Tag Archives: north

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Concrete Landscape

June 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A curving freeway ramp encircles a downtown building in the urban landscape of San Francisco

Another morning trip to San Francisco, another walk through the City, and another photograph of urban landscapes. This photograph is from a mid-June morning walk that started at the Caltrain station, headed over toward China Basin, and then ambled back toward Market Street before looping back to the trains station.

Several freeways cut through this section of downtown San Francisco: 101 on its north-south route, 280 arriving from the Peninsula, and 80 connecting to the East Bay. Here the freeway is high above the city, which has the advantage of keeping city streets open but the disadvantage of creating a large path of somewhat seeding “beneath the freeway” areas and sometimes forcing the city itself to conform to the contours and paths of the highways. In some cases the result can be interesting, and in this location where this strange landscape of vertical columns and nested curves is the result.

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: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Gated Pier

June 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A metal gate blocks the entrance to a pier along San Francisco Bay

This is another in the recent series of photographs made along the San Francisco waterfront, walking along various less-visited areas and occasionally poking my head into places that are more industrial than tourism oriented. I’d have to review more closely to remember for certain, but I believe this one was in the China Basin waterfront area.

As I walked slowly along this section of the waterfront I paused frequently to photograph buildings and other features of the area. This is an area in transition, and taken as a whole this part of the waterfront ranges from old and dilapidated, through working piers, and right on up to remodeled and updated areas reoriented towards business or tourism. By comparison to some of the older working piers, this one seems awfully neat and clean, with the exception of some fabric pushed up against the wall at the far left. The stark lines and stark morning light, open to the vast sky above the bay caught my attention.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Decaying Shoreline Docks

June 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Decaying docks along the San Francisco Bay waterfront

Early on a late-spring morning I arrived in San Francisco on the train, reaching the waterfront area not too long after sunrise and then exploring on foot. I wandered over into the China Basin area, which is currently a hotbed of construction projects. This formerly almost abandoned area is now the location of many new buildings and projects.

I passed through those areas and soon arrived at the waterfront, which so far does not show much of the newness that is found a bit further from the shoreline. Here a rocky breakwater runs along the edge of the water, and old broken down piers sag above and sometimes into the water. Out on the bay there are tankers moored on the horizon, and the brilliant morning sun was rising above a thin fog back on the east side of the bay. For some odd reason, an old lawn chair sets near one end of this rickety dock.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Forested Hill, Morning

June 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on trees of an open forest ascending a rocky hillside, Lake Tahoe

More quiet morning light at Lake Tahoe, photographed during my visit last week. We were there for a wedding and up late at night, but I still managed to struggle out of bed shortly after 5:00 in pre-dawn near darkness and head out along the west side of the lake. For such an urbanized and busy place, it is certainly possible to find quiet and solitude in these early morning hours. I saw almost no one else out traveling at this early hour — apparently the beautiful dawn light isn’t quite enough to get others to rise!

The light was the sort that I describe as “interesting.” It was not the all-too-common light of a cloudless blue Sierra sky, nor was it the darkened, overcast light. There were enough clouds to occasionally “turn out the lights” on the warm morning light, but between those cloud shadows warm and soft light passed across lake and rocks and forest. I stopped at a simple roadside turnout, surrounded by forest, when I saw this morning light coming from behind some trees and, nearby, hitting them from the side. This is one sort of quintessential Sierra terrain, with straight but not too tall trees leading up a rocky and sandy slope covered with boulders and manzanita.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: north

Concrete Landscape

Gated Pier

Decaying Shoreline Docks

Forested Hill, Morning

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