Our recent travels to the British Isles began (aside from a very brief stopover in London) with a lengthy visit to Skye and the northwest of Scotland. After that first adventure we returned to Inverness and took a train to Aberdeen for a few days. After more than a week in the wild open spaces of northwest Scotland, returning to this urban setting was quite a contrast!
Continue reading Netherkirkgate
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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email
Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.
Scroll down to leave a comment or question.
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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.
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.
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.