Tag Archives: architecture

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: San Francisco

Cliff House, Winter Surf

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Cliff House, Winter Surf
Cliff House, Winter Surf

Cliff House, Winter Surf. San Francisco, California. January 31, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Black and white photograph of Pacific Ocean winter surf at the Cliff House, San Francisco, California.

This was not what I was supposed to photograph on the final day of January. I went to San Francisco to visit my son and then do some street/urban photograph while walking around the city. I expected that we might start in the Mission where he lives – and we actually sort of did, beginning with breakfast at Tartine Bakery. After finishing up we were deciding whether to head toward downtown on foot or catch BART, and I mentioned that since I had my car he might want to go to someplace farther away. He suggest Sutro Baths over in the Cliff House and Ocean Beach area, so off we went.

Although I’ve seen lots of interesting photography from this location – especially some interesting night photography work – I had not photographed there before. The baths are the ruins of what were once apparently some large facilities right next to the rugged shoreline here, but today little remains besides foundations, some low walls, and some remaining pools. I was a bit surprised to find the surf raging; I hadn’t thought it would be an especially high surf day since this was during a lull between storms.

Before long I spotted some of my favorite seascape conditions, bright reflections on the the wild Pacific Ocean winter surf, backlit by sun shining through fog and haze. Although I had no tripod I went ahead and shot some hand held seascapes. I’ve previously mentioned that I don’t always know while shooting whether or not photographs will end up in black and white, but with these I was pretty certain from the beginning. The building in the upper left is the Cliff House, the most recent iteration of a facility that has stood here for a long time.

This photograph is 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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Photographs: People, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Couple With Umbrellas, Getty Center

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Couple With Umbrellas, Getty Center
Couple With Umbrellas, Getty Center

Couple With Umbrellas, Getty Center. Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a couple with umbrellas walking one behind the other across a sidewalk on a rainy day at the Getty Center, Los Angeles.

I posted another photograph from this sequence a few weeks back. During our late December visit to the Getty Center I found a spot under an overhang that kept the rain off of me and my gear and I picked out a scene full of vertical structures – windows, walls, distant buildings, columns – and waited as other visitors to the Center walked through this little window of light. Out of perhaps a couple dozen exposures I came up with several I like including this one of a couple with umbrellas.

This photograph is 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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Photographs: People, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Curved Windows, Stairs, and Reflections – Getty Center

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Curved Windows, Stairs, and Reflections - Getty Center
Curved Windows, Stairs, and Reflections - Getty Center


Curved Windows, Stairs, and Reflections – Getty Center. Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

View through curved windows into the central rotunda at the Getter Center with stairs, people, and reflections.

This and a few of my other recent Getty Center photographs are at least partially “about” complexity of several sorts. This isn’t a simple image. I saw quite a few things here when I made it. I may have first been drawn to the reflections on the curving windows of this central building at the Center – it is the first building you enter as you come up from the tram, here photographed from the inner courtyard on the other side of the building. The reflections become almost as solid as some of the other elements since these “other” things are distorted both in shape and color by the windows. I also liked the zigzag pattern of the interior stairway and the two figures at the top balanced by the single sitting figure at the bottom and perhaps the walking figure near the right side. The light was interesting. It was a cloudy and rainy day. (In a full-size image you can see the raindrops on the foreground window.) Besides the odd green cast – more on that in a moment – because the light was diffused and coming from all directions in these misty and rainy conditions, I had a better chance to balance the exposure between the inside and outside areas. There are curves everywhere in the scene – starting with the curving windows, including the curving staircase, the outline of the round interior space, the far curved windows seen clearly in the upper part of the frame, and so on. Finally, as I thought about what to do with the narrow triangle of outside sidewalk at the lower left, it occurred to me that having it there enhanced the odd quality of the green-windowed interior space, and this space even began to remind be a bit of a giant aquarium.

This photograph is 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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Shelter From the Rain, Getty Center

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Shelter From the Rain, Getty Center
Shelter From the Rain, Getty Center

Shelter From the Rain, Getty Center. Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of four people sheltering from winter rain at the edge of a covered overlook at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, California.

I’ll confess to being a complete sucker for photographing at the Getty – I really love the place. The art is, of course, wonderful, and I especially enjoy the really fine photographic exhibits found there. In the recent past I saw both the Irving Penn and Edward Weston shows. But I’ve admitted more than once that the place itself is what intrigues me the most. The light is amazing and quite variable – I’ve been there on winter days when the ocean was visible and almost too bright to look at, and on rainy days when fog drifted among the buildings and through the gardens. The architecture is a great subject, but so are the people.

I was there most recently at the end of December, when we stopped on our way back from Southern California for an afternoon. My photographic interests are such that I was almost overjoyed when I saw that it would be rainy at the Getty and even happier when I found fog along the ridge top location. I posted some photographs from this visit earlier this year, and this one begins another short sequence of Getty Center images.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

keywords: getty, center, los angeles, california, usa, museum, winter, travel, urban, art, black and white, monochrome, four, people, couple, man, woman, umbrella, fence, sidewalk, railing, opening, roof, columns, structure, silhouette, reflection, shadow, mist, rain, cloud, weather, pattern, architecture, structure, light, garden, street, urban, stock, travel