Tag Archives: architecture

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

One Front Street, San Francisco

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IOne Front Street, San Francisco - maginary (urban) landscape based on the facade of the One Front Street building, San Francisco
Imaginary (urban) landscape based on the facade of the One Front Street building, San Francisco

One Front Street, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. July 9, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Imaginary (urban) landscape based on the facade of the One Front Street building, San Francisco.

This is another in a short series of photographs I did earlier this month in which I focused on shooting very close to the base of some downtown San Francisco buildings, aiming the camera nearly straight up in order to see their shapes more abstractly, and then working fairly freely in post to modify the images in ways that I felt were interesting. This one, and some of the others, are subject to enough post-processing that they probably fit into the category that I describes as “imaginary landscapes.)

I imagine that architects who create such things understand these buildings in ways far different from this in which the rest of us see them. A few things, likely completely obvious to the building designers, occurred to me. One, obvious now that I see it, is that the visual character of the buildings themselves is formed as much by what they reflect of their surroundings as it is by their own shape, texture, and material. Most of what constitutes this photograph, for example, is not the building itself (which is largely defined by the narrow non-reflecting portions) but by what in the surrounding environment is reflected on its surface and how those reflections are shaped and modified by the reflecting surface of the building. In this case, the building reflects itself in the right angles such as the one in the center of this shot, along with the sky, and sometimes the surrounding buildings. (Though the latter is removed when you aim the camera up so sharply.)

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.

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

Embarcadero Center Tower

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Embarcadero Plaza Tower - Black and white rendition of Embarcadero Plaza Tower, San Francisco.
Black and white rendition of Embarcadero Plaza Tower, San Francisco.

Embarcadero Center Tower. San Francisco, California. July 9, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white rendition of Embarcadero Plaza Tower, San Francisco.

This may be a bit of a rude shock after all of the recent nature images, but here we go. I made this photograph in early July while spending a couple days in San Francisco. On the first afternoon I went out armed primarily with a, uh, 50mm prime, and I found myself interested in photographing the tall downtown buildings from very close up and with somewhat steep upward angles so that I could accentuate the converging perspective lines. (Some of the others in this series will be significantly abstract interpretations of these subjects.)

I made this while walking “through” the row of Embarcadero Center buildings. It was quite close to sunset, so the shadows were beginning to fill a bit more with light than they would during the middle of the day, when the light and shadows are more harsh. However, since I was shooting in shadows and low light, I ended up hand holding the camera at a fairly low shutter speed since I need a relatively small aperture for depth of field, especially since I decided to let the two overhead support beams intrude into the space of the taller building. This image was also the result of some significant work in the post-processing stage, including the application of a blue filter layer (to get the sky to blow out to white) and a blurred overlay layer.

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

Two Bushes , San Francisco Home

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San Francisco Photograph - Two bushes grow along the sidewalk in front of an urban San Francisco home.
Two bushes grow along the sidewalk in front of an urban San Francisco home.

Two Bushes, San Francisco Home. San Francisco, California. July 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two bushes grow along the sidewalk in front of an urban San Francisco home.

I can’t say with certainly just where in San Francisco I photographed this building, though I think it may have been in the North Beach neighborhood. To me it seemed like a superficially very simply building that turns out to be a lot more complex, and a just plain interesting example of a lot of surprising juxtapositions of shape and color.

Everything initially seems almost boringly “square” – the shapes on the garage door, the sections of the sidewalk in front of the garage, the abrupt and jutting shape of the upper story extension that leans out over the front entrance and the garage, the odd little window at the upper left, and the two symmetrically placed bushes in front of the garage and the front door. But with a little bit closer look, certain things seem to be off just a bit. Someone must have faced a difficult decision when the bushes grew too tall – whether to chop off the top of the one on the right and maintain the symmetry, or to instead let that one drop, throwing off the even balance – and doesn’t the one on the left sort of seem like the unruly brother of the one on the right?

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.

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

Urban Spring

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Urban Spring - New spring growth against a backdrop of downtown San Francisco buildings.
New spring growth against a backdrop of downtown San Francisco buildings.

Urban Spring. San Francisco, California. April 20,2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

New spring growth against a backdrop of downtown San Francisco buildings.

I was covering familiar ground through essentially the financial district area of downtown San Francisco while on an April walk through the city to shoot street and urban landscape subjects. This building is familiar to almost anyone in San Francisco, and perhaps to many who have seen photographs of the striking exterior that are often seen online. The difference this time was that the downtown trees, that are a rare nod to the natural world in this almost wholly constructed environment, were just beginning to leaf out with new spring greenery and providing a sort of ironic counterpoint to the hard, reflective, and angular surfaces of the architecture.

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.