Tag Archives: building

Ding

January 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pedestrian walks past a New York City post office building.

An apology might be appropriate for this photograph, which might be the oddest Christmas Day photograph of 2013. We had arrived in New York City the previous evening, and when we woke up on Christmas morning in Manhattan things were relatively quiet. We had an afternoon engagement in Brooklyn, but plenty of morning time to kill before that, so we figured that we might just take a (rather cold) walk deeper into Lower Manhattan, and we ended up heading toward the World Trade Center site.

Because there were so few people – and so few cars – out this morning, certain photographic opportunities arose that might not usually be easy or even possible here. You can bet that on a more typical day this street would have been filled with vehicles and the sidewalk filled with other pedestrians. But on this quiet day it was much easier to photograph unobstructed views or to find an individual figure in this urban landscape. As this man in black strode purposefully (very purposefully for Christmas day!) past this post office building I saw that I might have a brief opportunity to frame him against the architecture of the building and as soon as I saw this particular shot, a little voice in my head said… “Ding!” (Sorry. But probably not sorry enough.)

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Graffiti on the Roof

January 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Grafitti on urban roofs beyond cyclone fence near the Manhattan Bridge, New York City

This is another photograph from our “hiking day” in New York City during our December 2013 visit. It wasn’t quite our plan when the day started, but we ended up walking from our Canal Street Hotel down to the Brooklyn Bridge and across, then around the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, and back across the Manhattan Bridge to the city again. The two bridges are a study in contrasts. Brooklyn Bridge is, of course, a huge tourist destination and walking across it is almost a requirement for New York visitors and others. Even on this very cold – sub freezing – winter day there were thousands of people crossing. The Manhattan Bridge, on the other hand, is a rather lonely place for pedestrians. we had been warned that it is tremendously noisy, since above ground transit trains cross it only feet from the narrow pedestrian walkway.

Probably because it has not been spiffed up to be a tourist attraction, the Manhattan Bridge also has a lot more aesthetic rough edges. The bridge structure seems mostly to be utilitarian steel, trains run constantly and not far from the walkway, and especially at the Manhattan end the bridge passes above some neighborhoods that don’t appear to be exactly upper class. Looking down from the bridge I saw some of the most extensive graffiti I have seen… on the roofs of buildings, where it is only visible from the bridge and not at all from the streets below. Most of the time I make it a rule to not photograph graffiti, but here it was so extensive and so established that it seemed worth it to make a few photographs through the cyclone fence protecting the bridge walkway.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Yellow Wall, Hellbrunn Palace

January 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yellow walls, green shutters, and the ubiquitous metal street lamps, Hellbrunn Palace near Salzburg, Austria

Hellbrunn is the site of the famous water garden, including a variety of “trick” fountains. I had never heard of the place, but our family guides thought it would be a good place to visit, so there we went. It was a palace for a member of Austrian nobility at one point (there’s more to the story than that…), and the story goes that he enjoyed playing tricks on guests. As a result, the grounds feature not only the usual huge lawns, statues, manicured gardens and so forth, but also a lot of water, some used to create all sorts of tricks and oddities.

There are benches from which water may spray on the person sitting there, doorways to small buildings that can suddenly spray the visitor, water that sprays up from sidewalks, and animated scene powered by water, a water powered organ, and more. The buildings, which are quite extensive, also include more staid living quarters, places to entertain guests, and art collections. As we walked around, I noticed the same street lamps attached to the exterior walls that I had seen elsewhere in Salzburg, so I included an example in this photograph of the corner of a brightly painted building.

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Travel

Heidelberg College

November 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The front of a building identified as “Heidelberg College,” Heidelberg, Germany

To answer likely the first question, this is not Heidelberg University, a very old and very highly regarded institution. As near as I can tell it isn’t even related to the University, though information about a “Heidelberg College” in this town is sparse. (One source suggests that it might be a high school or similar, though I’m not sure about that.) The building was along our typical walking route to the old town section of Heidelberg, and the orderly appearance and combination of colors had caught my attention the first time we passed.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: building

Ding

Graffiti on the Roof

Yellow Wall, Hellbrunn Palace

Heidelberg College

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