Tag Archives: concrete

Three Columns and Urban Trees

July 13, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three columns and trees in an urban garden in downtown San Francisco, California.

This photograph was made while I was on one of my “walk and photograph” trips into downtown San Francisco. At this point I was wandering through a very busy, urbanized section of downtown San Francisco with my camera at the ready. As I rounded a corner of a building I spotted this scene with interesting morning light and a single person mostly hidden behind one of the columns below the trees reading a book. I quickly squeezed off two frames before a car entered the scene from a garage exit below the trees and other pedestrians began walking through.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park

June 25, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Red-orange chairs on a terraced lawn above Richard Serra’s Wake with downtown Seattle buildings beyond, Olympic Sculpture Park.

This is another quick photograph from my half-hour visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle last weekend. I’m fascinated by the large sculpture at the lower end of the terrace (“Wake” by Richard Serra) and I have photographed it before. This time I thought that the juxtaposition of the red-orange chairs (positioned more or less at random by other visitors, I presume), the very green grass, the slightly overhead view of the sculpture, and the cylindrical building beyond was interesting. There is a lot more detail in this photograph than is apparent in the small jpg – obviously the grass detail is not really visible here, and there are some people standing along the green area at the upper left side of the frame. I also thought about positioning the chairs slightly off center to the right, the sculpture slightly off center to the left, and the massive building dead center over all the other elements.

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: olympic, sculpture, park, seattle, art, museum, sam, red, orange, green, chairs, lawn, terrace, concrete, cement, sand, trees, plants, garden, wall, grove, wake, richard serra, metal, rust, sky, cloud, blue, cylinder, round, building, downtown, urban, washington, usa, travel, apartment, grass, stock

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

People on MUNI Platform

June 2, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

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

May 16, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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

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