Tag Archives: lines

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rectangular Patterns (Horizontal)

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Rectangular Patterns (Horizontal)
“Rectangular Patterns (Horizontal)” — Patterns formed by light, paint, shadows, and structure on an urban building.

This is one of a pair of photographs of the same structure. I’ll bet you might not be surprised to hear that the companion photograph is called “Rectangular Pattern (Vertical).” Working on this pair got me to thinking about a series that I might call “Urban Geometries” featuring such photographs, both from my existing archives and from some new work. You can look at this as a photograph of a real scene or, if you work at it, you may be able to see it as an abstract composition of forms and colors.

The location is an area that was acquired by a (very) big company for a huge future corporate campus. Then came the pandemic. Now their plans appear to be on hold, though they still hold rights to the properties. I suspect, but do not know for certain, that they did some “sprucing up” of the area to avoid charges that they are allowing it to degrade. Right now it is largely a sort of urban dead zone… though it has nice paint.

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

Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)

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Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)
“Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)” — Patterns formed by light, paint, shadows, and structure on an urban building.

This is the second in a series of three photographs that I made on a walk that took me through an area of urban renewal in my town. A large corporation committed to very extensive building plans, then backed off during the pandemic, and now seems to be trying to, in my view, make it look like something is happening when not much really is. They have painted buildings and put up interesting interpretive signs. To their credit, this is better than just letting the properties decay.

I’m very attracted to strong graphic forms and colors — which I suppose might surprise some who think of me as “just” a landscape photographer. But I don’t see any conflict, and I feel that the interest in such forms underlies quite a few of my landscape images, even though it is possible to look at them primarily as being “pictures of nature.”

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Croatia, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Perpendicular

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Perpendicular
Blue wooden doors with former windows filled by painted wood panels.

Perpendicular. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Blue wooden doors with former windows filled by painted wood panels.

Many photographers are intrigued — obsessed, even — with the abstract qualities of shapes, form, color, and texture. Many of you already understand that these things are often as important as, if not more so, than the objective content of photographs. A photograph does record things, but it isn’t just recording “what we see” — it is also about recording, arranging, and presenting “how we see.” And many of use — almost all, really — see this other things when we use our cameras.

I made this photograph while walking through Trogir, Croatia one morning — I am pretty sure this was the morning when Franka Mlikota Gabler and I met there to photograph. This town can be very crowded later in the day, but in the early morning hours we had it almost to ourselves, and there was plenty of time to photograph things like this without distractions. What is the photograph “about?” Hard to say precisely, and you have a voice in this, too. But I was obviously fascinated by the perpendicular arrangement of lines and rectangles, the subtle difference in the blue tones, and the weathering and other imperfections in the surfaces.

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: Agriculture, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Dormant Trees and Fog

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Dormant Trees and Fog
Dormant trees in Central Valley winter tule fog.

Dormant Trees and Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dormant trees in Central Valley winter tule fog.

This is the second in a series of photographs I made of this Central Valley orchard on a very foggy winter morning. On a typical morning with these conditions, there comes a time when the fog begins to move and thin and the light begins to come through the fog and make it glow. (This is tule fog, which forms at night when the moisture level is right, and ends up producing a thin but often very dense layer of low fog.) I had been photographing birds in thicker fog, and when the thinning process began I moved to this location where I thought the trees might be an interesting subject.

In some ways it is an easy matter to photograph a subject like this one. It is naturally mysterious and compelling, both from the fog itself and from the vaguely anthropomorphic forms of the dormant trees. However, once I begin to work with such a subject, things invariably start to become more complicated than I expected — how to create a balanced composition? What camera position gives the most interesting juxtaposition of trunks? How much to focus on trunks and how much on the upper branches How to deal with inevitable intrusions of branches into the scene. My solution is a combination of looking and thinking, relying on intuition, and trying many different approaches.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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