Tag Archives: concrete

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

People on MUNI Platform

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People on MUNI Platform

People on MUNI Platform. San Francisco, California. May 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene from an overhead perspective of several people waiting for the train on a MUNI platform in San Francisco.

There is a good chance that this photograph isn’t going to make a lot of sense to some of my friends who enjoy my landscape work – but it is actually one of my personal favorite recent photographs. There are several things that I like about it. For one, I actually like the mostly muted color palette of grays and blues, but with the warmer yellow stripes on the platform and the two odd “international orange” pylon bases. I also like the combination of a strong symmetry with a bunch of elements that are anything but perfect and symmetrical: the positions of the five figures, the paving stones with squares of dirt, the slightly off-angle barricades. I can also look at this as an abstract image of shapes, most of which are related in some way to rectangles. And then there is the interesting (to me, at least) arrangement of the people into three groups: the two guys on the right who seem to be looking up towards my camera position, the couple who appear to be gazing at each other, and the girl on the left who is facing the other direction and seemingly oblivious to her surroundings as she talks on the phone. I also like the transparent curving wall beyond the four figures at the right and the position of the two trash cans (trash cans!) between them and the girl.

You certainly don’t have to share my enthusiasm for this photograph, but perhaps you’ll understand a bit of what I think I see in it.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: man, woman, people, cell, phone, couple, gaze, trash, can, barricade, curve, roof, platform, cement, concrete, aggregate, tile, rail, track, muni, trail, transit, station, fence, curb, city, downtown, urban, street, paving, san francisco, california, usa, travel, stock, king, barrier, transparent, curve

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Morning at the Rhyolite School

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Morning at the Rhyolite School

Morning at the Rhyolite School. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light slants through the windows and across the floor of the old schoolhouse in the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada.

Although it is not the most iconic structure at the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada (very close to Death Valley National Park), I’m intrigued by the ruins of the old Rhyolite School. It is one of the more intact structures – while the roof is gone, many of the walls are still standing, as is the main floor seen in the photo. I like to photograph both the exterior and interior of this structure. There is something compelling about the school with its missing roof and windows leaving the interior open to the sky, and this building makes me think about the lives of the people who lived here more than other buildings like the bank and railroad station.

I made this photograph in the early morning after photographing dawn light on the bank building and the distance Amargosa Valley and Mountains and, beyond that, Telescope Peak in Death Valley’s Panamint Range. The sun was still fairly low, providing the slanting light though the windows. If you look closely at the far windows you can make out some of the other buildings of Rhyolite.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: school, house, building, ruins, dilapidated, weathered, window, wall, brick, stucco, concrete, light, slant, floor, old, historic, ghost, town, abandoned, sky, blue, cloud, morning, sunrise, dawn, nevada, usa, mine, interior, rhyolite, crack, gravel, travel, scenic, stock, death valley, national park

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Empty Parking Lot Beneath Freeway

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Empty Parking Lot Beneath Freeway

Empty Parking Lot Beneath Freeway. San Jose, California. January 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon winter light illuminates a parking lot beneath highway 87 in downtown San Jose, California.

Urban landscape photograph of a downtown San Jose, California empty parking lot beneath the highway 87 freeway in late afternoon light. Late on a Sunday afternoon during the weekend after New Years Day there was almost no one downtown, and clearly there were no cars in this parking lot.

(There is also a black and white version of this photograph that I may post here eventually.)

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: empty, late, afternoon, winter, evening, light, sun, illuminates, parking, lot, beneath, under, freeway, highway, overpass, flyover, 87, state, route, san jose, downtown, california, usa, fence, supports, light, sky, urban, street, structure, architecture, stock, concrete, cement

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Urban/Street

Loading Dock Sign

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Loading Dock Sign

Loading Dock Sign. San Jose, California. December 26, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a very worn and scraped red and yellow sign painted on an industrial loading dock in San Jose, California.

This very bright but very worn sign is painted on the front of a loading dock in a light industrial area of downtown San Jose, California.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: detail, worn, scraped, gouge, chipped, concrete, cement, steel, paint, yellow, red, sign, rust, industrial, urban, street, letters, a, d, i o, weathered, downtown, san jose, california, usa, stock, 5th, keyes, loading, dock