diner | G Dan Mitchell Photography

A single nighttime diner in a Manhattan noodle shop on a dark street

I suppose it is because I plan to be there again soon, but I’ve been going back through some earlier photographs from New York City this week, and especially focusing on photographs I made at night there last July. While staying in a busy part of the city (yeah, I know, all the parts are busy…) where there are lots of small business and lots of people I managed to get out frequently and wander with my camera. Most of the neighborhood tended to be quite crowded and busy, with lots of light. However, a few of the side streets included quieter spots where there were no crowds, especially late at night, including this street where there was only one person still eating in this noodle shop.

With photographs like this, especially when rendered in black and white, there is a lot of creative latitude when it comes to deciding how to interpret the scene. I’m generally not a big fan — with some exceptions — of allowing highlights to completely blow out, so the brightly lit areas set a sort of limit on how light I can go. I want to see at least some detail in almost all areas of the photograph, even in the deep shadows, so I often have to do some careful work during the post processing stages to get what I want from these dark area. It is tricky — too dark and all detail is lost, but too light and the shadows end up gray and the mystery is gone. In this photograph I wanted most of the image to feel very dark, with only the three brightly lit areas standing out.

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

Restaurant, Diner, Bicycles — A man sits at a table at an outdoor restaurant at night, Florence, Italy

A man sits at a table at an outdoor restaurant at night, Florence, Italy

Photographing in the streets of Florence, Italy was a joy when we visited this past summer. My only regret is that we were there for such a short time. We spent a week in the hills between Florence and Siena, and we picked up our rental car in Florence before leaving for the hills. (And, yes, driving in Florence is just as much fun as you have heard.) Then we returned to Florence and had parts of three days there before leaving. As I know fully understand, three days was not nearly enough time!

In one way, the streets of Florence seem to have a more uniform look than many American cities. There are few obvious commercial signs and many buildings are roughly the same shade of brown. But the streets are often very narrow and they twist and turn in all kinds of interesting ways, occasionally opening up to large squares or the banks of the Arno River. At night things are even more magical. One moment you might find yourself in the midst of crowds of people, and in another you might be on a deserted side street. This small street, with its beautiful lighting, extended off of one of the large squares, a somewhat busy place, but here there was just one man sitting at this sidewalk cafe.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: diner

Noodle Shop

Like this:

Restaurant, Diner, Bicycles

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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