Tag Archives: city

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stripes

Image September 18, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A woman wearing a striped outfit uses a cross walk in Manhattan.

This photograph comes from a long, looping walk in Manhattan. We were staying at an Upper West Side hotel last month, and there were good walking opportunities all around — Central Park a few blocks to the East, down Broadway and into that maelstrom of human activity a bit to the south, across the park and into the Upper East Side, walking along the waterfront on either side. On this walk we ended up near the UN Plaza, which is where I made this photograph.

Stuff happens quickly in the street, and I often have to simply react immediately using whatever lens is on the camera — taking too long to fiddle with lenses or frame the perfect shot and there’s a good chance the opportunity will be gone. I had just a few seconds to photograph this slightly unusual character in the long striped dress as she stepped out on the striped crosswalk.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman on Telephone

Image August 31, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A woman sits against a Manhattan brick wall to talk on the telephone.

Yesterday’s photograph came from the same trip that produced this photograph. Before we headed off for a family event in the green mountains of Vermont we spent four days in the concrete “mountains” and canyons of Manhattan. New York City is definitely not back to normal yet, but it feels far less oppressive than when we visited last winter during the height of one of the covid variants. Back then the streets were largely empty; now there are people out and about once again. We took advantage of this to wander the areas around the lower half of Central Park and some distance south of the park, where I made this photograph.

To some people it seems strange that a supposed “nature photographer” would want to spend time in a busy urban center like Manhattan, much less take a small camera into the street and make pictures of that life. But I like the contrast — the speed and immediacy of street photography, the necessity of making quick and intuitive decisions, and more. I grabbed two frames of this woman crouched against a brick wall and talking on the phone as we walked by, barely breaking stride to make the exposure.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Zeum, Architectural Detail

Image July 20, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A San Francisco view from the Zeum on a blue sky day.

Recently I have leaned on a Minor White quote more than once: “One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” I’ve always taken this to be about photography’s burden of “capturing the real world,” how limiting that goal may be, and how photographs can be seen in other ways. It is almost always worth asking about a photograph, “Beyond what this is, what is it?”

This is, obviously, a photograph of a bit of architecture in San Francisco, a place called “The Zeum.” I’ve wandered through it many times while on San Francisco photography walks. An incomplete list of the “what else it is” in this photograph could include some of the following. It is about color and light and shadow. It is about perspective and angles and lines. It is about that sky and that single cloud. Perhaps you can think of other things?

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Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Four Frames

Image July 16, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflections, San Francisco

For me, one result of carrying a camera around is that I often realize that things we barely notice often turn out to be unbelievably strange. Urban buildings can take on an entirely different look if you start to pay attention to the reflections in their windows — the abstract patterns of shapes and colors, the hallucinogenic distortions, and the bizarre juxtapositions. This is yet another example of seeing things for “what else they are.”

I think that writing too much about the background of this photo risks ruining its effect — so I won’t. I will say that it contains quite a few of the “juxtapositions” I mentioned above. Refusing to give in to temptation, that’s all I’m going to say!

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: city

Stripes

Woman on Telephone

Zeum, Architectural Detail

Four Frames

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