Tag Archives: buildings

Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Paris Street, Midday Light

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Paris Street, Midday Light
Two figures in midday along a street in Le Marais, Paris

Paris Street, Midday Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two figures in midday along a street in Le Marais, Paris.

Le Marais, in Paris, if full of visual delights. This area was “left behind” when much of central Paris was modernized, so you won’t find the wide boulevards and open views. Instead there are very narrow streets — often barely wide enough for a single vehicle, and that only because sidewalks are barely a foot or two wide. The buildings are old, often leaning at odd and interesting angles.

This photograph is a bit unusual in that I made it in full midday sun. I would most often not do a lot of photography at such a time of day, but I liked the stark quality of this light, and I thought that it could work as a black and white image.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Two Buildings, Night

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Two Buildings, Night
Night photograph of two buildings in the historic core of Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

Two Buildings, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One of the attractions of photographing at night is the way that everything changes and familiar and even mundane subjects can be transformed. Night almost automatically adds an element of mystery to subjects, even when the literal subjects might arguably be mundane. This is partly the natural associations we make with the night, but it is also the objective nature of the light — rather than working under the sun or other forms of light from the sky, we rely almost always on multiple point sources of artificial illuminations. (And exception would be working under full moon light, but that has its own implications.)

I made this photograph in the “historic core” area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California. For the most part many of the original structures still stand in this area. (Much more extensive redevelopment has occurred elsewhere on the island, some of which has removed the old facilities.) Here some of the buildings have been updated and put to use for more modern purposes, but the general feeling of the place remains. I have photographed in this little alley-way for about fifteen years now. Somethings stay the same and other change, and on this visit I found that I was able to use the new corner windows on the foreground building as a point of focus.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Netherlands, Photographs: Travel

Canal, Cloudy Sky

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Canal, Cloudy Sky
The sun shines through cloudy skies to light up an Amsterdam canal and nearby buildings

Canal, Cloudy Sky. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The sun shines through cloudy skies to light up an Amsterdam canal and nearby buildings

I don’t think the sky was ever entirely clear during our four days in Amsterdam, but I was told by locals that this is pretty typical. In fact, based on what I was told, we were perhaps lucky to have as much blue sky as we did get! It rained the day we arrived, it was cloudy on most days, and that first day wasn’t the only rainy one.

I’ve observed that sunlight is often even more beautiful in places where it can’t be take for granted. I first understood this some years ago on a visit to Seattle, a place that is frequently also cloudy, wet, and gray. On the visit in question there was a period of beautiful, eighty-degree days of sunshine… and it seemed like every person in Seattle was suddenly outside. This day in Amsterdam wasn’t quite that extraordinary, but the filtered sunlight on the row of buildings along this canal seemed quite attractive.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night

Roll-Up Door, Night

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Roll-Up Door, Night
A metal roll-up door, old windows, and buildings in multi-colored night light

Roll-Up Door, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.photo description

A metal roll-up door, old windows, and buildings in multi-colored night light

This is another photograph from my recent “alumni night” with The Nocturnes at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California — a location where I did my first night photography about fifteen years ago, and to which I return at least a couple of times every year. The places is a sort of Mecca for Bay Area night photographers, almost all of whom have made the place a subject at some point. It holds very old historic ship yard buildings and structures, some areas that are essentially abandoned, a few areas undergoing redevelopment, and the effects of the ever-present San Francisco Bay that surrounds it.

Some things remain the same and others change. This photograph holds a bit of both extremes. The buildings in the scene have been there a long time and I have photographed them in the past. However, the lighting has changed significantly. This used to be an area of extremely dim light, but now there is a new facility just to the left of the area in the frame, and when anyone approaches security lights are activated and they cast a glow across the faintly green building. Its color controls with that of the more distant concrete building illuminated by an entirely different type of light.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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