Tag Archives: america

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Streetlamp, Bridge, Buildings

September 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Elements of downtown Chicago architecture

And now, a new subject for me: Chicago. I had been there before, but on other business, such as attending conferences in the downtown area, but this August was my first opportunity to photograph there. Midway through our train trip from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York City, we paused in Chicago for a couple of days. I can’t say that I “know” Chicago yet, but I can say that I’m starting to understand and like the place. (Though our impressions may have been skewed more than a bit by being there while the streets were filled with “Lallapaloozers.”)

From this and earlier visits, I’ve come to partly think of Chicago as being like New York, but with more space and light. I think that this is one reason that I found myself so often photographing juxtapositions of Chicago’s tall buildings and the way light and reflections play across them — the larger space between them and the more open light make this possible. This photograph was made from a boat (the “architecture tour,” if you wondered) as it passed beneath of the many bridges across the Chicago River. The basic elements of the photograph – a bridge, a street lamp, and the surfaces of tall buildings — seem to characterize the place for me.

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.

Morning Musings, News, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow Fire Smoke Plume – Morning Musings for 9/13/14

September 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thick smoke from the September 2014 Yosemite National Park Meadow Fire drifts over the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, blotting out the afternoon sun.

Today’s “Morning Musing” post will take the form of a second “photo of the day,” but with a bit of back-story about what you are seeing.

Last weekend a wildfire suddenly appeared in a popular area of the Yosemite backcountry along the Merced River drainage above Yosemite Valley, roughly between Half Dome, Clouds Rest, and Mount Starr King. I was not in the area of the fire, but further north in a different backcountry area, where our group of photographers had been camped for several days on a high ridge area. On this morning we did see a small “puff” of smoke coming from over the shoulder of Clouds Rest, but it was no larger than other fires that, as is typical this time of year, were burning in various areas of the backcountry.

Our plan was to pack up camp and follow a more-or-less cross-country route into a canyon and on to a new camp that night. We loaded up and set out, and by the time we were half way to our goal the smoke plume has begun to stretch across the sky above our position, thought it was still quite diluted. However, very soon the winds whipped up to a surprising degree and the smoke suddenly became a lot thicker and began to blot out the sun and drop ash on us. By this time we were in a valley and could no longer see the location of the fire, but it was plainly apparent that this fire was roaring and likely to become a very serious matter.

This photograph has not been color corrected at all. This is, in fact, what the atmosphere in and above the canyon looked like! Fortuitously, later that evening as we sat around in camp, we saw a flash in the sky and heard thunder… and before long light rains arrived and continued into the next afternoon.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Schnitzel Truck Line

September 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Workers line up at a Manhattan schnitzel truck

I had just stopped nearby to grab a quick coffee and some breakfast, but these downtown workers were apparently already lining up for schnitzel at this mid-morning hour. Food carts and food trucks are ubiquitous in this part of Manhattan, though most are the standard hot dog and pretzel (and more) places. This one offered something a bit different from the usual fare.

The truck itself caught my attention — it isn’t every day that you catch a schnitzel-selling food truck. But there were several other visual elements that seemed interesting to me as well. In a purely visual sense, the complex pattern of the tree shadow on the concrete was striking, almost as if the pattern was part of the sidewalk. (As I shot it I thought about how this “pizza light” might pose similar challenges when photographing in the forest.) The people, obviously, also were intriguing. Except for the second guy in line, who apparently doesn’t want to risk losing his place, each person keeps a rather large distance between himself and the others. The guys at the back of the line busy themselves with their smartphones, and all four of them are visually almost identical, except that one of them is not wearing a pink shirt.

Morning Musings, Photographers, Tongue in Cheek

Morning Musings: Secret Lives of Landscape Photographers (9/12/14)

September 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

“Secret (Banjo) Lives of Landscape Photographers” — A group on landscape photographers takes a musical break at the Sierra Nevada backcountry camp.

Landscape photographers relaxing with a little midday banjo music. (L-R: Scot Miller, Charles Cramer, Annette Bottaro-Walklet, Mike Osborne, Karl Kroeber, G Dan Mitchell)

I know the romantic notions about the daily lives of landscape photographers: days full of stunning golden hour light, incalculable beauties everywhere at every moment, the sublime life, rainbows, unicorns, etc. But the truth is more complex. Up before dawn and out into the cold without breakfast, shooting for hours until the light turns “blah,” then a long, boring midday period before the beautiful light returns hours later, then photographing into the frigid darkness.

It is often a struggle to find something useful to do in the backcountry during those midday hours. There are meals to eat, tents to tidy, and naps to take, but the hours are still long. We think we’ve found a solution. There’s nothing like a few hours of backcountry banjo ensemble music to make the time pass more quickly. Here the group nears the conclusion of the Adagietto movement of Mahler’s Symphony #5.

So, the next time you are in the Sierra Nevada backcountry and you pass a group of heavily laden photographers with tripods, folding chairs, and banjo cases on their backs, stop and say “hi.” ;-)

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Streetlamp, Bridge, Buildings

Meadow Fire Smoke Plume – Morning Musings for 9/13/14

Schnitzel Truck Line

Morning Musings: Secret Lives of Landscape Photographers (9/12/14)

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