Tag Archives: man

Metal Wall

June 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A metal wall leads away toward a person standing in a doorway

This certainly qualifies as an opportunistic photograph. We had heard that a local brewery was going to host a Fujifilm “drink and click” demo this evening. We’ve been wanting to try the place out, and the added attraction of being able to play with a whole bunch of Fujifilm cameras and lenses clinched the deal. A local camera store collaborated with Fujifilm to show up with a bunch of their x-trans camera bodies and good cross-section of their lenses. Since I already have the Fujifilm XPro2 camera, I was mostly interested in trying out lenses and the X100f rangefinder camera.

So I had the X100f for about 15 minutes, mostly inside the brewery but also just outside. I figured out the camera pretty quickly and then just made a bunch of handheld photographs, trying a range of techniques and settings to get a feel for the camera. For this image I was interested in seeing how the fixed 23mm f/2 would do with a narrow focus plane (at f/2) and what the resulting bokeh would look like. I think the camera passed the test pretty well.

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

Conservation/Environment, Photographs: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian and Cyclist

June 8, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pedestrian and cyclist on walkway in front of the Tate Modern, London

We were well into our stay in London in the summer of 2016 when we finally got around to going to the Tate Modern, where there was an exhibit of paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. I think we waited because she is American, we’ve seen shows of her work a lot, and we probably wondered how new the work would be in a London show. Because of our (misguided!) thinking, we ended up here with only a few hours to spend — only to discover that this was the most extensive collection of O’Keeffe’s work that we had seen in one place and that we didn’t have nearly enough time to see it all.

At one point, perhaps while waiting for our turn to enter the exhibit, we stepped out onto a balcony that was open to the landscaped area between the museum and the River Thames, where there were many pedestrians and a few cyclists. If I watch long enough I find that the passers-by sometimes assemble themselves into interesting groupings and patterns, so I indulged myself in a little bit of overhead photography, looking down from my high perch. The walkway took on a striking blue color in the shadow of the building, lit by the gigantic blue light panel of the sky as a walker and a cyclist approached one another.

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

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Barber and His Shop

May 31, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A barber takes a break on the steps of his shop, London

We spent a few late afternoon and early evening hours wandering around this area of narrow streets and small shops, killing time before a scheduled evening event. It was a warm evening, and this fellow was sitting on the steps in the doorway of his shop, probably getting a bit of fresh air, when we walked past.

From time to time I’ve read about people with some strict “rules” about what street photography is and is not. They often involve the equipment used, a preference for black and white, a challenge to get in the faces of subjects, and the desire to produce a certain “raw” look. There is nothing wrong with any of that, but I have my own notions about street photography — what it can look like, how it can be done, and even the boundaries around the subjects that qualify as street. It can be and up close, black and white image of a person doing more or less nothing special. But it can also be an urban landscape in which the wildlife is human. It can be in color. People do not necessarily have to be included. It can be produced in a slow and methodical manner or spontaneously while in motion. To make this photograph – notice the very low camera position — I held the camera down at my side and “shot blind” as we walked past.

Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrians, Le Marais

May 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Le Marais, where we ended up almost by accident as we searched for a photography museum in Paris, turned out to be a wonderful place to make photographs. The old streets are narrow, predating the more recent modernization of many parts of Paris, and the buildings are often old. Most people are on foot, and there are wonderful back drops for photographing them everywhere.

The person in the colorful clothing, paused against the textured and weathered wall for a cellphone check, first caught my attention. I did make another photograph in which this person is the only figure, set off against a very large expanse of wall. But when I have the chance I often like to try more than one interpretation of a subject, so I framed a vertical composition and waited for other passers-by to walk through the frame, trying to catch them in interesting juxtapositions and poses.

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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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: man

Metal Wall

Pedestrian and Cyclist

Barber and His Shop

Pedestrians, Le Marais

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.