Tag Archives: distressed

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

Detail, Steel Bridge

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Structural detail of the Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon

Detail, Steel Bridge. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Structural detail of the Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon

This might be the most unimaginatively named steel bridge in the United States — as far as I can tell it is actually called “Steel Bridge.” Which it is. The bridge crosses the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, where its double-deck structure (with a center section that can be raised) carries trains, cars, pedestrians, bicycles, and rapid transit across the water. When we visited we joined the pedestrians, which gave me a chance to look at the structure close up.

Old distressed and weathered structures like this intrigue me, and I know I’m not the only photographer who has this interest. Sometimes I imagine the contrast between some engineer crafting very careful and precise design drawings of the structure and its smaller elements, producing materials that reflect the conceptual perfection of such structures… and the real-world reality the creeps in over the long life of such structures. The latter is visible here in the multiple layers of paint, now marked by stain patterns and split open to reveal rust.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Urban/Street

Exit Only

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Exit Only
An “exit only” sign attached to a wall that has not been painted recently.

Exit Only. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An “exit only” sign attached to a wall that has not been painted recently.

Postcard from Pandemic #2. I made this photograph on one of my SIP neighborhood walks a few weeks ago. If nothing else, the current travel restrictions are encouraging me to discover nearby things that I had not paid attention to before.

This wall is in the back of an urban business district. I’ve been around this area for decades, and I have watched it change a lot — from a quiet residential business district, to a place of fading and dying businesses, to a newly popular, somewhat upscale area with lots of restaurants and other signs of Silicon Valley wealth. For someone who has been here for a while and who recalls what was in this location in the past, this wall is a bit of a historical record.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

In Tatters

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In Tatters
Remnants of street posters, Paris

In Tatters. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Remnants of street posters, Paris.

One thing I look for when photographing in cities is examples of street art and posters and similar that have been up long enough to have been weathered and otherwise distressed. In some cases they reveal many layers of imagery and text — some painted, some in ink, and some pasted to walls and on top of previous materials.

Beyond being in Paris I no longer recall the specific location or larger context for this splash of color. I just recall that the bright colors, abstracted from their original context by being torn to pieces, caught my attention as we walked by, and that the background white field almost reminded me of paper product wrapping. There’s just enough form to the colors that I might imagine that I could figure out what was there originally…

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Structures and Objects

Metal Building, Distressed Paint

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Metal Building, Distressed Paint
Metal industrial building with marks from patched paint

Metal Building, Distressed Paint. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Metal industrial building with marks from patched paint

This is another of the pre-dark twilight photographs I made on my recent visit to the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to do night photography. A group of us assembled bit by bit, some starting close to the middle of the day and others, like me, arriving shortly before dark. About a half hour before sunset I headed out, beginning with some daylight photograph around some industrial buildings I had noticed on my way to the meet-up. By the time I got there and got set up I was only able to make a few photographers before the sun set far to the west over San Francisco, but the twilight light is also interesting to work with.

In this photograph I was interested in the objective qualities of the old building with its weathered and patched metal walls, especially in the random nature of the patched paint along with the juxtaposition of the warmer colors on the walls and the cool, blue tones on the roof, with all of the colors altered in the blue twilight. At the same time, I went with the wide and narrow landscape orientation of this photograph in an attempt to treat the colors and forms as abstract elements, too.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.