsewhere. The structures seem quite modern in many ways, but the overall effect reminds me a lot of hilltop European castles. (I have a photograph or two from this visit coming up, in which I tried to capture that feeling.) In this photograph I was initially interested in the conjunction of curves and lines and shapes and textures, but I thought that the odd umbrella just sitting there was nice bit of visual dissonance. (In truth, these umbrellas are iconic at the Getty, since visitors can simply borrow them — so you tend to see them all over the place.)

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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Decaying Shoreline Docks

June 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Decaying docks along the San Francisco Bay waterfront

Early on a late-spring morning I arrived in San Francisco on the train, reaching the waterfront area not too long after sunrise and then exploring on foot. I wandered over into the China Basin area, which is currently a hotbed of construction projects. This formerly almost abandoned area is now the location of many new buildings and projects.

I passed through those areas and soon arrived at the waterfront, which so far does not show much of the newness that is found a bit further from the shoreline. Here a rocky breakwater runs along the edge of the water, and old broken down piers sag above and sometimes into the water. Out on the bay there are tankers moored on the horizon, and the brilliant morning sun was rising above a thin fog back on the east side of the bay. For some odd reason, an old lawn chair sets near one end of this rickety dock.

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

Shoreline, Abandoned Dock, Morning

June 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An abandoned dock stands along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in morning light

Things have been very busy recently, limiting my time to go out and shoot. For some time I’ve been looking forward to another of my periodic “personal photo walks” in San Francisco, and I finally had the chance today. My routine is to get up very early and catch a Caltrain to the City, arriving there no later than 7:00 AM. This is a bit before the crowds arrive, and early enough that there is still a lot of good light around. The good light is especially likely long the San Francisco Bay waterfront, where it shine toward the City from across the bay, often through mist or fog and always reflecting on the water.

This time I explored around the fringes of the Mission Bay area. This was formerly a pretty run down location, with lots of empty lots and some abandoned structures. However, recent urban development has come, and many of the formerly empty areas are now construction sites or the sites of very new and recently occupied buildings. I walked past these and looped over towards the waterfront, where some areas are surprisingly “unimproved,” at least so far. Here I found the remnants of several old piers that have been left to decay and gradually tumble into the bay. In this photograph I shot straight into the morning sun, silhouetting the rotting wood, and composing the scene to include a bit of a working pier to the left and a couple of tankers anchored out in the bay beneath the thinning fog bank.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Ghost Towns, Photographs: Southern California

Rusting Building, Leadfield

June 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rusting corrugated building, one of the few remaining structures at the ghost town of Leadfield, California

This is one of the few standing structures remaining from the boom town of Leadfield, in the backcountry of Death Valley National Park, in the Grapevine Mountains more or less midway between the Beatty, Nevada area and the main Death Valley. The standard story is that this town was the result of one of the biggest swindles and scams in the mining history of the area, and the story is often told of the main promoter salting the mine with ore brought in from other locations and producing brochures featuring boats on the Amargosa River… which is typically completely dry. In the process of preparing this photograph to share I did a bit of reading, and it seems like the story might not be quite so simple nor so dramatic. Apparently there was a history of prospecting and mining in this area before the town was created in the mid-1920s, and lead and perhaps silver were actually mined from the place. A range of problems led to its downfall—the distance the ore needed to be transported, problems with the sale of shares in the mines—but it may not be true that the mine itself was essentially just a scam.

This building is well-known to those who have visited the place, as it is one of two buildings that still stand. Both are located near the entrance to one of the mine shafts, and it seems likely that this was not a residence but rather some building related to mine operations. Today it is a mere shell, but I find it amazing that it still stands nearly 90 years after the “town” (which apparently consisted largely of tents) was abandoned. Even more amazing is to stand at this spot and look out at the surrounding landscape—a rugged and uncompromising mountainous desert terrain—and imagine what it must have been like to live and work in such a place.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: abandoned

Abandoned Umbrella

Decaying Shoreline Docks

Shoreline, Abandoned Dock, Morning

Rusting Building, Leadfield

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