Tag Archives: front

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building Facade, Reflections

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Building Facade, Reflections - The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.
The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.

Building Facade, Reflections. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.

I enjoy looking for reflections in large, glass-facade downtown buildings in San Francisco and other urban centers. I find the reflections fascinating, especially when they hold complete images of other buildings or sky, the way that they acquire various distortions, and when the reflections begin to visually merge with the image of the building itself.

I spotted this building as the train approached the Fourth and Townsend Caltrain Station in San Francisco, so by the time the train stopped I had figured out that I needed to wander on over to this spot to see if I could find a photograph. I made a bee-line for the general area of the building that I had seen, and I soon figured out who to put together an image that included a wide range of materials: the building itself, the interior spaces beyond the window glass, the reflections of sky and clouds, and more. I especially like the bits of orange reflection from a building behind my camera position.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff -A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park
A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park

Dead Tree and Sandstone Cliff. Zion National Park, Utah. April 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dead tree stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Along the Mt. Carmel Road through Zion National Park, the higher elevation areas tend to feature a lot of lighter color sandstone, which I understand may be the remnants of ancient sand dunes. For the most part, these formations tend to be lighter in color than the strikingly red tones of the sandstone cliffs found lower in the park, in the Zion Canyon of the Virgin River for example. These “highland” rock formations have their own appeal, including a wide variety of patterns including beautiful curving shapes.

But that isn’t what you see in this photograph, even though I made it in the highland area. As we rounded a turn at one point, ahead of us and then to the right was a very large and close cliff of red sandstone, and it was still in the afternoon shade. I like shade! Not only that, but in front of this cliff were several large trees that were not only out of the shade but which were also backlit. I like back-light! So we stopped and I photographed those trees. But as I worked on them I also noticed this skeletal and very deal old snag of to one side. I like old snags! Because the rock was in the shade yet lit by reflections from across the canyon, the red tones of the sandstone were intensified. There were a couple of challenges with this scene. The overall luminosity range is not great, the colors are all affected by the reddish glow from the cliff and the light from across the small canyon, and the tonal level of the tree is not that different from that of the rocks. In order to get the tree to stand out at least a bit against the rocks (something that was more obvious on the scene and looking at it in 3D) some work was necessary in post, especially some fine work on the tree itself.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff

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Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff - A cottonwood tree with early spring leaves stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park, Utah
A cottonwood tree with early spring leaves stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park, Utah

Spring Cottonwood and Sandstone Cliff. Zion National Park, Utah. April 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cottonwood tree with early spring leaves stands in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park, Utah.

This was my first visit to Zion National Park – believe it or not – and I had been thinking about photographing cottonwood trees against red sandstone cliffs well before we arrived. We got there in the afternoon, checked in to our lodgings, and soon went up into the main canyon on the shuttle and then hiked up toward the Narrows from there.

It was a special and unusual experience for me to be photographing in an entirely new place, and to have very little idea of the geography of the Zion at all – I had almost intentionally avoided researching ahead of time, preferring to take it for what it was when I arrived. I was so naive that when we passed over a bridge and I looked downstream I thought, “Oh, that is the Watchman.” (For those who don’t know, the photograph of the Watchman Tower above the Virgin River, photographed from the bridge that crosses the river just inside the park is, roughly speaking, the Zion equivalent of photographing Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite.) We kept going, staring up at the beautiful sandstone towers and walls as the shuttle travelled up the canyon to the very end at the Temple of Sinawava, where we got off and started to walk. The walls in this very area are beautiful, and my progress up the trail was very slow as I stopped to gawk and photograph all of these wonderful new subjects, including this almost bare tree with its first spring growth. against the backdrop of the sandstone cliffs.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Simplicity

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Simplicity - A small appliance store front window with many colorful signs, San Jose, California.
A small appliance store front window with many colorful signs, San Jose, California.

Simplicity. San Jose, California. December 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small appliance store front window with many colorful signs, San Jose, California.

This is another in the “walked out my front door and made photographs” series, being a store front that is within a half mile or so of my home. I’m a bit of a fan of photographing the fronts of these small businesses that appear to be anything but chain operations. Each one is its own unique universe and, I assume, reflects the owner’s personality in many ways including the cumulative effect of focusing on one small area of the world for many decades. I often wonder what it must be like to live in a world of vacuum cleaners for more than five decades – and I don’t mean to imply anything by that question beyond a serious interest in how our primary interests end up influencing how we experience and see the world.

The visual quality of these places also interests me. I can initially simply be overwhelmed by the details that must have accumulated over time – the many brightly colored signs, a few things hung on walls, displays of specialized equipment and materials with brand names I barely recognize. Yet there is a very carefully created order in all of this. It is fun – for me at least! – to spend some time looking at these scenes and starting to pick out the small details that I might not initially notice. (Of course, that is easier with a big print than it is with this little jpg!)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.