Tag Archives: architecture

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.

Photographs: New York City

Manhattan Bridge

September 10, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge above the East River and the old Domino Sugar plant

I photographed this from the water taxi — not always an easy trick, and often resulting in a lot of skewed horizons! For those who wonder, it is possible to make sharp, handheld photographs from the deck of a bouncing water taxi… if your are careful, do lots of safety shots, have good light, and keep the ISO up. The real tricks are to put yourself in the right places on the boat, where you’ll have a good view of your subject and won’t be blocked by others, and then to be able to very quickly spot and respond to momentary juxtapositions of elements.

I knew I wanted to photograph the Manhattan Bridge as we went underneath it, so I had already found myself a place from which to get a good line of sight. The initial idea was to show the mass of this bridge as it stretches out over the water, but I quickly saw that the iconic (and abandoned) Domino Sugar plant was making an appearance beyond the bridge, so I watched for this conjunction of the two features.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Museum Atrium

August 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light patterns on the atrium wall at the New York Museum of Modern Art

I think I end up visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) every time I visit New York City. It may be partly out of habit, but it is also because there are always things there to see. MOMA always features photography — though the work on display this time was not quite my cup of tea. There are special exhibits, and we were especially surprised and please by the Lygia Clark show. It is always hard to resist — we inevitably fail — visiting the regular collection of famous work in the main galleries.

For me, the space itself is an interesting photographic subject. To some extent it is a good place to photograph people, and I did a bit of that in one particular gallery displaying work that did not particularly impress me — though I noticed one particular museum attendant keeping a very close eye on me. She never said a word, but it seemed like she was always watching me, to the extent that she shows up in perhaps half of the photos I made in that exhibit! The building itself is fascinating, in terms of its own architectural details, how people inhabit the space, and how light plays on its shapes and surfaces. This photograph features the central atrium, which I have photographed in the past, crisscrossed by light patterns stretching down from the roof.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Walking Man, Columns

June 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man walks between architectural columns, San Francisco

This is what I think of as a “compose and wait” shot, something I often do when shooting street photography. I find an interesting composition — here the series of columns, with shadows falling across them, and the mottled foreground light reflected from the windows of nearby downtown buildings — and then I wait for a person to walk into the frame and provide a center of visual interest.

This approach provides an interesting combination of intentional and carefully composed elements (the selection of overall subject and its composition) with elements that are almost completely out of my control — I have no idea who will walk into the frame, exactly where they will be, or what they will be doing. Things tend to happen very quickly, too. Obviously, I could not really track this subject into the frame, as he was behind these large columns, so I have to react quickly. In truth, when I work this way I often end up making quite a few exposures that just don’t quite work… but if I’m lucky it may all fall together in a single frame.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: architecture

Streetlamp, Bridge, Buildings

Manhattan Bridge

Museum Atrium

Walking Man, Columns

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