Tag Archives: jacket

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: People, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman in Red Coat

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Woman in Red Coat, Paris
“Woman in Red Coat” — A woman in a red coat sits on steps outside a Paris building.

This is another of the “grab shots” that I often come away with when I’m doing street photography. Here things appear and disappear quickly, and it is often more a matter of grab-that-shot than careful and slow consideration of the subject. Here I simply spotted this women on the steps and wearing the striking red coat as we walked past.

It can sometimes be hard to articulate precisely what I see in a photograph that I make. Here, I think that the color of the woman’s red coat is pretty important, as it stands out against the cooler colors in the rest of the scene, especially the color blue. I also was attracted to the somewhat melancholy feeling of the woman sitting alone on the steps in front of the badly weathered doorway. Form is also important, and here the mirrored shapes of the planter boxes create a kind of background rhythm.

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

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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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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman in Crosswalk

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Woman in Crosswalk
A woman with a walker sets out to cross Broadway in Manhattan.

Woman in Crosswalk. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman with a walker sets out to cross Broadway in Manhattan.

After not going to New York City for two years during the pandemic, we had made plans to visit once again during the holidays. It seemed safe enough when we made the plans a few months ago, but as the departure date approached the Omicron virus took off and created a worrying spike in infections. We contemplated cancelling the trip, but in the end we decided to go and take exceptional precautions. This was not the sort of New York visit we would normally do. We like to travel around on the subway, cram into crowded restaurants, visit museums, go to concerts… none of which we did on this trip. We masked up consistently, tested daily, and limited ourselves to visits with our “kids” and their spouses.

All of this was not conducive to New York street photography, but I did manage to get out a couple of times with a camera. The city was strange, with everyone wearing masks, most dining done outdoors, and nearly deserted streets. I photographed this woman as she was about to head across Broadway on the Upper West Side.

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 to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

“Feel Better”

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"Feel Better" - A barber "pole" with the words "Feel Better" and a hand painted laundry sign on the exterior wall of a dilapidated building, San Jose, California.
A barber "pole" with the words "Feel Better" and a hand painted laundry sign on the exterior wall of a dilapidated building, San Jose, California.

“Feel Better”. San Jose, California. December 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A barber “pole” with the words “Feel Better” and a hand painted laundry sign on the exterior wall of a dilapidated building, San Jose, California.

Another photograph made while wandering about in my neighborhood. These signs are on the side of a very old and very dilapidated little wood-sided building that houses a barber shop and a cleaners. The building is leaning so badly and on such uneven ground that it is a wonder that it is still standing and that the city still allows people to occupy it. Yet, it seems like the two businesses inside, which give the appearance of having been there a long time, continue to hang on.

The crazily tilting, off-kilter walls along the side of the building first caught my attention, so I went around to the side to make some photographs of this wall. Once I got closer I was intrigued by the barber “pole” (or the cheapest imaginable imitation of the real thing, nailed to the wall) with its odd label, “FEEL BETTER” near the bottom. The hand-painted sign for the cleaners was also interesting. Today it seems like most business signs have been extruded at the same business sign factory, and they often share a uniform slickness and lack of individual character. Not true of this sign! I looks like perhaps the owner painted it himself or herself, and that this person had just enough painting skill to pull it off, but not so much as to be overly slick, to put it mildly. The oddly spaces hand-lettering and the “personalized” paintings of suits hanging on hangars are not the sort of thing you usually see in this area, but they do have a certain charm.

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.