Tag Archives: downtown

Tree and Windows

Tree and Windows

Tree and Windows. San Francisco, California. August 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bare branches of an urban tree with a few green leaves against a gray San Francisco building with white-framed windows.

I had the chance to spend a morning and part of an afternoon wandering around San Francisco on foot on the mid-August day. As I usually do, I took a 6:00 a.m. train to The City, arriving at about 7:00 a.m. This time I started out by walking up Fourth Street past Yerba Buena Gardens and continued on to Market Street. From there I walked though Chinatown (but mostly not on Grant) before the tourist shops opened and while the many grocery stores were dealing with huge shipments of produce dropped off on the sidewalks. I stopped briefly in North Beach for coffee before spending an hour or so shooting there and then taking a very quick walk past the madness at Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf before climbing up to Russian Hill before making it back to my return train. Whew!

I happened to notice a block full of these interesting trees in North Beach, not too far from Washington Park – and I especially liked this one with a tiny bit of green and backed by the black, white, and gray building.

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.

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, urban, city, street, north beach, travel, scenic, downtown, building, home, tree, trunk, branch, bare, gray, green, leaves, window, white, frame, gray, wall, blinds, silhouette, landscape, light, fork, black, stock

Three Columns and Urban Trees

Three Columns and Urban Trees

Three Columns and Urban Trees. San Francisco, California. July 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

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: san francisco, california, usa, summer, city, urban, travel, moring, brick, tile, column, three, sidewalk, cement, concrete, light, shadow, wall, person, book, read, sit, green, trees, leaves, branch, trunk, building, urban, downtown, street, wet, water, stock, feet, legs, shoes

Pigeon, Yerba Buena Gardens Fountain, Buildings

Pigeon, Yerba Buena Gardens Fountain, Buildings

Pigeon, Yerba Buena Gardens Fountain, Buildings. San Francisco, California, July 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pigeon alights at the edge of a fountain/pond at Yerba Buena gardens downtown San Francisco buildings beyond.

I photographed this on my first “San Francisco Photo Walk” of this summer season. The routine is that I catch a very early train to San Francisco, arriving in the city a few minutes before 7:00 a.m. Then, depending upon the weather and other factors, I wander off somewhere in The City looking for photographs. On this day I started with a ramble up The Embarcadero, photographing the South Beach yacht harbor, a old guy standing in the doorway of the Java Hut, a bunch of interesting old dilapidated waterfront structures and so forth as I walked. Once I reached the Ferry Building I headed up into The City, finally heading south toward the train station by way of Yerba Buena Gardens. I stopped here to photograph the main grassy area when I spotted this pigeon at the end of an elevated pond in which the distant buildings were reflected.

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: san francisco, california, usa, summer, city, urban, travel, church, steeple, brick, cathedral, pigeon, bird, wings, flight, stretch, water, fountain, reflection, yerba buena, garden, trees, metreon, marriott, fog, sky, skyline, downtown, city, urban, hotel, pond, landscape, stock

Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park

Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park

Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park. Seattle, Washington. June 21, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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