Tag Archives: man

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Flag Makers Building

Leave a comment
Flag Makers Building
The Flag Makers building behind a couple sitting on a bench at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Flag Makers Building. San Francisco, California. May 6, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Flag Makers building behind a couple sitting on a bench at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Today (Saturday, May 14, 2016, as I write this) marks the re-opening of the newly renovated and expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA. As members we got an early look about a week ago, and we spent the better part of a day exploring the place. We like it! A lot. There are quite a few things I could write about — the architecture, the expanded space inside, the collections, the photographs — but all I’ll write for now is that I agree with one architecture critic who pointed out that where the old museum felt walled off from San Francisco the new version connects directly with the surrounding neighborhood, with many windows and open balconies providing plenty of opportunities to see and interact the urban San Francisco landscape. You could have a bit of fun thinking carefully about all of the lines and angles in this scene and what might explain them…

These photographs of SFMOMA are also some of the first I’ve made using a new camera from Fujifilm, the X-Pro2, about which I’ll likely have a lot more to say in the future. It is a rangefinder-style interchangeable lens mirrorless body with a hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder system that mostly succeeds in providing a sort of best of both worlds design. I like it for this kind of photography because the camera not only produced excellent image quality (with its 24MP sensor and fine Fujifilm lenses), but it is also small and fairly unobtrusive.

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: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Red Pants

Leave a comment
Red Pants
“Red Pants” — People and their reflections on a walkway at SFMOMA

In my continuing effort to make my landscape photograph fans uncomfortable — just kidding! — here is another urban/street photograph from a recent day in San Francisco. As members of SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) we got tickets for the members’ pre-opening this week. (The museum officially reopens on May 14, following two years of a major renovation and expansion project.) To answer the obvious first question… the new building is beautiful in almost all ways. (It isn’t perfect, but what is.) We greatly enjoyed our visit, during which we managed to spend time in mostly the new areas, but also revisited a lot of the older structure as well.

I love museums, especially art museums, and I can spend hours in them, looking and thinking and making mental associations. But I also like photographing them — for the interesting architectural features which often produce a lot of very interesting light and geometry, but also as places to watch people. But I often have to be very quick, and that was the case here. I first saw this fellow in the red pants walking my direction, against a background of mostly colorless architecture and flat light. I had just time to make two very quick exposures. Initially I wasn’t hopeful about this one, as I felt that I had almost missed him as he walked out of the frame — but in the end that positioning ended up seeming to be the most interesting to me.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (Click the title to see the full article and to comment if you are viewing it on the home page.)

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: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Couple on Bench

Leave a comment

Couple on Bench
A couple sitting on a bench outside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Couple on Bench. San Francisco, California. May 6. 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A couple sitting on a bench outside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

A couple of years ago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) closed for work on a major expansion and remodeling project. We have been members for some time, and I recall squeezing in one last visit before the long closure — viewing favorite works and making photographs inside the place. The big news is that the remodel is virtually finished now, and the museum officially reopens very soon, on May 14. But an opening like this doesn’t take place all at once. There is a sort of run-up to the actual event that brings people into the new facility over a period of time. As members, it was our turn (along with thousands of others) to get a preview this week.

I may have more to say about the museum in the future, but for now I’ll just say that I like it a lot — both the work exhibited (not that we saw all of it in one day!) and the building itself. There are a number of wonderful touches — many visual connections to the surrounding city (where the previous facility felt more walled off from San Francisco), lots of light, a brilliant system of stairways and spaces along the eastern side, and more. Oddly, almost none of that is in this first photograph I made at the new SFMOMA, which depicts an almost deserted new entrance and seems to show more of the surrounding city environment than the museum itself. More to come eventually…

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man Inside Subway Car

Leave a comment

Man Inside Subway Car
A man in a hat inside an antique subway car, Manhattan

Man Inside Subway Car. New York City. December 27, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man in a hat inside an antique subway car, Manhattan

I had been hearing about the “nostalgia” train days in New York for some time, mostly from my sons, who now live there and who are big fans of the infrastructure (and more) of New York. This year the timing of our visit allowed us to go to the nostalgia event, a day when lots of the old trains are out and running on the subway lines, and open to riders who want to get a feeling for what the system was like in the past.

People seem to show up for all kinds of reasons. Some seem like your standard railroad fans. Others seem to come mostly for the history. A few other, somewhat like me perhaps, simply go because we heard that it was going on. But some folks do all sorts of fun and idiosyncratic things. In one car I ran into a crowd of photographers, many of whom were using really old and impressive film gear. Others dress up in period clothing. As I photographed this car I was taken by the image of this smiling man in a color accented bright white shirt. As I photographed, furtively at first, I could tell that he wanted me to photograph him and he encouraged me to make more than one 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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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