Tag Archives: apartment

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

Downtown Chicago Buildings, Morning

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Downtown Chicago Buildings, Morning
Downtown Chicago Buildings, Morning

Downtown Chicago Buildings, Morning. Chicago, Illinois. August 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on dense downtown buildings, Chicago, Illinois

This is yet another photograph made from the architecture boat tour of downtown Chicago. At one point the boat head out toward the mouth of the river, where the water widens. Here the boat turns around and provides the most open and distant view of waterfront buildings. (During much of the rest of the tour the river passes very close to most buildings, so one is aiming almost straight up at them in many cases.)

The kind of view in this location and in this photograph is actually a bit rare when photographing big cities — a view from just enough distance and one that is not blocked by closer buildings. The greater distance reduces the issues of converging perspective lines and also allows more buildings to be included in the photograph, as here where more than half a dozen overlapping buildings fill the frame.

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.

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

Gated Doorway, Wall

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Gated Doorway, Wall - Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.
Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.

Gated Doorway, Wall. San Francisco, California. July 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.

As an Official Aficionado of Geometry, I found this more or less nondescript front of some San Francisco housing fascinating. The location is nothing special, being perhaps a few blocks up from the touristy Fishermans Wharf are and down an anonymous side street that I happened to turn onto for reasons that I can no longer recall. At street level, the walls are less walls than places to contain other things: gated entry-ways to apartments, garage doors, windows and so on. Little space is left empty.

The shapes include lots of vertical and horizontal lines and almost nothing (aside from the edges of the metal “thing” above the central gate and a bit of the concrete next to the garage door) that isn’t moving in one of those two directions. The central gate of rust colored metal dominates the scene. While I imagine that behind the gate is someone’s nice, comfortable home, the gate itself reminds me of something I might expect to see in a prison! To the left is another security gate, thought its bars are horizontal. There are a couple of surprising bits of color, too. The red at the bottom of the main gate, which I assume is there for the safety of people who might trip on that bit of a step, is matched by the bright red of the small extended window that is just barely intruding into the upper left corner of the frame.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.

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Person in Blue Shirt, Pigeon

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Person in Blue Shirt, Pigeon - A person in a blue shirt and a pigeon share a Stockton Street sidewalk in San Francisco.
A person in a blue shirt and a pigeon share a Stockton Street sidewalk in San Francisco.

Person in Blue Shirt, Pigeon. San Francisco, California. August 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A person in a blue shirt and a pigeon share a Stockton Street sidewalk in San Francisco.

Continuing my fascination with the walls of San Francisco buildings… this one is on Stockton Street just above China Town, and near the base of stairs descending from an overhead portion of the street under which Stockton continues through a tunnel. After I made this photograph I realized that I had also photographed it last year, from almost the same position and also with figures in front of it. But I decided that I like the subtle pigeon (perhaps hard to see in this small presentation) in front of the doorway, the guy in the blue shirt and shorts sauntering into the frame, and the fairly harsh front-lighting and shadows.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

San Francisco Skyline, Pre-Dawn Sky

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San Francisco Skyline, Pre-Dawn Sky
San Francisco Skyline, Pre-Dawn Sky

San Francisco Skyline, Pre-Dawn Sky. San Francisco, California. December 10, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pre-dawn sky begins to light the skyline of San Francisco, California.

While at San Francisco’s Crissy Field to photograph the lunar eclipse over the Golden Gate Bridge I realized that this unusual celestial phenomenon was by no means the only worthy subject at this early morning hour. Meanwhile, there was a beautiful and mysterious sunrise developing in the eastern sky beyond the City and over the East Bay, enhanced by a lot of atmospheric haze. (This was the same haze that ultimately caused the eclipsed moon to fade to invisibility shortly after the sky began to lighten.) So, while 99% of the photographers were still pointing their lenses west, I (along with a few other folks) pointed east and toward this section of the San Francisco skyline in roughly the Knob Hill and Russian Hill areas, with the familiar shape of the Transamerica pyramid partially hidden behind closer buildings and some typical San Francisco neighborhood buildings and trees up close at the bottom.

Yet again, this scene reinforced the idea that it is always important to look around at the whole scene. It is so easy to become completely focused on the single subject that you started out with – and sometimes this is a good thing! – that you may overlook other worthy subjects in other directions. I still have to remind myself sometimes to look up and scan my surroundings to see what else might be worth photographing.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.