Tag Archives: men

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Selfie

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The Selfie
The Selfie

The Selfie. New York City. August 5, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

On a Manhattan sidewalk, three girls dressed in black pose for a selfie as two men walk past.

Here comes another sequence of New York City street photographs, this time with several presented in a wide panoramic format. My most common format uses a 4:3 width:height ratio, but sometimes a photograph seems to work better with something else, and the 2:1 wide panoramic format can create a sense of horizontal space that I like in some photographs. When I made this one I was working very quickly — as you can imagine, this was not exactly a shot that provided me with much time for careful and cautious thought. At the time of exposure I think I might have leaned toward a black and white rendition, in traditional street photography format, but in the end I liked the blue colors of the men’s shirts and of the shaded concrete sidewalk.

I had spotted this group of three young women — girls, really — walking down the street together and having a great time and all wearing roughly similar black outfits. (One imagines them discussing this before meeting up — “I’m thinking of wearing black. How about you?”) There is usually a lot happening on the street, so my attention likely switched away from something else to consider them for only a brief moment, and when I looked back and saw them setting up for that most contemporary ritual, the selfie, I quickly made a few exposures. In an example of lucky timing, the two guys in blue shirts walked into the scene from behind me at just the right moment.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Events, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Northern California

Dawn, Waiting for Endeavour

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Dawn, Waiting for Endeavour - Early crowds at dawn, lining up to view the space shuttle Endeavour fly over the NASA/Ames Moffett Field facility
Early crowds at dawn, lining up to view the space shuttle Endeavour fly over the NASA/Ames Moffett Field facility

Dawn, Waiting for Endeavour. NASA Ames Moffett Airfield, California. September 21, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early crowds at dawn, lining up to view the space shuttle Endeavour fly over the NASA/Ames Moffett Field facility

I’ve posted enough photographs of the space shuttle Endeavour on its flyover of the NASA Ames Moffett Field – here is a photograph of some of the people who showed up to see the event. The place opened its gates at 6:00 a.m., which is well before sunrise in California at this time of year. I left home at about that time and took public transit, arriving just about the time of sunrise. I joined the growing throng arriving at Moffett. Quite a few came by car, but many also came on foot, walking from the nearby light rail stations or from their cars that they had parked in nearby Mountain View.

Once on the base the decisions were pretty straightforward – to stop of breakfast, coffee and souvenirs or to head straight out to the edge of the runway to take up a position hours in advance of the flyover. I made a quick stop for coffee, but decided to forego souvenirs and the available food-truck breakfasts (as good as they looked), and headed straight out onto the runway. There was a crowd already near the entrance area, but much of the runway was still open, especially further down toward the old Hangar One, where I found a position right along the barricades next to the runway. For the next few hours, people mostly hung out – talking, making photographs, checking cell phones, and so on – as the sun rose and the anticipate built. The photograph shows a small portion of the crowd right near sunrise, when the shadows were still long and most people had not yet arrived. The skeleton of the historic Hangar One is at the far left.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

People Hurrying, Grand Central Station

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People Hurrying, Grand Central Station - People hurrying along a ramp in Grand Central Station, New York
People hurrying along a ramp in Grand Central Station, New York

People Hurrying, Grand Central Station. New York, New York. August 19, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People hurrying along a ramp in Grand Central Station, New York

During our last trip to New York City, in August of 2011, at one point we ended up wandering in to Grand Central Station, perhaps just “because,” though now I don’t remember for sure. This is an iconic Manhattan location, for sure, and the central hall is quite a place, with its conjunction of contemporary hurry and its connections to history as seen in its architecture.

I did not have a tripod, nor did I really want to be burdened with one while moving around Manhattan on foot and by subway, so I shot handheld in the low light. Here I was looking down at a long ramp between two levels of the building, where I could photograph people as they walked past – and I made this photograph just as the group of women passed through the pool of light from the overhead lighting.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

People on Descending Escalator, MoMA

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People on Descending Escalator, MoMA
People on Descending Escalator, MoMA

People on Descending Escalator, MoMA. New York City. August 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of people on the “down escalator” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

I couldn’t resist the idea of photographing the steady stream of distracted people coming down this escalator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I employed a technique that I often use when shooting on the street, namely to find an interesting structural subject (in this case, the escalator) and then wait for the right person or people to occupy the frame. I made a series of photographs of people on this escalator, and ended up liking this one the most. There are a number of specific things about the people in the scene that attract my attention, but I’ll let you discover them on your own, should you be so inclined.

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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.