Tag Archives: open

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

At The Door

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

At The Door. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Restaurant, Spring Evening

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Restaurant, Spring Evening
Restaurant with windows open on a spring evening, San Francisco

Restaurant, Spring Evening. San Francisco, California. April 30, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Restaurant with windows open on a spring evening, San Francisco

On foot in the twilight, I’m always intrigued by the worlds inside restaurants and bars, separated from the outside world on the street but visible through windows. I suppose there is a bit of a voyeuristic appeal in this, but I’m also fascinated by the light and by the little vignettes, sometimes almost like separate photographs, that are framed by the windows.

This time I was out with a small group of night and street photographers, and we had just wrapped up some photography of a somewhat iconic view of the San Francisco waterfront. I decided to wander back into areas more conducive to my kind of street photography, so I walked past and briefly photographed a number of places like this one, a small bar (I think) in an old (or at least old-looking) wooden structure attached to the side of a much larger building, and with its windows open to the pleasant air of a spring evening.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Forested Hill, Morning

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Forested Hill, Morning
Forested Hill, Morning

Forested Hill, Morning. Lake Tahoe, California. June 21, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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 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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Mallow Buds

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Desert Mallow Buds
Desert Mallow Buds

Desert Mallow Buds. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2. 2014.© Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert mallow buds begin to open, Death Valley National Park

Much to our surprise, in this third of three straight California drought years, we found an abundance of wildflowers during our early April visit to Death Valley National Park this year. Throughout the state, things are not on their normal yearly cycles. Because of the very serious drought, many plants did not come up at all during the usual winter time frame, and now that spring is here we see many others blooming much earlier than usual. We had assumed, along with a lot of other people, that the widespread drought was going to make this a very poor year for desert wildflowers.

We were wrong. Even outside the park on the drive there we started to see a lot of flowers in the arid portions of Southern California and to the east of the southern end of the Sierra Nevada. Many desert plants are very opportunistic, bursting forth when a bit of rain falls at the right time, and rain had recently fallen out here. Oddly enough, as I photographed these opening desert mallow buds here in the desert mountains of the park… it was very cold and starting to snow!

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.
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.