Tag Archives: england

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Break Time, Savoy Hill

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Break Time, Savoy Hill
Break Time, Savoy Hill

Break Time, Savoy Hill. London, England. July 4, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hotel workers taking a cigarette break in the alley, Savoy Hill, City of Westminster, London

Very near this little alley is a large and famous hotel. We come up to this spot from the back way, so we did not see the typical hustle and bustle of the hotel entrance, instead just looking up a very nearly deserted side street to see a few employees on break, apparently having a smoke, We walked into this area and discovered a beautiful church hidden away on a corner to the right and out of the frame. After stopping to visit there, we continued our wandering and soon crossed in front of the hotel where these folks apparently work.

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

Brick Walls and Windows

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Brick Walls and Windows
Brick Walls and Windows

Brick Walls and Windows. London, England. July 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brick walls and windows along a London street, late afternoon

There is probably not a whole lot to write about this photograph. As we walked some London streets that were not quite as filled with tourists, I looked up this side street and saw the beautiful series of brick walls, with all sorts of interesting interruptions of the basic form: windows, an indented darker area housing windows, conduit and a lamp, etc. Between the darker bricks further along the wall and the shadow near the camera position, there was a brighter band of sunlit bricks.

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

Brick Wall, London

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Brick Wall, London
Brick Wall, London

Brick Wall, London. London, England. August 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A painted and weathered brick wall beneath a London overpass

I have only a general recollection of where I made this photograph. I think it was on the south side of the Thames, probably somewhere beyond the Millennium Bridge and in an area of older narrow streets where we walked both to kill some time before an appointment and to wander and see what we could see.

There is, obviously, nothing all that exotic about this wall. In fact, I’ve likely photographed similar subjects in the SF Bay Area. I think several things caused me to stop and shoot it. First, to be honest, I was in a shooting mode – in other words I was shooting quickly and shooting a lot of frames. But beyond that, I was intrigued by the lights, muted by the narrow street and the fact – again, if I recall correctly – that this was shot near the edge of an underpass of some sort. Bricks often intrigue me, but here the layers of paint applied to the bricks, which really shouldn’t be painted, probably covers something that we are not supposed to see. The larger underlying area of black paint contrasts with the Halloween orange that must have been added later. But now new stuff has already been added to the wall on top of the old cover-up job.

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: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Paint and Handrail, Tower Bridge

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Blue Paint and Handrail, Tower Bridge
Blue Paint and Handrail, Tower Bridge

Blue Paint and Handrail, Tower Bridge. London, England. July 3, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shiny blue and black paint on a wall and a handrail on the Tower Bridge, London

I made this photograph in quite the jet-lagged state – though I had recovered a bit from my initial bout that left me unable to do anything but sleep for an hour or two right after we arrived at our hotel in Kensington. I had a laugh-worthy plan to minimize jet lag – and like most such plans it failed miserably. I figured I would just move my wake up time an hour earlier every day as the trip to approached, and I was actually getting up very early in the morning right before we left. (I can report that it is very quiet and peaceful at 2:00 a.m… ;-) What I failed to consider was that I was also reducing the length of every day by one full hour for the better part of a week before travel… and almost entirely by losing sleep. Obviously, I had a big sleep deficit going by the time we left. On top of that, I was basically completely unable to sleep on the flight over – which is odd, since I can usually sleep on planes.

We arrived in London, took the underground to Kensington, got a bit lost, finally found our hotel, checked in… and I was so jet-lagged that I was incapable of doing anything at all useful. I slept for an hour or two and managed to achieve a state of modest consciousness. If nothing else, I was so tired at this point that I had little problem sleeping that night. So we got on the underground and took the train to the station by the Tower Bridge and walked across it. I was so out of it that I didn’t realize until a few days later than I had completely switched north and south directions! Somewhere I probably have some photographs of the whole bridge, but being the sort of photographer I am, I spent a bit of my time pointing that camera at odd things like this pattern of shiny blue paint, stone, and a black railing.

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.