Tag Archives: building

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Crouching Man in Orange

June 28, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street scene in San Francisco with a crouching man wearing orange

Today we take a little break from nature photography and head to San Francisco, one of my favorite places to do street photography. I suppose one reason it is a favorite is that it is so close — typically I hop on a train very early in the morning to arrive there around dawn (or a bit later this time of year) and then set out on foot to explore. It is also a favorite because, well, it is San Francisco. What a place — even with recent changes and overcrowding. The City borders to San Francisco Bay, it is full of diverse and interesting neighborhoods, and the people range from locals to out-of-town visitors.

This photograph is bound to seem a bit strange to those of you have stuck with me through a few weeks of redwood forest photography — what happened and what’s going on here?! I don’t want to explain too much — partly because a photograph can often reveal whatever it has to say on its own, partly because I don’t want to clutter it up with too many words, and partly because you can discover some stuff about it on your own if you choose to. Color is one clue…

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

Photographs: Structures and Objects

Metal Building, Distressed Paint

April 2, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Metal industrial building with marks from patched paint

This is another of the pre-dark twilight photographs I made on my recent visit to the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to do night photography. A group of us assembled bit by bit, some starting close to the middle of the day and others, like me, arriving shortly before dark. About a half hour before sunset I headed out, beginning with some daylight photograph around some industrial buildings I had noticed on my way to the meet-up. By the time I got there and got set up I was only able to make a few photographers before the sun set far to the west over San Francisco, but the twilight light is also interesting to work with.

In this photograph I was interested in the objective qualities of the old building with its weathered and patched metal walls, especially in the random nature of the patched paint along with the juxtaposition of the warmer colors on the walls and the cool, blue tones on the roof, with all of the colors altered in the blue twilight. At the same time, I went with the wide and narrow landscape orientation of this photograph in an attempt to treat the colors and forms as abstract elements, too.

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

March 31, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

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

Building 259

March 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Building 239, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

In mid-March I returned to the old Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to do night photography with some of my nocturnal friends, a group of photographers with connections through Bay Area night photography guru Tim Baskerville who has been photographing, teaching, and generally promoting night photography for decades. We assembled well before dark, and as I arrived I kept my eyes out for structures on the old ship yard that might be interesting to photograph after sunset. About a half hour before the sun went down we began to head out to start out night’s work.

I planned to photograph around the “historic core” of the facility, but I decided first to drive back along my arrival route to where I had seen these buildings and few others that caught my attention. I started with a building that I have photographed in the past, and the sun set as I worked that scene. The soft, blue early twilight changed the appearance of the buildings, giving the foreground building 259 a blue cast and altering the color of the further building. I’m intrigued by these “round” buildings (what I grew up calling Quonset huts), and here I wanted to contrast its shape and color with the squared and pinkish background building.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: building

Crouching Man in Orange

Metal Building, Distressed Paint

Alley, Arrow, Windows

Building 259

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