Tag Archives: ladder

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Windows and Fire Escape Shadows

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Windows and Fire Escape Shadows
Shadows from a fire escape system fall across the facade of a San Francisco building.

Windows and Fire Escape Shadows. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from a fire escape system fall across the facade of a San Francisco building.

Yes, another of the photographs I make on walks in San Francisco — or used to make in the pre-pandemic days when I would regularly hop on a train to the City, something that would be unwise now. (The trains still run, on a reduced schedule, but it isn’t worth the risk to spend two hours or more on a train.) I look forward to the time when I can resume this happy habit and head back up there for some wandering!

I’ve thought a bit about what drew me to this subject. For one thing, my landscape-photographer eyes often see urban subjects as a kind of urban landscape full of its versions of peaks, valleys, cliffs, and more. I know that I’m also attracted to certain kinds of geometry and symmetry, usually the sort that is patterned but not quite perfectly. The very subtle colors also caught my attention — it mostly looks gray, but it actually is subtly colored, and in a few places the color becomes strong enough to register as being a bit outside the monochromatic continuum. Finally, those shadows really intrigue me, especially at this time of day on this day and in this season, when they fall almost perfectly across the front of the building.

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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Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Metal Structure

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Blue Metal Structure
Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Blue Metal Structure. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I was at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to spend the evening doing night photography with my friends from the original Nocturnes group, and I had arrived well before sunset. After meeting up in the Mare Island Museum for pizza and conversation we realized that the end of the day was coming. I went outside about a half hour before sunset, and I thought of some old industrial buildings that I had passed on the way in. Instead of staying where I was and starting my typical routine of wandering on foot with my gear I decided to take short drive back to those buildings and see if I could make a few quick photographs in the end-of-day light.

I soon arrived and made a few photographs in golden hour light, but the sun quickly dropped below the horizon and I was left with that post-sunset glow. This light can be quite warm if clouds reflect some of the remaining red, yellow, and orange tones of sunset, but if the sky is clear what remains is the intense blue of early twilight. The latter light is what evolved, and I soon moved back to this unusual structure whose blue paint’s color was even more intensified by this twilight illumination.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows

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Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows
Shadows from metal balconies slant across brick wall

Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from metal balconies slant across brick wall

I don’t think I can up with a comprehensive list of all of the variations on urban and street subjects, but there are a lot of them. You can, of course, focus on photographing people — whether street portraits, with our without the subject’s cooperation, or anything up to groups and crowds. You can treat the urban environment as its own sort of landscape, looking for form and color and light in the familiar ways. You can think of it as a way of simply making a record of transitory things that will soon be changed or bone. It can focus on architecture. And the list goes on.

I think of this as a sort of street landscape. This New York wall, at this time of day and during this season, transforms into something that I can’t imagine the builders understood when they constructed it. My bet is that they were making a practical brick wall, with practical windows, a simple pair of balconies (probably designed to save money), and fire escapes. But, as was apparent when I walked past in December, becomes a canvas for a wild conjunction of shapes and textures and shadows.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Alleyway Ladder

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Alleyway Ladder
A wooden later climbs a concrete wall in a San Francisco alley

Alleyway Ladder. San Francisco, California. May 29, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wooden later climbs a concrete wall in a San Francisco alley

This is a photograph from one of my early morning forays into downtown San Francisco, trips that tend to become a bit more common this time of year. The first of “the season” was near the end of May. I started at the Caltrain Station, worked my way mostly along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building area, and then took a winding route off into the City.

I tend to walk slowly while working on these projects — stopping to look, to wait, and to poke my camera into odd little corners. Here I found the gate to a small alley open, and after watching a couple of people walk through on their way to a business in the back I followed. Just inside the gate was an old textured concrete wall with this wooden ladder leading up along its face, and the combination of the textured concrete, the form of the ladder, and the perspective convergence created an interesting abstraction.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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