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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

June 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Vertical format black and white photograph of light streaming through the upper reaches of the turret skylight above the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This is a second photograph made during a recent visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA, on the weekend before the place closed for two years of renovation and expansion work. Only days before did I realize that it was about to close and the extraordinary length of the closure, and I quickly adjusted my plans to get up there one more time. I wanted to wander the facility itself, but I especially wanted to see the excellent exhibit of the work of photographer Garry Winogrand.

This skylight is a dominant feature when the museum exterior is viewed from the west, where its tilted and round shape stands out from almost anything else nearby. Inside the building it creates a wonderful space full of light that somehow seems intimate, even though it is the highest point in a very large lobby atrium. The small diameter of the space and the walkway that splits it in two probably contribute to this effect. This photograph is a highly interpreted or stylized view of the subject, and is the result of a great deal of work in post-production – which almost seems somewhat ironic since the photograph was made handheld with a very small rangefinder style mirrorless digital camera.

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

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

June 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Midday light inside beneath the skylight in the atrium of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

For the time being I’m not going to write all that I could write about this photograph – that would be far too much to post here. Nonetheless, this might be a slightly longer “photo post” than usual.

The subject is the skylight in the turret at the top of the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Just below the skylight there is a catwalk that crosses from one side of the cylindrical upper area of the atrium to the other, and this is a place of magical light in almost any conditions. I visited this past Friday since the museum closes after today (June 2, 2013) for two years for renovation and expansion, and I wanted to have one last chance to wander around in the museum and I wanted to see the wonderful Garry Winogrand exhibit.

During the “wandering” part of my visit I went to this catwalk and thought about how I could photograph it. It is almost embarrassing to photograph in this spot, since it is one of the most obvious iconic places to grab an iPhone shot, and many other visitors were doing just that. I first made a few symmetrical photographs looking up at the skylight in a more direct way and then thought that I’d try a few “off kilter” shots, perhaps with the Winogrand images – which often tilt and twist in surprising ways – still in my mind. Having also just spent time in the museum’s wonderful exhibit of classic black and white work by other photographers, I was in a bit of a black and white state of mind, and I was pretty certain that this would end up as a monochrome image.

(For those who wonder about such things, this photograph was made with the small Fujifilm X-E1 camera and the wonderful Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 lens.)

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

Construction Site, Cyclone Fence

May 17, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A of new building under construction in the Mission Bay are of San Francisco, as seen through a cyclone fence.

Just across McCovey Cove from San Francisco’s AT&T Park is an area where a lot of construction is currently occurring. The area is visually interesting right now partly because of the juxtapositions of really old and run-down stuff, some of the typical empty urban areas filled with parking lots and other temporary facilities, and a lot of change as new buildings go up. On this morning I walked into an area that not all that long ago had an abandoned feeling during the morning hours – and how it was buzzing with activity. Huge steel pilings stretch toward the sky, construction zones are fenced off, and hundreds of workers and lots of heavy equipment are busily at work. Yet even this is only a temporary state that will lead before long to yet another change once the buildings are complete, the construction workers go away, and new businesses and residents move in.

At this site I had first photographed the towering steel pilings. They created a feeling of a sort of odd, abstract monument as they pointed toward the sky. (A photograph of that will appear, or may already have appeared, here at the blog.) Then I walked up next to the fence surrounding the construction site and was impressed by the organized (I presume!) confusion and complexity of what was going on at ground level. Every inch of the site seemed to be occupied by something – rebar ready for concrete pouring, workers operating various pieces of large and small machinery, engineers and planners inspecting the work, the beginnings of towers and walls rising here and there. If anything in the urban landscape comes close to the level of complexity that may be found in the natural landscape, it just might be a place like this!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

The Organ and The Tower of Babel

April 16, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Organ and The Tower of Babel in early morning light, Arches National Park, Utah.

We had arrived in Moab, Utah the previous afternoon, and a quick reconnaissance into the Arches National Park in the early evening had impressed me quite a bit, to say the least! This was my first visit to Arches, and I had only a very general idea of what I might see, so coming upon the fantastic sandstone formations – towers, walls, fins, arches, and more – for the first time was a powerful experience. That evening I had a short time to photograph in conditions that were mixed – very nice light but tremendously strong winds that challenged my ability to use a long lens to pick out small sections of the landscape… and my ability to stay warm! In any case, the brief initial visit was enough to give me some ideas of what I might want to photograph early the next morning.

I was up early and into the park before sunrise the next day. Once again, it was cold – colder, actually – and very windy. I’m often fond of photographing big landscapes with long lenses that let me isolate elements from the larger scene and compress the distances, and I wanted to use that approach with some of the formations close to the “Park Avenue” and Courthouse Towers area of the park. With this in mind I stopped a an exposed spot that gave me a view of a number of these features, put on the long lens, set up the tripod… and then struggled with the tremendously windy conditions as the very beautiful light appeared. It was do-able, but not easy. This photograph includes the very early morning light on the faces of The Organ and the Tower of Babel, two huge sandstone fin-like sandstone towers, with high desert, a thin row of cottonwood trees, and more gigantic sandstone cliffs beyond.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

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Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

Construction Site, Cyclone Fence

The Organ and The Tower of Babel

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