Tag Archives: helmet

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles

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Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles
Man in vest and helmet emerges from Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, Inc.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Man in vest and helmet emerges from Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, Inc.

This is another quite street photography photograph made in Manhattan, almost certainly along the edges of its Chinatown district. On the scale from instant and intuitive to slow and methodical, this photograph fits in the former category. I think I recall stopping for no longer than a few seconds to photograph this place, and timing a couple of the exposures to include this fellow coming out through the door. Once he was out of the picture my interest waned and we moved on.

Of course the name of the business caught my attention — not just “Noodles” or that word plus someone’s name, but “Tasty, hand-pulled noodles, Inc.”, and on a shop that wasn’t, well, very pretentious. The fellow coming out the door was wearing one of those bright orange reflective vests and a bicycle helmet. I saw no bicycle nearby, but perhaps he was a messenger. Not clear from the photograph, unless you notice how much clothing he is wearing, is that he was apparently out on a bicycle on a day when the temperature barely reached twenty degrees and the wind was blowing strongly.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: People, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bicycle Rider, Brick Wall

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Bicycle Rider, Brick Wall - A bicycle rider in orange rides past a brick wall, Seattle, Washington
A bicycle rider in orange rides past a brick wall, Seattle, Washington

Bicycle Rider, Brick Wall. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bicycle rider in orange rides past a brick wall, Seattle, Washington.

This is going to be the first in a small series of photographs from Seattle, Washington that focus on what might be described as urban geometry – odd or interesting juxtapositions of shapes and colors and so forth. I made this photograph back in early May when I joined a group of Seattle photographers for a “Seattle Photo Walk” in the Fremont District. I had only an hour to shoot, but I managed to work intensely for that hour and come back with some stuff that is interesting to me in one way or another.

One thing that I enjoy about photographing the urban environment is that potential subjects come and go almost constantly and often last only for a brief instant. I have to react so fast that I certainly cannot see everything in the frame in a conscious way while making the photograph, though there is something to be said for perhaps have an intuitive understanding of what is there. When I made this photograph I was walking along a bridge the heads back into Seattle’s Fremont district. I had been looking at these brick buildings which feign being old – they are actually new but with old-looking brick walls. The geometry of the buildings attracted me, but I hadn’t really seen a photograph in them at this point. Then, as I looked, I saw the cyclist coming along wearing this very bright orange shirt and helmet and wearing an orange pack. I quickly framed up a composition that included the building, the walkway, and a portion of the road and then waited for the rider to enter the frame. As he passed through I quickly squeezed off three frames. In two of them, a car obscures the cyclist, but in the final one, taken just before he exited the frame, he is all alone against the patterns of the road and the building. (I didn’t notice until later the windows reflected in the middle row of windows on the building.)

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: Sports

Paceline – American Velodrome Challenge

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Paceline - American Velodrome Challenge

Paceline – American Velodrome Challenge. Hellyer Park Velodrome, San Jose, California. June 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The pack is strung out as the pace increases in a bicycle track race at the American Velodrome Challenge, Hellyer Park, San Jose, California.

The paceline in the late stages of a miss-and-out race at the American Velodrome Challenge at the Hellyer Park Velodrome in San Jose, California. Yes, another “blurry bike racers” shot! And it won’t be the last.

I was having great fun shooting this series. There are a few tricks that I use to make this work. Before I make the exposure I decide where in the frame I want the relatively focused rider to be – in this case I wanted him closest to me on the right side of the frame. I selected a single autofocus point on the camera and made it the one furthest to the right from the center. I used the AI servo mode on my Canon 5D II since it continuously adjust the AF and since it attempts to predict the position of moving objects, thus tending to keep them in focus… as long as you can manage to keep the AF point on the target as it moves by very fast and very close. So the trick was to begin to follow the riders around the far end of the turn that you can see at top left, and then to work carefully to keep this AF point on the lead rider – not as easy as you might think – while also keeping a watch on the positions of the other riders. Making this even more “fun” is the fact that I had absolutely no control over what the riders would actually do when they came around. Sometimes a rider might come up the bank and block my shot; sometimes a single rider might be too far separated from the others to make the composition I had in mind. Generally – but not quite always – I shoot anyway, and I’m more than willing to admit that there is a certain element of luck in making this work.

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: bike, bicycle, racing, track, velodrome, national, professional, san jose, california, usa, pack, group, peloton, rider, racer, competitor, participant, cyclist, biker, helmet, red, blue, orange, white, blur, motion, speed, santa clara, county, night, stock

Photographs: Sports

Three Sprinters, Women’s Keirin – American Velodrome Challenge

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Three Sprinters, Women's Keirin - American Velodrome Challenge

Three Sprinters, Women’s Keirin – American Velodrome Challenge. Hellyer Park Velodrome, San Jose, California. June 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three sprinters round a turn in the final sprint of a women’s keirin race at the American Velodrome Challenge, Hellyer Park Velodrome, San Jose, California.

In this photograph the three lead riders in a preliminary heat of the women’s keirin race event round the second to last turn and crank up their speed with just more than half of a lap remaining before the finish line.

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: bike, bicycle, racing, track, velodrome, national, professional, san jose, california, usa, women, racer, rider, competitor, sprint, national, shadow, yellow, turn, curve, speed, helmet, challenge, stock