Tag Archives: lawn

Spring Trees, Central Park

Spring Trees, Central Park
Walkers pass through an area of lawns and large spring trees in Central Park, Manhattan.

Spring Trees, Central Park. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Walkers pass through an area of lawns and large spring trees in Central Park, Manhattan.

This photograph — almost certainly the last from my end-of-March visit to Manhattan — has been sitting in the queue for weeks as I’ve shared others. I made it during a brief bit of lovely spring sun at the end of a long weekend of nearly constant rain. In part, I scheduled this New York visit when I did because I had been told that “New York is beautiful in spring.” (We almost always visit in December or August, arguably among the worst months!) Until this final morning, when the sun came out for a few hours, I wasn’t so sure about that “beautiful spring” claim.

I stayed a few blocks from the lower end of Central Park, so even on the rainy days I joined the throngs of New Yorkers and fellow visitors for walks in the park. I’ll admit that it was a beautiful and moody place in the rainy weather — but not very comfortable! After three days of rain, this morning was extra beautiful.


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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Free Couch

Free Couch
A free couch and colorful pillows on the sidewalk in a suburban neighborhood.

Free Couch. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A free couch and colorful pillows on the sidewalk in a suburban neighborhood.

While walking in the neighborhood (which means anything in a radius of about three miles around our home) I often come across things that are… interesting. At this point I can point to homes occupied by hoarders, the best places to look for free garden produce left out for passers-by (which is why we have two loaves of persimmon bread in our freezer), cool house paint, the folks who imagine that putting a fake green carpet when their lawn used to be makes it “beautiful,” the neighborhood full of expensive and gigantic and extremely banal homes, and more.

I also come across quite a bit of suburban detritus. The things that we don’t want any more probably reveal a lot about us — perhaps more than we realize. (It is amazing that someone actually wants some of these things. We’ve had people pick up things like broken rakes…) In a few cases, I suspect that the give-aways may reflect past decisions that the owners eventually realized were, well, not examples of their best aesthetic judgment. Notice those pillows?


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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Woman, Sculpture Park, East River

Woman, Sculpture Park, East River
A woman sits in a blue chair on a lawn at the Socrates Sculpture Park along the East River, New York

Woman, Sculpture Park, East River. New York City. October 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman sits in a blue chair on a lawn at the Socrates Sculpture Park along the East River, New York

On this lovely, clouded day of light rain and muted colors, we traveled to the Socrates Sculpture Park along the East River, across the water from Manhattan. Our daughter-in-law  Lia Lowenthal has a piece installed at the park that we wanted to get to see. I had not visited this place before, and it is quite an interesting site — partly because of its shoreline location, partly because it provides an interesting juxtaposition of urban and natural, partly because there is an active sculpture studio next door, and partly because of the works installed there.

After looking at the art I began to look at the environment with photography in mind. I saw this woman sitting on a piece of sculpture in the middle of this worn looking lawn, with the upper Manhattan skyline across the water, and everything in this soft, flat light — and I thought it made a photograph.


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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Flowers, Light, Shadow

Flowers, Light, Shadow
An urban garden scene in a friend’s yard

Flowers, Light, Shadow. Heidelberg, Germany. July 12, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An urban garden scene in a friend’s yard

I have had this little photograph open in my image editing program for some time now, waiting to post it online. It is a simple photograph, but I connect it to several things that have some meaning to me. The scene is in the tiny yard at the home of relatives in Heidelberg, Germany, whose hospitality we enjoyed over a two-week period a couple of summers ago. On this evening we had gone outside, if I recall correctly, to eat and have some wine when I noticed this diagonal beam of light passing over the surface of the white wall and forming a shadow. As someone once wrote, “There is always something to see,” and photographs are potentially anywhere.


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


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