Tag Archives: car

21 Choices

21 Choices
A Pasadena street corner on a winter afternoon

21 Choices. Pasadena, California. January 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Pasadena street corner on a winter afternoon

To some extent, although I’ll write a bit about it, this is one of those photographs that you’ll need to sort out for yourself. It may seem like a snapshot, or it may seem like something else, or it might seem like both.

Just after New Years Day we went to Southern California for a few days, driving down the Coast Highway (before the winter storms closed it) and then visiting areas at the northern and southern ends of the Los Angeles Basin. We stayed in Pasadena, a place I hadn’t visited for a while and one that I don’t know all that well, aside from the typical Californian’s knowledge of a place that comes from driving past on freeways. Because we had some unscheduled time we ended up wandering in downtown Pasadena a bit, and I had time to begin to get a bit of a feeling for the place, at least as it is in mid-winter light of the sort in this photograph.


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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Balthazar, London

Balthazar, London
Street scene, bakery, bar, and red car

Balthazar, London. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene, bakery, bar, and red car

Here is another photograph in what I sometimes refer to at the “this-will-perplex-fans-of-my-landscape-photography” category. :-) The scene is a busy London street, photographed during a visit last August as we walked though this area. (If memory serves, we may have been on our way to a concert.)

In general, I’m not a fan of photographs that require too much explanation. That being said, I acknowledge that some photographs do require this… so here is a bit of explanation. You could look at this simply as a visual record of a place in the city. In fact, there is a bit of that here, since part of what got my attention was the red “Balthazar” awning above the bakery across the street, and my wonder at the use of the same name for a popular bakery in Manhattan. You can also try looking at the photograph simply as an image constructed of a limited range of colors (one in particular!) and forms, some of which may reveal surprises if you look closely. Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.


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

Alley, Approaching Car

Alley, Approaching Car
A police car approaches in a narrow San Francisco alley

Alley, Approaching Car. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A police car approaches in a narrow San Francisco alley

This photograph is pretty much what it appears to be — a narrow San Francisco downtown alley between two major streets, a police car entering the alley (soon to followed by others), a stop sign painted on the ground, and an unusual combination of artificial light coloration and reflections.

This is one of the many street photographs that simply happens, and happens quickly. I was crossing the outlet of this alley, when I looked into it and saw the interesting lighting effects. At that moment the car turned into the alley, providing a focus of brightness at its far end. I raised the camera and photographed, barely having time to carefully compose, and a moment later a couple of police cars approached my end of the alley and i had to get out of the way.


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

Man Inside Subway Car

Man Inside Subway Car
A man in a hat inside an antique subway car, Manhattan

Man Inside Subway Car. New York City. December 27, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man in a hat inside an antique subway car, Manhattan

I had been hearing about the “nostalgia” train days in New York for some time, mostly from my sons, who now live there and who are big fans of the infrastructure (and more) of New York. This year the timing of our visit allowed us to go to the nostalgia event, a day when lots of the old trains are out and running on the subway lines, and open to riders who want to get a feeling for what the system was like in the past.

People seem to show up for all kinds of reasons. Some seem like your standard railroad fans. Others seem to come mostly for the history. A few other, somewhat like me perhaps, simply go because we heard that it was going on. But some folks do all sorts of fun and idiosyncratic things. In one car I ran into a crowd of photographers, many of whom were using really old and impressive film gear. Others dress up in period clothing. As I photographed this car I was taken by the image of this smiling man in a color accented bright white shirt. As I photographed, furtively at first, I could tell that he wanted me to photograph him and he encouraged me to make more than one photograph.


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