Tag Archives: city

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Ferry Building and Embarcadero Center Building

May 27, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Embarcadero Center and Ferry Building near the San Francisco waterfront on a foggy morning.

This is another photograph that I’ve been sitting on for a while – first while it languished as a raw file between last July and early this year when I did my annual review of the previous year’s images, and then after post-processing as I posted photographs from Death Valley, the Sierra, and the coast. It has been sitting on my desktop long enough.

The photograph was made from the dock side of the San Francisco Ferry Building, looking back over the building past its iconic tower towards some of the modern buildings in the Financial District. The light was very interesting – there was still, obviously, the usual summer morning overcast where I was. However, behind me and out over the Bay the clouds were breaking up and the light was starting to come in at a low angle from off the bay, providing a glow to features like the windows of the tall background building.

This photo was made while walking streets in San Francisco and shooting mostly “old school” with just a 50mm prime.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

White Waterfront Building, Sidewalk, and Lamp

May 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sidewalk with a lamp next to a white waterfront building in San Francisco, California.

This is another in the series of wandering-the-streets photographs from San Francisco last July. At one point I was wandering along the Embarcadero – the road and nearby areas that front the shoreline along the Bay between about Fishermans Wharf and ATT Park. I walked through here slowly, poking about in odd little alleys and walkways, and occasionally finding myself in spots that were not very crowded. Here I had walked into an area of new construction to find new and refurbished buildings over the water and surrounded by walkways. At just this point the fog clouds were beginning to thin out a bit – you can see a hint of blue sky reflected in the upper windows and shadows were starting to appear. Certain shape, color, and texture features drew me to this little scene.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

White Door and Wall

May 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

White door and stucco on a building in San Francisco, California.

As I photograph the various usual subjects that appear here, I always have a few background subjects that I’m always looking out for. One of my projects might be described as “urban minimalism,” featuring subjects from the urban environment that are very simple. This is probably about as minimalist as I can get with such images. (Though, now that I’ve written that, I’m starting to think of some even “more minimalist” possibilities. Funny.)

This one gets perilously close to the infamous “Polar Bear in Snowstorm” photo that people imagine from time to time. It is a white door in a white door frame against a white wall. Believe it or not, I had to go back and forth for a while to decide whether to print it in color or black and white – and, no, I’m not joking. Much of the image changes little when I switch between the two interpretations. However, there is a slight coloration to the “white” wall (that is almost certainly not displayed accurately on your monitor) and there is some real color on the metal security cover over the lock. But still… it is almost all shades of white in the end.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Corner Store With Boarded-Up Windows

May 9, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A corner store with boarded-up windows in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

There probably isn’t a whole lot to say about the subject of this photograph other than it is a boarded-up corner store in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, photographed in morning light last July. The components of the scene are kind of odd, I think: a bit of a flag, green awnings and painted wall, the slanting sidewalk with some poles and boxes, and the layers of older and newer boards and graffiti over the windows. I also though the light was interesting, partly because it was short period when the San Francisco fog is breaking up and the light is brighter but still soft, and partly because of the diagonal shadows cast across the vertical and horizontal shapes of the wall.

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