Tag Archives: black and white

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

Tourists Walking

September 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tourists on a late-night walk pass closed Chinatown shops in San Francisco

This is (yet another!) night street photography image made on one of my summer night walks in The City, in this case between roughly Union Square and almost to North Beach. A group of us meets up to photograph these subjects every so often. We begin before sunset and then continue walking, watching, and photographing right on into the night.

I recently read a nice description of part of what is appealing about photographing the street at night. In the daytime everything is more or less evenly lit, but at night small groups move into and out of the light, becoming “spotlighted” against the backdrop of the night. In places where we might see undifferentiated subjects in the daytime, subjects that pass though localized pools for light acquire more importance, and other elements of the scene recede. Here a small group of slightly uncomfortable-looking tourists shuffles past the closed up storefronts of Chinatown. Something about the group does not look entirely comfortable with their surroundings.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Air and Water

September 15, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Signs in downtown San Francisco

This is an odd little corner along the edge of a downtown gas station near a freeway off-ramp in San Francisco, photographed early on a morning when some fog was still breaking up over this part of the City.

I suppose it is fair to ask what this photograph is “about.” (Though I often think that a photograph simply “is” rather than being “about.”) The soft yet directional light, slanting in from the right of the frame, is the first thing, but the mass and odd angles of the two towering build boards as another. Three is bit of work-play, too, with the text on some of the signs seeming either random or interesting or perhaps both. Whole words appear painted on the wall, though they make little sense absent the context of other missing words. A small sign announces, “Air and Water.”

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Passersby

September 8, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A couple passes a man with a dog on a San Francisco sidewalk

There are stories behind all of my photographs, but the stories of street photographs can be a bit more involved — they often include not only my own story but also the stories of the events and even the people who may appear. There is a bit of both in this photograph of some people along a sidewalk in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, a photograph made in the early evening at the beginning of a night of street photography. I can’t try to describe everything that might be here, but I’ll share a few hints.

The first subject I see in this photograph is the woman, whose gaze is somewhat averted and whose demeanor does not express complete ease. The young man she accompanies is, obviously, facing away from the camera as she clutches his arm. Look to the left and notice the figure near the lamppost — a man clothed in a tie-dye “robe” (for lack of a better description of his improvised attire), carrying a backpack, and walking a very large and hairy dog. That man was the first subject to catch my attention, and when I first saw him he was behind my camera position and walking towards me. Believe me, he was quite a subject himself, but I am not fond of grabbing photographs of people who seem to perhaps be down and out — that sometimes feels like a bit of cliché. So I let him pass without a photograph, but then instinctively turned to see the scene unfold in the wake of his passage.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

A Bar

September 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The view through the open door of a San Francisco corner bar

I felt like a bit of a voyeur making this and a few other San Francisco night photographs — but that is part of street photography, isn’t it? After starting in a very different area at sunset — a less touristy area of Chinatown — then working my way slowly down past the gaudy lights and bright shops of Grant Street — I ended up in the popular area of shops and restaurants and hotels near Union Square.

This place is, quite literally, a “corner bar.” It was quiet inside, and I imagined that at least some of the folks at tables or sitting on stools having a drink might be regulars. A few sat alone and a few were in groups of two or more. The most interesting man (in the world) appeared on the television screen. The door was open and I considered that enough of an invitation to make a few photographs.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: black and white

Tourists Walking

Air and Water

Passersby

A Bar

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