Tag Archives: london

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Utah

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall

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Walking Man, Mirrored Wall
A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Here we have (yet another!) photograph of someone using a smart phone in the urban world, though here there are, I think, a few other elements that got my attention. I’m sure that I was paying attention to the continuous stream of people moving along this sidewalk, and I like to think that some sense of their motion comes through in the photograph. The mirrored wall that contains most of the subjects not only let me capture a “double” of the primary subject, but it also let me bring him forward from the reflected background of all the other people who are only visible in the mirrored image. You might also notice some interesting things related to color.

And there are some surprises. I read somewhere that one of the differences between painting and photography is that while the painter personally puts everything on the canvas (at least mostly) and therefore can know it fully, the photographer cannot possibly know every element of the scene. In fact it is common to only realize that the photograph contains unintentional elements after the fact. One of those is present here — look at the head of the man in his reflected image.

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: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man On The Phone

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Man On The Phone
A man walks along a London street while conversing on the telephone

Man On The Phone. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man walks along a London street while conversing on the telephone

Recently I’ve been realizing that the image of people using cell phones is quite probably going to one of defining images of this period in time. Being part of it, I’m not sure we are quite conscious of how ubiquitous it is nor of how profoundly it has changed the activities of people and how they act in the urban environment. For example, a few years ago I joked that it used to be that you could tell tourists in the big city by how they wandered around gazing upwards — but that now you can identify them by looking for people walking around while staring straight down and screens.

So this photograph is partly a reference to and inspired by this idea about the phone and its ever-present visually defining role in the current era. Of course it is also about the fellow himself, who has, at least to me, a fascinating appearance. It is also about the surrounding urban landscape with its colors and angles and so forth.

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: England, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Green Shop, Night

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Green Shop, Night
The lights of a small market at night along a London street

Green Shop, Night. London, England. August 2, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The lights of a small market at night along a London street

When traveling I’m fascinated by the relationships between familiar things and the different ways they exist in other places. This is true within the US — for example, corner stores tend to be rather different things here in Silicon Valley than they are in, say New York City. But it is even more so when traveling overseas, as I saw on our recent five-week travels that took us from New York to London, Paris, Heidelberg, and several places in Italy. The little store, open into the night, is everywhere. But what you might find there is different, except that all provide a bit of a beacon to passersby in the night.

I made a series of exposures of this brightly lit store, set between other closed and darkened businesses. All of the other images included quite a few people, in some of them essentially crowds were passing by. I chose to share this one because it is almost unpopulated, with the exception of a clerk visible inside the store and a man approaching at the edge of the frame. The light of the store spill out onto and beyond the sidewalk and spreads beyond the confines of the store itself.

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: England, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Night Pedestrians, London

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Night Pedestrians, London
Pedestrians walk through an area of shops at night, London

Night Pedestrians, London. London, England. August 2, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians walk through an area of shops at night, London

I made this photograph on a night when we attended a concert, a somewhat atypical one for us. The event was connected to a group that is, if we understood correctly, trying to counteract the negative prospects of Brexit and related social issues in Great Britain and perhaps beyond. It featured an extremely wide variety of performers, ranging from an opera singer accompanied by a small orchestra to jazz and more.

After the concert we left the venue and headed to a tube station. One of my main goals for this visit was to do some night street photography, so I pulled out my camera and looked for potential subjects as we passed through a commercial district with lots of small shops. Not surprisingly, there were tons of people out and about, and when I saw these two buildings I figured it would only be a matter of a short time before someone interesting walked into the frame. I ended up with the central copy walking almost in lockstep, plus a pair of more furtive figures in the shadows near the edges of the frame.

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.