Tag Archives: high

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City

High Line Park and IAC Building

September 15, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People taking a summer evening walk along the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea with the IAC Building and the 100 11th Building in the background, New York City.

I only spent a short time on one evening walking along the High Line Park, but I certainly found it to be an intriguing place, and one that I intend to visit again. I first stopped to photograph this spot when I saw a couple of musicians performing on the bench just beyond the people walking and standing in the foreground. But the “urban landscape” of buildings beyond is obviously very striking, especially in the evening light. I cannot identify all of the buildings in the photograph – my first attempts to find them via Google maps failed because the buildings are so new that you only see empty space and construction sites there. I finally determined that the building on the left with the “swooping” lines is the IAC Building, designed by Frank Gehry – which is obvious in retrospect. The taller building in the background (which I had taken to calling the “Mondrian building”) is the “100 11th” building, designed by a French architect named Nouvel.

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.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Walls and Building Near High Line Park

September 14, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brick walls and a building under construction above the High Line Elevated Park, New York City.

Another bit of architecture photographed from the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea on a summer evening in August. The most interesting features of this evening included the “mackerel sky” clouds to the west, which are reflected in the windows of the upper building, and the warm light of early evening. The juxtapositions of angles and textures (especially the bricks and the glass windows) got my attention as we walked along the High Line. I cannot identify the building, but it appears to be under construction.

This photograph is 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: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Parking Lot Near High Line Park

August 25, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening photograph of an urban parking lot near the High Line Elevated Park in the Chelsea area of New York City.

I photographed this parking facility from above as we started down the stairs at the north end of High Line Park. Since I was traveling light at this point I had no tripod – so I made this 1/8 second exposure hand-held. (Image stabilization can be your friend!) Lighting was, to say the least, tricky. Areas of the structure were in deep shadow, but there were also bright artificial light directly within the frame. By some miracle I managed to pretty much capture the full dynamic range in one shot.

These parking elevators are seen all over Manhattan, and they allow cars to be parked several deep on the vertical lift. This was the first time I had the opportunity to shoot one from a position that wasn’t on the ground, and the complicated mass of vertical beams filling the space and lit by artificial light sources seemed like an interesting subject. I haven’t seen the elevators in operation, so I still wonder how the lot operators manage to get the right cars at the top/bottom of each lift so that each person’s car will be at ground level at the right time.

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.

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Standard Hotel, Clouds, and Airplane

August 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

An airplane crosses a cloud-filled New York City sky above the Standard Hotel at the High Line Park in Chelsea.

This hotel straddling the High Line Elevated Park in New York City presents a striking appearance, especially when the right clouds are reflected in its glass-window surface. We were in the area on a summer evening when the sky was filled with interesting clouds, and by the time we finished walking to and then along the elevated path of the High Line park we had seen it from quite a few angles.

This was my first visit to New York City in a decade, and I have to say that coming to terms with it as a photographic subject is a tall task for someone trying to take in the whole thing for (not quite) the first time. I do a lot of street and urban photography, but usually in places with which I’m familiar – San Francisco is a short train ride from where I live, so I photograph there a lot. For me, it takes some time to get beyond the overwhelming first impressions and settle down and achieve a level of comfort with the place. There were days in New York when, despite being in the midst of tremendous numbers of photographic opportunities, I found it almost impossible to figure out what to shoot. And there were also certain times when “the light came on” and I made a lot of photographs, including this evening.

I need to go back…

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