Tag Archives: building

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Colchester Baptist Church

July 5, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Baptist Church, Colchester, England

This is another photograph from our brief summer 2016 one-day visit to the town of Colchester, England — a short train trip from London, where we were staying for about a week. We weren’t really sure what we would find in this town, so when we arrived on the train we simply got off and started wandering. Of course, breakfast was near the top of our agenda. After that we walked through the large park near and in back of the town castle.

Eventually we left the park and spent a few hours slowly wandering the narrow streets of the town. Much of it was, frankly, somewhat nondescript. But every so often something interesting would turn up: the ruins of an old church, and outdoor restaurant along a narrow street, and this very business-like and foursquare Baptist church with its striking blue door.

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

Photographs: France, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Corner, Evening, Montmartre

June 10, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening on a street corner in Montmartre, Paris

In the summer of 2016, on our first evening in Paris, we went out wandering in Montmartre. We more or less had no idea where we were going, but eventually our random walk took us to a popular destination with a view over Paris, and then it was time to eat. As Paris novices it took us, believe it or not, a while to figure out where to eat. Yeah, I know. In Paris?

After eating in one of the numerous cafes in Montmartre we walked some more, mostly just wandering up and down the narrow streets to see what we could see. It was a long summer twilight and I was able to photograph on into the evening. In places there were lots of people, but on other streets there seemed to be almost no one, and here and there we found surprising and even odd little bits of street art and similar things. I want to think that this image on the wall might have been street art, but it could also have been some kind of shrine.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Ghost Towns, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Abandoned Stamp Mill

April 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

It seems that every national park or monument has both a natural and a human hisstory, or perhaps a story about the relationship between the two. While the power of natural forces (heat, water, geology, and more) is abundantly obvious in the huge, austere landscape of Death Valley National Park, the human history of the place is rarely far from view. It begins with the evidence of people who lived here long before European-origin settlers came, evidence that can be seen in rock art scattered throughout the park, in the recognition that many settlements (current and now-abandoned) have a very much longer history than we may think, and in the native people who still occupy and identify with this landscape.

Perhaps more obvious is the more recent history of those who came to look for mining success. (There are places in the park where extraction still takes place.) Some examples are obvious to the casual visitor, but the more time you spend in the back-country of the park the more you understand that this particular history is everywhere — though not usually as obvious as this example. This stamp mill, built to crush gold ore, is amazing in multiple ways. Perched at the end of high ridge in very remote location, it was powered in the most unlikely manner… by water piped in from a spring over twenty miles away. The location is stupendous, and it is easy to think that practical issues may not have been the only considerations in choosing the site. From here one can look down thousands of feet to broad alluvial slopes leading towards Death Valley, but one can also look further into the distance and see the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Abandoned Loading Dock

March 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Railroad tracks and a weather protection structure above an old loading dock, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

This is another very still and quiet image from my recent evening photographing the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard. Image walking alone in the darkness among these old (mostly) abandoned ship yard buildings: shops, warehouses, towers. Occasionally a lone car drives past, momentarily raising my level of alertness. It is mostly silent except for a sound of distant traffic across the water in Vallejo. The air is typically cold and damp, and on this night a bit of a breeze blows. The photographs are visual images, but they also evoke, for me, a whole series of associations, memories, and sensations associated with the place the experience of making the photographs.

There is always a question of just how to treat luminosity and color with these nighttime subjects. The fact of the matter is that many of these scenes are barely visible to the human eye, and details are shrouded in darkness. In this low light color is mostly desaturated, only becoming visible afterwards in the photograph. And much of the color is not the true color of the objects, but rather is the color of the light that illuminates them — and it can range from yellow to reddish, but white or even blue-green. The concept of accurate rendering becomes moot, since an “accurate” photograph (if “accurate” means “what it looked like”) would be almost colorless and nearly pitch black. Instead I take this as an opportunity to capture “what the camera sees” and use that as the raw material for what must be an interpretation of the captured light — almost inevitably brighter and more colorful than the original, but still trying to evoke that mysterious and quiet nocturnal quality.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: building

Colchester Baptist Church

Street Corner, Evening, Montmartre

Abandoned Stamp Mill

Abandoned Loading Dock

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