Tag Archives: air conditioner

Building, Windows, Blinds

Building, Windows, Blinds
Building, Windows, Blinds

Building, Windows, Blinds. San Jose, California. December 24, 2009. © Copyright 2009 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An urban building with vertical windows and blinds

I think I’ll stick with the black and white theme for one more day. This is a photograph I made five years ago. I remember stopping at this oddly plain little building on a walk not far from where I live. It was Christmas Eve day, and things were slowing down in anticipation of holiday festivities, so I went out on one of my local “photo walks” in the surrounding neighborhood. I do this from time to time for reasons that range from the desire to practice and tune up my “seeing” to wanting to see my surroundings more clearly — there is nothing like wandering with a camera in hand to encourage me to see things I would otherwise overlook. (One of the first times I did this in the neighborhood I was shocked to notice the upper stories on nearby business buildings that I had walked past for years.)

I think this must be some sort of office building, and perhaps behind these tightly shut blinds there is some sort of personal world that the rest of us cannot see. The outside of the building seems incredibly boring and lacking in any intentional design sense, yet the odd but functional windows start to look very strange when shot close up and without the rest of the building visible. The late afternoon sun was casting shadows from nearby trees to produce the mottled light.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

Landscape of Brick and Glass

Landscape of Brick and Glass

Landscape of Brick and Glass. San Francisco, California. May 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Urban landscape black and white photograph of brick buildings in downtown San Francisco, California.

Another photograph from AT&T Park, and again right around sunset. In this case I am shooting towards the downtown San Francisco skyline, which at this time of the day is intensely lit by the setting sun – hence the high key effect on the buildings in the distance and the sky gone all the way to white. With a bit of pondering it becomes apparent that this scene containing many different (mostly brick) walls and odd sized windows on buildings topped with skylights and ventolation systems is almost as complex a landscape as you can find. I like the glow inside the upper window of the closest building.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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