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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Waiting Man

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Waiting Man
A man stands at the curb with his head bowed, San Francisco.

Waiting Man. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man stands at the curb with his head bowed, San Francisco.

This photograph comes from a day spent doing street photography while walking through San Francisco… just a few short months before our world changed in early 2020 and such activities become difficult, if not impossible. I still photograph “street” a bit in the areas not far from where I live, but I haven’t been back to shoot this way in San Francisco since the “before times” — though I’m starting to imagine being able to do so once again. I did just a bit of this kind of photography when I spent a few days up there during our Open Studio event at a gallery in North Beach, though I’m still distracted by streets full of masked people.

I know that some people wonder why this “nature photographer” wanders off to photograph urban environments, and some are even perplexed by the photographs. There are lots of reasons for a landscape photographer to also be a street photographer. In some ways the genres are complementary, and doing one actually has the potential to improve the other. If nothing else, photographing street can remove the “I don’t have anything to photograph!” excuse, since there’s potentially something right outside your front door. In addition, for photographers who are often more comfortable photographing things than people, this work can be a way to stretch your boundaries.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Urban/Street

Exit Only

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Exit Only
An “exit only” sign attached to a wall that has not been painted recently.

Exit Only. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An “exit only” sign attached to a wall that has not been painted recently.

Postcard from Pandemic #2. I made this photograph on one of my SIP neighborhood walks a few weeks ago. If nothing else, the current travel restrictions are encouraging me to discover nearby things that I had not paid attention to before.

This wall is in the back of an urban business district. I’ve been around this area for decades, and I have watched it change a lot — from a quiet residential business district, to a place of fading and dying businesses, to a newly popular, somewhat upscale area with lots of restaurants and other signs of Silicon Valley wealth. For someone who has been here for a while and who recalls what was in this location in the past, this wall is a bit of a historical record.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Alley, Arrow, Windows

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Alley, Arrow, Windows
A directional arrow in a narrow alley outside of a windowed industrial building

Alley, Arrow, Windows. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A directional arrow in a narrow alley outside of a windowed industrial building

Night photography is, perhaps ironically, truly all about the light. There isn’t that much of it in most cases, so we resort to very long exposures (or perhaps very high ISO values) and we seek out places where there is just enough of it to make photographs. Night illumination is often from artificial sources, and frequently it comes at least partially from inside the subject rather than falling on its exterior. Subjects that may be mundane in normal daylight can take on new qualities in the light of the night — they may stand isolated from their backgrounds, take on unusual colors, and even become mysterious and moody.

This building is one of those subjects that glows from within. When I first saw it my initial idea was to get very close to some of the windows and simply photograph the interior of the empty building. For various reasons, ranging from practical to aesthetic, I gave up on that idea. Instead I stepped back a bit, included the windows and building interior, but also worked with the light spilling out into this alley, where a variety of patterns are produced on the pavement.

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: England, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Wall, London

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Brick Wall, London
Brick Wall, London

Brick Wall, London. London, England. August 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A painted and weathered brick wall beneath a London overpass

I have only a general recollection of where I made this photograph. I think it was on the south side of the Thames, probably somewhere beyond the Millennium Bridge and in an area of older narrow streets where we walked both to kill some time before an appointment and to wander and see what we could see.

There is, obviously, nothing all that exotic about this wall. In fact, I’ve likely photographed similar subjects in the SF Bay Area. I think several things caused me to stop and shoot it. First, to be honest, I was in a shooting mode – in other words I was shooting quickly and shooting a lot of frames. But beyond that, I was intrigued by the lights, muted by the narrow street and the fact – again, if I recall correctly – that this was shot near the edge of an underpass of some sort. Bricks often intrigue me, but here the layers of paint applied to the bricks, which really shouldn’t be painted, probably covers something that we are not supposed to see. The larger underlying area of black paint contrasts with the Halloween orange that must have been added later. But now new stuff has already been added to the wall on top of the old cover-up job.

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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