Tag Archives: england

Photographs: England, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

James Smith & Sons

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James Smith & Sons
“James Smith & Sons” — James Smith and Sons umbrella, whip, and stick shop, London.

During our early June visit to London we were lucky to be able to spend time with our oldest son, Brandon, who was there for a few days after a work visit. It is wonderful to meet up with your grown “kids” in such a place — for all the usual reasons, but also because sometimes they have new and different ways of orienting themselves to the local environment. At his suggestion and in his company we visited a number of places that we would not have seen. The James Smith & Sons shop, which I might otherwise have walked past with little notice, was one of them.

I’ll start with the obvious — you don’t find many shops in the US that were established nearly two centuries ago! The fascinating signs on the exterior are not just some kind of marketing — that’s actually what they have looked like for a long time. Inside, this is a classical shopping experience. Beautiful umbrellas, waling sticks, canes, folding stools, and more, at prices from reasonable to astronomical, fill the shop. Clerks talk to customers, going into great detail about the products. I came “this close” to buying something “just because,” and now I almost regret that I didn’t.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman in Red, London

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Woman in Red, London
“Woman in Red, London” — :A woman in red sits on a ledg to check her phone in London.

I confess that I barely, if at all, remember making this photograph, nor can I say precisely where in London I made it. I grabbed it while in a particular mode of street photography that is the antithesis of how I might photograph, say, a landscape. I shoot handheld. I carry a small camera with a single small prime lens. I work very quickly, often not even slowing down to frame the subject, and continue on. In this case, I shot “blind,” holding the camera down at my side. (That created a little problem. More below.)

There are a few things about this photograph that could make some viewers a bit uneasy. First, I did not ask for permission and I doubt the subject was even aware that I made the photograph. There was no time, and if I had asked, the photograph would have been a very different thing. (BTW, sometimes I’m in public and I see that I might end up in someone’s photograph like this — and I remind myself that it is OK since I do it, too!) Second, the original image had a serious problem. It was badly tilted, perhaps as much as 20-degrees. I liked the image, but I had to crop radically to get the framing I wanted, and there were still problems. How did I fix it? For the first time, I allowed an AI tool to generate some content in the corners of the frame. Still not sure how I feel about that, but it seems worth experimenting with at least.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

London Eye

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London Eye
“London Eye” — Looking upwards at the London Eye on a cloudy day.

I usually have a good sense of direction, and I can often navigate without maps. But I also have an occasional directional problem. When arriving in a new place I sometimes make an incorrect assumption about the compass directions. Once I do, it is darned near impossible for me to fix it. London is one of the places. For some reason, the first time I visited I reversed north and south, and I’ve struggled since then to get it right. I’ve gotten a lot better — when I look north across the River Thames these days it looks like it is north. But this photograph came about due to the residue of my prior confusion.

When we set out from our lodgings to walk to the nearby Borough Market, I went with my gut instead of logic and headed out confidently in the wrong direction. (To her credit, Patty suspected that I was going the wrong way, but went along.) We walked and walked and instead of finding the Market we were (or I was) surprised to walk up to the London Eye, which is in exactly the opposite direction!

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: England, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Red Phone Booth

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Red Phone Booth
“Red Phone Booth” — A red telephone booth stands along a sidewalk in Oxford, England.

As is often the case with a subject like this, it turns out that there may be more than meets the eye. To me this was just an old red phone booth in a surprising location at Oxford University. But a bit of reading after I got home revealed that there are more than a dozen of them in Oxford. They are generally no longer functional, and they date back many decades. And, no, it does not appear that they are larger on the inside than on the outside. ;-)

Color is, of course, important — especially in color photography! If you keep track of such things, you might notice that this photograph and another I have shared (a woman in London) both feature the color red. The color red can be read (unintentional pun!) in lots of different ways. It is the color of blood and sometimes regarded as the color a passion. It stands out against all sorts of backgrounds, especially in the built environment where it is unusual.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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