Tag Archives: building

Converging Lines and Clouds

Converging Lines and Clouds

Converging Lines and Clouds. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of converging lines of downtown San Francisco buildings with cloudy sky.

On this “urban landscape” I went with a wide focal length and decided to just let those perspective lines go right ahead and converge! The photograph was made on a morning walk up the lower part of Market Street as the fog began to clear back from the bay.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, perspective, converging, lines, angles, structure, texture, shadow, reflection, cloud, sky, fog, line, form, shape, tower, building, skyscraper, window, wall, surface, abstract, stock, monochrome, black and white

Reflection Patterns, San Francisco

Reflection Patterns, San Francisco

Reflection Patterns, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Many layers of reflections on windows of downtown towers in San Francisco, California.

I’m crazy about the “reflections of reflections reflections…” that you can find in urbanized downtown areas when the light is just right. While the shapes and forms of the buildings are, I think, somewhat interesting, what intrigued me about this scene were the almost psychedelic shapes and colors of the warped, bent, and oddly juxtaposed reflections covering almost all of the shiny surfaces of the buildings. (Of course, all of that is a bit hard to see in this small online jpg version.)

This is definitely one of the photographs in my “urban landscape” category. I have to think about the light and the shapes and distance in much the same way I might if I were photographing in a natural canyon or deep valley. However, unlike “real” landscape photography, shots are these are almost always done hand held and shot fairly quickly while wandering around on foot.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, architecture, building, tower, skyscraper, structure, form, shadow, column, sky, cloud, angle, wires, windows, walls, stock

Wall and Shadows, Interior Detail

Wall and Shadows, Interior Detail

Wall and Shadows, Interior Detail. San Francisco, California. July 20, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photograph of shadowed wall in a sunlit interior space with diagonal forms in downtown San Francisco.

For better or worse, I almost never discard my RAW files – I have tens of thousands of them on my hard drives. The way I look at it, hard drives storage space is cheap, and I know that I occasionally find an interesting photograph among some of the older stuff. This week I’ve been dealing with “computer issues” – installing a new hard drive, changing my backup strategy, and giving the Lightroom beta a try. Setting up Lightroom involved importing tens of thousands of images into that program’s environment, and along the way I saw some older stuff appear including a series of photographs I made while walking around in San Francisco three years ago. I remember being interested in this one back then, but it simply fell off the “to do” list as I worked on other things.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: wall, window, board, diagonal, light, shadow, reflection, shape, structure, interior, building, downtown, san francisco, california, usa, architecture, vertical, horizontal, urban, street, city, travel, form, detail, stock

Glacier Point Geology Hut, Early Morning Light

Glacier Point Geology Hut, Early Morning Light

Glacier Point Geology Hut, Early Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. November 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light on the Glacier Point Geology Hut, Yosemite National Park, California.

I love photographing at Glacier Point just before and right around sunrise. Despite the challenge of shooting into the bright sky and rising sun to the east, several subjects here can be compelling in the early morning: the first light striking Mt. Hoffman, light beams coming over the Sierra crest, and especially the very first direct light to strike the trees along the ridge at Glacier Point and open to the light from the east. Not only that, but if you go at the right time you have have the whole place nearly or entirely to yourself. I often go there when I visit in autumn and a quiet November morning there is very special.

I had more or less “worked the scene” of the first light hitting Hoffman, North Dome and surrounding peaks before I made this photograph. I basically turned my camera around to point the opposite direction and repositioned the tripod a bit to frame this stone building and include the light on its eastern face.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: yosemite, national, park, california, usa, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, ridge, valley, forest, rock, granite, stone, geology, hut, building, fence, railing, roof, wall, morning, light, dawn, early, glacier, point, scenic, travel, nature, landscape, shadow, door, window, arch, tree, bush, black and white, monochrome, stock, sky