Tag Archives: england

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Night

May 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pedestrians along a walkway leading toward Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London

St. Paul’s Cathedral is an obvious landmark at any time, but at night it is even more so, especially if you approach it from across the River Thames by way of the Millennium Bridge. We visited the bank opposite the cathedral on several evenings, so I can no longer remember precisely what we had been there for on this evening — The Old Globe Theater, meeting up with relatives for dinner, a visit to the Tate Modern? I’m not certain.

In any case, we ended up crossing the river in this direction after dark on a warm summer evening when many people were out strolling around. This was one of the first times when I realized that my little mirrorless camera was good enough in low light that I could actually do handheld night photography.

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

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Summer Evening, River Thames

May 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on the River Thames, London

In England on the Fourth of July (a bit ironic for an American, no?) we were out along the banks of the River Thames as the summer evening came on. We had wonderful weather during this visit — if anything it was too warm. A low deck of broken clouds covered the sky, but to the west the sky was clearer and the light streamed through the hazy air.

I think this photograph is probably more about the light than anything else. For some reason, when I found the image in my archive and began to work on it I barely thought about the subject at all — the light seemed to be enough. When I did look at it more closely I realized that the content of the image is really fairly ordinary — a dock in the foreground, a bit of the river bank. a tall building on the right and urban buildings across the river on the left, a bridge (a central subject in my view), the clouds, and the warm color of the evening light.

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

Millennium Bridge

May 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A ramp at the end of the Millennium Bridge, London

The Millennium Bridge is a new and popular footbridge across the River Thames, between the area of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern Museum. We passed over it more than once, including on this evening when, if I remember correctly, we managed to squeeze a short visit to the Tate before doing other things.

I think this photograph indulges my obsession with shape and form. There is a kind of symmetry to the scene, but things are quite complicated and there is perhaps a lot more in the scene than a quick glance would suggest. At this end of the bridge it divide into two branches as it descends toward the land, and then the two branches reconvene for the short section in the center of the photograph, where there are several people (including a woman who appears to veer off course, distracted by her phone) and a photo-bombing pigeon. Almost symmetrically placed, there are individuals on either side on the two branches of the bridge. Beyond the bridge leads toward St. Paul’s and the short arches suspending the bridge appear to either side. There are other little oddities in the scene including reflections in the material on either side of the walkways.

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

Bridges, Narrow Street

April 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This is another photograph from nearly two years ago when we spent a week in London. We stayed a ways from the center of the city and each day traveled back and forth by way of the Underground, and then doing almost all of our wandering about on foot. We prefer this for the most part, and being on foot we can easily wander off into interesting areas or linger if we see something that deserves more time. (I often do something very similar when I head to nearby San Francisco to do street and urban photography.)

We had taken the tube in, gotten off, and walked across a bridge. Arriving on the far side of the River Thames we saw a narrow old side street and couldn’t resist wandering off that direction. The general landscape seemed to be a slightly dissonant one of what looked to be a narrow old cobblestone street, but with a number of more modern looking businesses and other structures. The street itself was quite interesting — and somewhere I have some photographs of it — but the most interesting thing to me was the dense, crisscrossing pattern of multiple levels of bridges high above the street.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: england

Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Night

Summer Evening, River Thames

Millennium Bridge

Bridges, Narrow Street

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