Tag Archives: downtown

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Air and Water

September 15, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Signs in downtown San Francisco

This is an odd little corner along the edge of a downtown gas station near a freeway off-ramp in San Francisco, photographed early on a morning when some fog was still breaking up over this part of the City.

I suppose it is fair to ask what this photograph is “about.” (Though I often think that a photograph simply “is” rather than being “about.”) The soft yet directional light, slanting in from the right of the frame, is the first thing, but the mass and odd angles of the two towering build boards as another. Three is bit of work-play, too, with the text on some of the signs seeming either random or interesting or perhaps both. Whole words appear painted on the wall, though they make little sense absent the context of other missing words. A small sign announces, “Air and Water.”

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Three Men, Urban Garden

August 29, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three men sitting on benches in a downtown San Francisco courtyard

This seemed like a rare quiet scene in this part of San Francisco, along busy Market Street, which is crowded with tourists, locals, buses and taxis at this time of year. While walking through this area with my camera I had taken a break to grab a coffee when I saw this scene right outside the window.

There are many things that strike me about the relationship between urban environments like this one and the natural world that is also a subject of my photography. Places like Market Street are so antithetical to almost the entirety of the rest of the world — they noise and bustle and crowds are truly an anomaly on this planet. In some places it is quite possible to see almost no evidence of that non-human world, except perhaps by looking straight up at the sky. Yet in places like this an image of that world, synthetic though it may be, is constructed — and it brings some quiet and stillness.

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

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Mirror in Mirror

July 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflecting surfaces of Chicago architecture

This is another of my architectural detail photographs from our summer 2014 visit to Chicago. We decided to cross the continent the old-fashioned, slow way — we took the train from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York City. The first leg was on the venerable California Zephyr to Chicago, and we decided to take a few extra days in Chicago before boarding the Lakeshore Limited (also apparently known as the Late Shore Limited…) to Manhattan. We stayed right in downtown Chicago, just a few blocks from Millennium Park, so there was plenty to see and do. One morning we took the architectural tour up the river, something that I had not done before.

I enjoy Chicago. Part of it appeals to my long-ago midwestern roots, I think. But it is also a cosmopolitan big city with a quality all its own. While the buildings are as huge as those of any other big city, the urban center sprawls in a way that is quite different from, say, New York City or from our familiar San Francisco. It seems like views of the architecture are a bit more opened and varied, and much more light seems to get down to street level. I’ve long been fascinated by close-in photographs of building details, especially when they include windows like these. When I look at them initially I see a big, sturdy building. But looking more closely I see that most of what I’m looking at is not-the-building, but instead is a series of reflections and reflections of reflections in the windows, and the whole structure starts to take on a more insubstantial quality.

Photographs: England, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Travel

Trafalgar Square

June 22, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tourists in Trafalgar Square, London

This is a late photograph post today. It was a busy weekend followed by a busy Monday, and I had no time to post this until evening. The photograph comes from our visit to London a couple of years ago. I’m intrigued by the ever-changing patterns formed by people moving through public spaces like this one. The photograph was made late on a haze afternoon, so the soft light mutes the shadows of the people engaged in activities including walking through the square, watching other people, making photographs, sitting, and more.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: downtown

Air and Water

Three Men, Urban Garden

Mirror in Mirror

Trafalgar Square

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