Tag Archives: car

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Downtown Storefronts

December 19, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A row of downtown bars and restaurants, Seattle, Washington

This is another Seattle photograph, shot quickly in street style while walking around portions of the city and exploring. It is hard for me to put my finger on precisely what it is that appeals to me about subjects like this, but let me make an attempt. My first impression of such a location, especially in the daytime when everything is more clearly seen and fewer people are around, is that a lot of it is simply run down and even drab – weathered bricks, worn and peeling paint, construction that isn’t quite square. This patina of age and use is itself interesting, and somehow a photograph of it (or the act of making a photograph of it) helps me see it for what it is and for what else I might otherwise not see.

On the large scale, there are patterns that appeal to me – and, yes, patterns are part of my way of seeing. The scene is divided into successively smaller and smaller rectangular shapes for the most part, ranging from the largest one formed by the green facade to the very small ones formed by things like the spaces between the bars of a gate. Superimposed on this are things that don’t fit the geometric grid – the car (which also seems a bit out of context with the old buildings), the roughly triangular shapes of umbrellas, and many other odd little bits and pieces. In fact, if you like this sort of thing, seeing those “bits and pieces” might make the photo become a bit more than what it first seems to be: the figure of a red and white chef statue in the window at far right above some sort of bright green carts, the tree bright blue flower pots and a pink watering can on a ledge, the bright colors near the “Il Chiosco” sign, one door that has been varnished rather than painted the same drab colors as everything else, etc.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Shirt Pedestrians, Linear Landscape

November 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two pedestrians in blue shirts walk past architecture emphasizing vertical and horizontal lines

A photograph like this is a bit hard to explain, but I’ll try. At least a little bit. As is often the case, for some reason this structure – a parking lot – caught my attention. I like the texture of concrete when doing city photography, and this landscape of lines seemed a bit striking, and in fact it got me thinking again about the very linear nature of much of the urban environment. Aside from a few things – the green tree, the red card, and the people – essentially everything in this scene can be regarded as being a sum of horizontals and verticals, from the obvious vertical covering of the garage to the wires, to the street lanes and lane lines, to the sidewalk, and the rows of squares on the background building.

It occurs to me from time to time that there is something very unnatural about this, and it might even be a cause of the disconnect from the environment that can occur in such places. But as (pretty much) always, the constructed world is not perfectly linear. But still, to me, the two people walking along the sidewalk, whose blue attire also caught my attention, look very small and very passive relative to the constructed world they inhabit.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Automobile Graveyard

July 6, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of old automobiles abandoned and left to decay in a gully at an old desert mining site

I have passed this old mining site quite a few times, looked up at it, and kept going. On this morning I had a bit of extra time so I decided to pause and poke around a bit. Certain obvious signs of the presence of an old mine are clear from nearby, but a bit more exploration revealed a more extensive than expected site – as is often the case. Although an old gravel road headed into the area, I decided to first walk up the road, partly to avoid nasty surprises while driving and partly so that I would see a bit more – which is typically what happens when I’m on foot rather than inside my vehicle.

The gravel road twisted up a small gully and soon reached an area that revealed views of quite a bit more mining evidence than I had suspected. I’m certain that if I had continued to explore that I would have found even more, but I’ll save that for another visit. I often have this feeling that these sites should be much older than they really are, and I’m still somewhat surprised to find that some of them were electrified. The surprise at this location was the number of not-really-that-old vehicles that had been abandoned. They are decades old, but I’m guessing that they might date to roughly the WWII era or even a bit later which, in the grand historic scheme, isn’t all that long ago. Several of these vehicles had been abandoned, somewhat oddly, in the bottom of a wash that must flood at least occasionally, considering the amount of gravel that swamped their undersides. The back of this one was open, so I positioned my tripod just outside the car and shot through it toward the other abandoned vehicles. (If you find and explore such places, please be extremely careful to leave things as they are. The effects of our individual disruptions are cumulative and accelerate the destruction and eventual disappearance of these sites.)

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California

Abandoned Car, Desert Gully

April 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An old and very weathered car abandoned to the elements in a desert mountain streambed.

There are many threads to the Death Vally story, and portions of these stories can be read by looking in the right places in the park. There is the geological story that involves seismic activity, a very old lake, and the surprising role of water in what is today a very dry place. Occasional remnants of their ancient presence tells the faint story of the people who lived here before Europeans arrived. And there is the story of extraction – prospecting and the mining of all sorts of materials, some of which has not ended even today. (There are a couple of inholdings within the larger boundaries of the park where mineral rights are maintained and mining work continues – a jarring sight the first time you encounter in while in a national park.)

Much of this work took place only a few decades ago, and the detritus of that period is still found throughout the park. A few examples are well-known, marked on maps, and even have directional signs and interpretive information displayed by the park. However, if you poke around even a little bit you’ll soon come across many other examples of old mines, tailings, buildings, automobiles, and more. (If you visit the park and see these things, please be very careful around them. They are deteriorating, and almost anything you do to disturb them will hasten that process and deprive future visitors of the experience that you are enjoying.) There is one such site that I have driven past many times, but where I have never stopped until this trip. Beyond the obvious artifacts that are visible from a passing road, the site continues. This time I stopped, got out of my car, and spent some time wandering up and old trail that heads up a gully and then switchbacks up a nearby hill. A ways up this hill, after passing some dilapidated buildings, I came to a gully that must have been the occupants’ automobile graveyard, since there were several very old, rusting vehicles in this gully, partially embedded in sand that must have washed down during rain.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: car

Downtown Storefronts

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Blue Shirt Pedestrians, Linear Landscape

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Abandoned Car, Desert Gully

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

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