Tag Archives: man

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

Man With Flag

July 31, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man with a flag organizes a group of tourists on a San Francisco street

I think this is another “there’s more going on here than you might first realize” photographs. Yes, there is a man marching out of this store carrying a small flag, but why? The answer to that question is pretty easy — he is apparently leading a group of tourists through this part of San Francisco, and the flag is his way of letting them know who to follow. (You’ll see this phenomenon in almost any city or other area that is popular with tourists.) But there is something else interesting — at last to me — about this photograph. Many of the people in the scene have apparently just become aware of me and are looking my direction, apparently not quite certain how to respond just yet. (I’m discreet, so I probably didn’t have the camera to my face, and it isn’t a large camera.)

Pools of light like this one are prime spots for me when shooting urban areas at night. I love the way the light spills out onto the sidewalk, creating shadows leading away from the people. I can also play with this light. I might shoot straight into it and make shadow the main subject. Or I can sometimes get just a bit between the subjects and the light, and then it can light them quite beautifully, especially when there are multiple light sources. If I recall correctly, it was the light and then the bricks that first caught my eyes here, and then when the people appeared in the doorway the photograph was complete.

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

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

Man in Blue, One Way Corner

June 5, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man in blue walking past a barren San Francisco street corner

This is a street photograph from one favorite corner in downtown San Francisco, where the buildings are tall enough that I can often photograph subjects in soft light. In addition, the buildings and the street are not very colorful, allowing whatever the subject bring to the scene to become more important.

Often when I make photographs like this I think a bit like a landscape photographer. I find a configuration of fixed subjects that interests me, I try to create some kind of composition out of it (usually working very quickly) and then I watch for a person or persons to walk into and through the scene. This time the two components happened almost simultaneously. as soon as I saw the one-way sign on the corner and realized I wanted to photograph it I also saw this man crossing the narrow street and heading toward it — and I had just enough time to lift the camera, frame the scene, and photograph him between the sign and the fire hydrant, and at the closest point on the sidewalk.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California

Man at Railing

April 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man looks over a railing at the Getty Center

This photograph includes a section of the structures facing the central courtyard at the Los Angeles Getty Center, high on a hill above the Los Angeles area. We visited on a sunny day, that the stark light illuminated the geometrical architecture forms — at upper right are curved surfaces lit by direct sun, and to the left are shadowed areas that are lit by the reflections.

The architecture here seems quite complex to me, with the smaller details of square window panes and stone and metal creating the outside surfaces, and the larger forms angling together in all kinds of interesting ways. The lone figure, a Getty security guard taking a break, was the first thing to catch my attention here, but in the end I think that the buildings themselves are the central subject.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man With Bag

September 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man carrying a bag hurries across a Manhattan street

This photograph happened so fast that I can’t even recall exactly where I was, though I suspect I was somewhere a few blocks below the southeast corner of Central Park, where I was headed with a plan of walking around the entire park and photographing what I saw.

One thing I’ll say about busy urban environments such as that in Manhattan — there is bound to be something or someone interesting in front of your camera very quickly. Once you begin to be able to sort out the subjects from the visual background noise, they can start to appear so rapidly at times that there is barely time to photograph them. Many of them suddenly appear and it is a matter of shoot now or lose it. (That happens occasionally in my more typical sorts of photography, but it is rarely so continuous as it is here.) I’m betting that I might have seen this intense-looking fellow before he started to cross the street, and I believe he was in such a hurry that he moved back behind the cars stuck in traffic to cross between them. Aside from photographing him, we had no interaction and he was gone as quickly as he appeared.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: man

Man With Flag

Man in Blue, One Way Corner

Man at Railing

Man With Bag

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