Tag Archives: new york

W!

January 10, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

“W!” — Colorful painting and graffiti on metal door, New York City

Continuing my current pattern of wild back-and-forth swings among subjects, today I retreat from the foggy California wetlands and head back to New York City for some wild color. There’s nothing in the photograph to let you know this, but it was a bitterly cold winter day when I made the photograph. Almost nothing stops me from walking with my camera when I visit New York, though the 20 degree (and colder!) temperatures and biting winds did their best on this day. We started walking in Lower Manhattan, near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal (a very windy place!) and headed uptown on a somewhat random path. The route took us through some places you might not bother to visit on a tourist trip to the city, but it did turn up subjects like this intense example of street art painted on the roll-up door of a small business. If memory serves, this was the day that we finally made it to Veselka, the Ukrainian restaurant. As we walked and got colder and colder, the thought of borscht and other goodies became more and more attractive. Veselka did not disappoint.

About this photograph and its dissonance with other work I post, such as wilderness landscapes, seascapes, and migratory birds. I know that some photographers prefer to focus on a particular range of subjects. (There are fine reasons for making that choice, in fact.) But I have at least a couple of reasons for photographing a wider range of subjects. First, I come from a background in music, where the idea of performing only one style of music (say, Baroque trio sonatas) all the time seems incredibly constraining — so seeking out a wider range seems nature to me. Second, I like to think that these different subjects are still united by whatever it is that constitutes my way of seeing… and that there might be a bit of the landscape photographer in the city and a bit of the street photographer in the landscape work.

TWO

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

At The Door

January 8, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Patricia Emerson Mitchell opens the door to a snowy Lower Manhattan street scene

We frequently visit New York at about this time of year. Our sons and their wives live in the area and we can often open up about a week of travel time. It is a fine time to visit — there is a lot of holiday stuff to see, if that is your interest, and it seems like the subways are a bit less crowded during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Plus, by comparison to our mid-summer visits, the potentially cold weather actually seems attractive… and a welcome change from “California winter,” with its 50-60 degree temperatures. But the timing of these visits often has us there just a bit too early for snow.

This year was different. Shortly after we arrived the weather turned cold — extremely cold by our California standards — with daytime temperatures barely (and not always) making it into the lower 20 degree range. We persisted, however, and did a lot of walking all over Manhattan, always carrying cameras and making photographs. For most of the week we saw weather forecasts predicting a chance of snow on the last two days of the visit, but those forecasts gradually reverted to merely “cloudy.” So we were pleasantly surprised when we opened the hotel blinds on our final morning and saw snow falling! We headed out, mainly to find breakfast and coffee, and enjoyed the transformed landscape. As you look at this photograph, try to also imagine that moment when you move between the snowy, cold, and windy street and the warm, inviting space of a restaurant, coffee shop, or the home of friends/family.

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

Soda Candy Luncheonette

January 5, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Street scene in winter light on the Upper East Side, Manhattan

Today’s photo takes us back to the urban world again, and away from the world of winter migratory birds that I have shared more recently. The photograph is from our weeklong visit to New York City between Christmas and (almost) New Year’s Day. It was a cold week! As we usually do, we went out and wandered Manhattan quite a bit — hard to do street photography without going into the street! Daytime highs made it (barely, and not always) into the low 20 degree range, but we fought back by layering up and by stopping frequently for refreshments in warm places. Not that the latter is a bad thing!

I made this photograph on one of those cold days. We had queued up to get into the Guggenheim, but the line wasn’t moving at all. Standing there in the bitter cold and strong wind, the thought of finding a place with warm soup suddenly occurred to us, and we left the line and found food. Feeling warmer now, we headed back out onto Lexington and walked south. When I first spotted this place, somewhat interesting in its own right though not quite unique as a structure, the words on the sign caught my attention: “Soda Candy Luncheonette.” Then I noticed the nice light coming up Lexington and the interesting arrangements of pedestrians as they walked past.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Photograph, New York

January 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A woman poses for a photograph as friends look on, Manhattan

For today’s photographer we are back to Manhattan, with a photograph from our recent end-of-December week in New York. I always go into street photographer mode (with essence of travel photographer sprinkled in, as well) when we visit there — which we get to do relatively frequently since two sons live in Brooklyn. The street wandering on this trip was a bit more of a challenge than usual, as we were there during a rather extreme bout of very cold weather that taxed this coastal Californian’s ability to stay warm. Our routine often became one of walking and photographing until we were too cold to continue, stopping in a warm place for coffee or food, and then heading out again.

I think I made this photograph in Soho, as we walked north from near the southern tip of Manhattan. I’m pretty certain that the lighting on these group first caught my attention. (This was the trip on which I finally realized that the light in Manhattan is as interesting as that almost anywhere else, including a lot of places that are otherwise not at all like New York City.) The arrangement of the members of the group also caught my attention — the one woman (the subject of the photograph they are making) standing apart and with her back to me and being hit by the light just a bit, the fellow with the camera trained on her, a woman seated next to him looking on closely, and the woman apart on the left and in darker clothes, who is smoking and doesn’t seem all that involved. The light shines obliquely across the scene from the left, catching both the people and the scene in front of the building.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: new york

W!

At The Door

Soda Candy Luncheonette

The Photograph, New York

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