“Man on Steps, Dublin” — A man with a cell phone sits on stone steps, Dublin.
There’s a lot to see and do in Dublin, Ireland. Some cities seem rather sedate, but at least in the central area of Dublin where we spent time this past May, the streets and sidewalks were full of people — the place felt very alive. While a few day’s visit does not make me an expert — far from it — this city felt like it had a bit of an “edge,” which I think of as a good thing. All of this made it a fine place to do some photography in the streets.
A man on a cell phone outside a coffee shop with holiday decorations
Hand to Heart. Brooklyn, New York. December 24. 2015. Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A man on a cell phone outside a coffee shop with holiday decorations
I made this photograph on Christmas Eve day, 2015 in Brooklyn, when we went out to find coffee in the morning. If I recall correctly, we ended up at this Starbucks — though it is possible that we might have just walked past here on the way to another place. The man was probably not the main subject. The wild patterns in the windows were what first caught my attention.
Initially I thought of the photograph as a color image, but the more I looked at it the more the various holiday colors began to distract from the pattern itself, so I decided to go with the monochromatic rendering. Inside there were many people, sitting on chairs and at tables, drinking coffee and checking their laptops. Outside on the cold sidewalk and alone, one man waited for something and checked his phone.
Man sitting on a bench in front of a San Francisco building and talking on his cell phone.
The first time I worked on this photograph, I made a decision to work it up as a black and white image. However, when I returned to it a month or so ago, I felt like it might be interesting as a color photograph as well.
There is nothing all that special about the location itself – it is on a small street in an area that might be thought of as along the edges of downtown San Francisco. It is not too far to typical large downtown buildings, but here it seems that many might residences and rental units, and many on this street are connected with the Academy of Arts College (or is it “university” now?) facilities that are spread all around the city. I’m intrigued by the interesting shapes and colors and textures of these San Francisco buildings, that often embody some strange combination of a great deal of order (carefully painted rectangular white window frames), utility (the fire escape being almost the most prominent thing on the front of the building), and little oddities (the benches on a slanting sidewalk and guy talking obliviously on his cell phone).
An evening storm cell winds down over Mount Dana beyond Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California.
This is a wider view of a scene I photographed in late July on an evening when thunderstorm cells were floating around the Sierra Nevada crest east of Tuolumne Meadows. This cell had conveniently centered itself directly above and behind Mount Dana, the highest peak on this section of the crest right above Tioga Pass, and was dropping virga (rain that doesn’t make it to the ground) over the peak in the sunset light.
It seemed odd that I was the only photographer out in the meadow on this evening!
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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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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