Tag Archives: overpass

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Between The Curves

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Between The Curves
“Between The Curves” — Two large freeway overpasses cut through downtown San Francisco.

San Francisco is not far from where I live — less than an hour’s drive in good traffic (and three times that in really bad!) or a one-hour express train ride. When I have a day free I like to head up there on the train early in the morning and then explore, photographing as I go. San Francisco is a very walkable city, and I have a great choice of routes when I get off the train — I can head south to the an area with tons of new development, walk along the waterfront, go west toward an older (still somewhat) industrial area, or go north and head straight into the center of the downtown district.

I took the latter path on this day back in 2019, cross-crossing on east-west routes from time to time. Frequently when I come into The City by car I travel along the freeway route that mostly flies overhead, leaving only longer views. From underneath the City looks a lot different! I chose this view partly because I like the concept of the dark forms cutting off the view, but also because I was intrigued by the curving shape of the opening between the two overpasses.

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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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

White Building, Overpass, Empty Lot

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White Building, Overpass, Empty Lot
Urban scene, downtown San Francisco

White Building, Overpass, Empty Lot. San Francisco, California. August 14, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Urban scene, downtown San Francisco

This is another urban landscape, and it is at least partially about light. I was walking north toward the central Market Street area of The City when I passed underneath this highway overpass. I had stopped to photograph some interesting columns and fences there, since the area is currently transformed by a major construction project, with lanes close and fences up everywhere.

Emerging from the underpass I looked across the street and back at the edge of the highway above and saw the start nearly-white building, the empty lot, the cyclone fencing, the bridge and the way that all of these forms fit together, especially with the linkage from diagonal lines of the large shadow and its smaller twin, the foreground fencing also descending from left to right.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District

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Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District - Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof on a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington
Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof on a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington

Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof of a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington.

Yet another photograph from the early May photo walk I joined up with in the Fremont district of Seattle. A viaduct crosses the water high above this section of Seattle, and the structure more or less dominates portions of the view here. After shooting some of the buildings near where the photo walk began, I decided to head over towards this bridge and see what I could find to shoot there. I shot straight up at it from underneath, towards it from further away, along its length, and eventually made a few close-up photographs of details.

For this photograph I decided to create a more or less abstract juxtaposition of the underside of the bridge, almost straight overhead, and a bit of the underside of a building with a blue roof. Usually I might prefer to shoot such a thing from the tripod and perhaps even combine multiple exposures in post as a way of dealing with the wide dynamic range, but this time I simply composed the shot handheld and made a single exposure. Well, actually I made two slightly different versions, but still. :-)

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

Freeway Overpass, Townsend Street

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Freeway Overpass, Townsend Street
Freeway Overpass, Townsend Street

Freeway Overpass, Townsend Street. San Francisco, California. July 8, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Freeway overpass crosses the train tracks along Townsend Street near the Caltrain station, San Francisco.

In the middle of a long string of landscape photographs from the Sierra Nevada, today I present a photograph of… what appears to be a trashed and abandoned area beneath a freeway overpass. I’m guess that at least a few people reading this might be perplexed.

While I absolutely love going to and photographing wild and scenic areas – and as a resident of northern California I’m fortunate to live close to some pretty amazing such places – those are not the only photographic subjects that I find interesting. The explanation is complicated and would require me to discuss a whole range of things including from the nature of beauty (e.g. – “beautiful” and “pretty” are not the same thing), the relationship between the concepts of “natural” and “civilized, the belief that part of what a photograph might do is show a thing in a way that the viewer might not otherwise consider, and even the practical effect on all of my photography from photographing more than one thing. Heck, I also just like to visit San Francisco and other urban areas and wander around!

This time of year I make regular trips to San Francisco, usually taking the train into The City fairly early in the morning and then wandering on foot wherever my interest leads me. On this morning I was up before 5:00 a.m., out the door to catch a bus at about 5:25, on the train a bit before 6:00, and walking out of the San Francisco Caltrain station a couple minutes after 7:00 a.m. As the train approached the station I noticed a number of freeway overpasses – the same sort of structures that were used so effectively in San Francisco Opera’s recent production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, which affected me visually as well as in the other expected ways. So as soon as I got off the train I headed back along Townsend to this little space beneath the 6th Street exit ramp from highway 280 and photographed in the very same “golden hour” light that I would look for if I were in the Sierra.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.