Tag Archives: alley

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Asian Ambiance

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Asian Ambiance
A man works in the display window of the Asian Ambiance shop, next to the Francisco Aquino’s Ross Alley 1889 Mural

Asian Ambiance. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man works in the display window of the Asian Ambiance shop, next to the Francisco Aquino’s Ross Alley 1889 Mural

When shooting at night — and, frankly, often when shooting during the day — I may photograph a scene, feeling that something about it “works,” but not knowing quite why in then sense that I could explain why I’m making the photograph. I frequently work quite intuitively, even though I’m very aware of my surroundings and fully engaged with them. This is one of those photographs.

I think I first simply thought the light spilling out of the colorful windows of the shop was interesting. As I walked over for a closer look I saw the man working intently on something in the window — perhaps repairing some sort of security shutter. I think I may have been aware of the pool of light on the sidewalk, and I soon noticed the mural to the left. (I later looked it up and found out that it has been there for a while and is far more than random graffiti.) As I quickly framed up a photograph, hoping the man would not move, I thought about the edges of the frame and the position of the lamp at the right become an important consideration. The title, of course, is simply the name of the shop.

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: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Alley

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Blue Alley
A side alley in San Francisco, illuminated at night by blue lights

Blue Alley. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A side alley in San Francisco, illuminated at night by blue lights

Sometimes I think about why I am attracted to certain subjects, and I’ve thought a bit about what it is about night photography that draws me. It is actually a bit complicated, so I won’t try to explicate the whole thing here. I can, however, say something about two related issues. First, a lot of night photography is as much about what the camera sees as it is about what I see. Our human vision can work rather well in near darkness, especially once we adapt, but what we see is nothing much like what our cameras see. The camera can blur motion with long exposures, can record with relative accuracy colors that we either cannot really see in near darkness or which our minds tell us are not what they really are, and quite simply the camera can sometimes produce a photograph of things that are too dark to really see. Secondly, because of these things, the concept of objective accuracy in night photography pretty much goes right out the window. How in the world do you make an “accurate” photograph of something that you cannot actually see without the camera?

If you or I saw this scene with our eyes, we would likely be almost completely unaware of the wildly divergent colors of the light. Our vision system (eyes and, especially, brain) often tell us that we are seeing what we believe we should see. Sidewalks are grey, not blue, so even in blue light the mind registers the objectively blue sidewalk as gray. Yet the camera is more objective, and when we see photographs of these subjects we are often struck by the wild colors. I have heard people ask how to “correct” these colors. My answer? Don’t! I look for and use these intensely colored lighting sources – here a blue light, sometimes the red of automobile tail lights, the warm color of tungsten light, the daylight-like color of LED lighting, the strange spectrum of fluorescent — all of which can lend string color to scenes that are often drab and nondescript in daylight

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

Alleyway Ladder

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Alleyway Ladder
A wooden later climbs a concrete wall in a San Francisco alley

Alleyway Ladder. San Francisco, California. May 29, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wooden later climbs a concrete wall in a San Francisco alley

This is a photograph from one of my early morning forays into downtown San Francisco, trips that tend to become a bit more common this time of year. The first of “the season” was near the end of May. I started at the Caltrain Station, worked my way mostly along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building area, and then took a winding route off into the City.

I tend to walk slowly while working on these projects — stopping to look, to wait, and to poke my camera into odd little corners. Here I found the gate to a small alley open, and after watching a couple of people walk through on their way to a business in the back I followed. Just inside the gate was an old textured concrete wall with this wooden ladder leading up along its face, and the combination of the textured concrete, the form of the ladder, and the perspective convergence created an interesting abstraction.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Lamp and Open Window

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Street Lamp and Open Window
Street Lamp and Open Window

Street Lamp and Open Window. Salzburg, Austria. July 15, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A street lamp and two windows on a building wall along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

I saw these interesting lamps on my first day walking around in Salzburg but didn’t think much more about them until later. They were attached to walls by what look like curved rods of iron, and were not like anything that I’m familiar with. Later, when visiting a location near but not in Salzburg, I saw the same lamps on other buildings. Now, seeing a pattern, I started looking for them, and they popped up in lots of different places in and around Salzburg.

This wall belongs to what I presume is a home or apartment along a narrow street not far from central Salzburg. In the afternoon we walked away from the busy old central city and headed toward a nearby area where we had parked, and as we did we passed through a number of these old, narrow streets. In places, the afternoon light was almost parallel to the streets, and here it glances across the rough surface of the wall, hitting one window and casting a shadow on the open upper window.

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.