Tag Archives: buena

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Two Bridges and Fog, San Francisco Bay

July 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning fog floats above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and Yerba Buena Island.

This is certainly not a unique viewpoint for photographing the Golden Gate (and the bridge named after it) and the rest of San Francisco Bay… but I keep returning anyway. While the principal physical elements of the scene – Marin headlands, bridge, the City, bridges, Yerba Buena Island, the East Bay – the conditions of light and atmosphere change constantly. The variations in the fog alone could be the subject of a book, I’m sure! It can come from the west (summer) or the east (winter), it can be high or low (or both at once!), thin or thick, opaque or luminous, static or moving quickly, illuminated by sun or by artificial light at night, and more.

On this morning it was a combination of several of those. There was a sort of thin fog/haze at the lower levels, but the thicker fog was quite high, above the bridge towers and even a bit above my position in the Marin headlands. The fog was beginning to break up, starting to the east and gradually moving westward toward the coast, and when I made this photograph large beams of diffused light were coming through the fog deck and lighting areas around the San Francisco waterfront and even on the bay waters. Lining up the elements of the photograph wasn’t terribly hard once I found the composition I liked, but then I waited for boats for move into or out of the frame (see a large freighter passing between towers of the distant Bay Bridge) and for the light to appear in (as close to) the right places (as one can hope for).

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Islands, San Francisco Bay, Foggy Morning Light

October 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

San Francisco Bay morning fog over begins to break up over Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Islands and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.

I made this photograph back around the start of spring in 2009. I recall shooting from the Marin Headlands back toward the Bay as the fog began to break up, still obscuring the view but allowing beams of light to begin to come through the gloom and light up portions of the Bay. Alcatraz Island is at upper left and beyond that is the Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island complex.

Many things intrigued me about this scene. Although it is in shadow still, Alcatraz stands out as the clearest object in the scene. The patterns on the water were amazing, created by a combination of the normal surface waves, the wakes of ships that had passed, and the mottled and mixed lighting of areas of fog and sun. Beyond the main subjects and over the East Bay shoreline around Oakland, light beams come down from the clearing fog.

This photograph is also an example of why I save and later review all of my raw files. Either because I don’t understand the image when I first make it or perhaps I move on to the next project too quickly sometimes it is not unusual when a photograph “slips through the cracks” and I end up overlooking it. This was one of those photographs… which I now find hard to understand.

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Commentary

Tile and Concrete Wall

August 26, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A weathered tile and concrete wall at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

I’ll throw things a bit off-kilter here and interrupt the stream of landscape images from the Sierra Nevada with a minimalist photograph of a tile wall that I made while walking around in San Francisco in July. This may not be quite as simple a photograph as it first appears, and in larger version or print it becomes more apparent that the tiles are varied and weathered in interesting ways that produce a range of textures and colors.

I do a certain number of “minimalist” photographs – some of the urban landscape and others of the natural landscape and seascapes. Sometimes when I’m photographing some of the urban subjects I get some very strange looks from passers-by! I guess it must be hard to imagine why some guy with a fancy camera is pointing it straight at a wall in downtown San Francisco when so many other seemingly more compelling subjects are all around. Or else they might wonder if there is something there that they just don’t see.

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

Blue and Green Receptacles, Yerba Buena Gardens

July 21, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Blue and green waste receptacles next to a glass wall at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco.

I’m tempted to not say much about this photograph, beyond the basics of where and when and what. The “where” is along the wall of the performing arts center at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center. The when is on a morning with high fog that produced some nice, diffused light. The “what” is, well, a couple of trash cans in front of a large window, behind which there are a couple of other trash cans in the same color scheme, a drinking fountain, and some yellow walls. Profound, no? :-)

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: buena

Two Bridges and Fog, San Francisco Bay

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Tile and Concrete Wall

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Blue and Green Receptacles, Yerba Buena Gardens

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

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