Tag Archives: detail

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Detail, Tower Bridge

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Detail, Tower Bridge
Detail, Tower Bridge

Detail, Tower Bridge. London, England. July 3, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of the Tower Bridge, London and the River Thames

Earlier today we were talking about how it has been too long since we’ve been across the Atlantic — our last trip was back in the summer of 2013. We started in London, spending nearly a full week there, enough time to feel like we were beginning to get past the most obvious things — but not nearly enough time exhaust the possibilities of the place. Making that trip extra special, we managed to meet up with a bunch of family members there, and then continue more or less together as we continued on to Germany for about a another two weeks.

As I like to do in American cities, we wandered a fair amount while we were in London. While I know that planning is very useful when going to a new place and having limited time, I know that I also like to just follow my nose a bit and get out and walk around and see where I end up — in some ways I feel that this may eventually give me a better sense of a place. Not that this location is exactly off the beaten track! In fact, this photograph shows details of one of the best known iconic bridges, with bits of the River Thames visible in the background.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Textures and Reflections

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Textures and Reflections
Textures and Reflections

Textures and Reflections. Chicago, Illinois. August 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a Chicago riverfront building with distorted window reflections

As is the case with a number of the Chicago photographs that I made during our August 2014 visit to the Windy City, this one was made from a boat on the Chicago River. We rarely do “tourist things” when we visit cities, usually preferring to look for more interesting stuff, but everyone we know who had been there recommended the Chicago architecture boat tours, so we gave in and took one. I have to say that it was worth it — the tour combines an intense overview of a lot of downtown Chicago architecture, a lot of background information on the structures and the development of the city, and a unique view that isn’t really available in any other way.

There is almost too much to see on the tour, since Chicago’s downtown is dense with interesting features large and small, and the boats don’t pause to let you gawk! So I photographed a lot, trying to vary my focus between the large and impressive downtown buildings and smaller details down closer to the river. This photograph falls into that second category, and is “about” the shapes and textures of the bit of a more modern building and the very deformed reflections in its windows.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dune Detail, Last Light

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Dune Detail, Last Light
Dune Detail, Last Light

Dune Detail, Last Light. Death Valley National Park, California. December 11,2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A last beam of light slants across rippled sand dunes and a few desert plants, Death Valley National Park

After a long day of driving and photographing along a back-country road in Death Valley National Park, I finally made it back to my campground in the mid-afternoon. (You might wonder how I can claim a “long day” when I finished in the mid afternoon – something about starting a couple of hours before dawn in temperatures in the teens!) I took a short break and did a few camp chores, and then it was time to head out once again for an evening shoot. I decided to make it something fairly simple that wouldn’t require a lot of travel, so I ended up at some dunes just before sunset.

While I’m not unwilling to shoot big, long views of dunes – sometimes they are quite impressive! – more often I focus on some smaller aspect of them, and I really like looking very closely when I can. One of the great things about focusing on the small details is that once you start to see them you find them everywhere – even in places that you might not think are all that spectacular. As I walked out into the dunes, with only a general sense of where I wanted to go, it was not long at all before I started noticing all sorts of subjects in the long shadows and warm light of the oncoming evening. Many subjects, such as this one, are illuminated by extremely transient light – slanting at a low angle across the tops of dunes and momentarily catching a plant or a bit of dune texture. I probably had little more than a minute to work with this subject and then the light disappeared – and I quickly found another similar subject and then another and so on until the light finally was gone.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Music & Musicians

Trombone, Detail

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Trombone, Detail
Trombone, Detail

Trombone, Detail. San Jose, California. January 9, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The upper section of a trombone against the background of house lights

This is another photograph from my ongoing project photographing musicians and elements of the world they live and work in that might not be seen so frequently by the general public. For the most part, this project has me photographing people, but I am also interested in the objects in the environment of the performing arts musicians, which include things such as their instruments, the back-stage environment, theater lighting, vignettes of moments when they are not performing, and so on.

At times I have very close access to the stage during rehearsals (and during rehearsal breaks) and before and after concerts. I was able to make this and some similar photographs during one of the times when I could move around the perimeter of the stage and look across it and the objects filling it towards the lights of the “house” – the main audience area of the theater.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.