Tag Archives: paint

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Walls, Roofs, Orange Paint

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Brick Walls, Roofs, Orange Paint
Brick Walls, Roofs, Orange Paint

Brick Walls, Roofs, Orange Paint. New York, New York. August 24, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A section of brick wall above old roofs is painted bright orange, Chelsea, New York City.

This photograph was made from the High Line Elevated Park in morning light. If you like the textures and colors and machinery and forms of dense and old urban structures, there is a lot to see and photograph from the High Line. I made a photograph of the same under-construction area in the far right of this frame (not completely visible) a year ago, but that was at a very different time of the day. On this morning, the odd patch of bright orange paint on the brick wall (and the smaller bit around the door frame) got my attention, so I leaned as far as I could toward the edge of the walkway and made a photograph unobstructed by the guard rail.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Old Brick Building and Remnants of the High Line

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Old Brick Building and Remnants of the High Line
Old Brick Building and Remnants of the High Line

Old Brick Building and Remnants of the High Line. New York, New York. August 24, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Remnants of the old right-of-way of the High Line Railway run in front of and old and run-down brick building, New York City.

There is, no doubt, a lot of history in this scene that I’m unaware of – but the visual elements mostly caught my attention as we walked past this spot. On the final morning of our August 2011 visit to New York, we were walking from West Village to Chelsea when we passed this area. My son, who lives in Brooklyn and is obsessed (in the good way!) with walking around lots of areas of New York City and making photographs and noting what he sees, first pointed out the terrace in the lower part of the scene (bounded by the railing) and the steel structure at the lower left. He told me that this was part of the High Line Railroad that used to run through this part of Manhattan. A more famous section of the High Line has become a very popular “elevated park” in Chelsea, but in this area it is pretty much just abandoned and, in places, gone.

I don’t know what the tall and worn-looking brick building is, but I’d sure like to know. My hunch, given the appearance of a former white paint job and the proximity to the railroad tracks, is that it must have been some sort of industrial building at some point.

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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts when this page is viewed on the web. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

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

Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps

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Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps
Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps

Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps. San Francisco, California. July 12, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man descends the Peter Macchiarini steps past worn and dilapidated buildings in downtown San Francisco.

I photographed this rather bleak scene on a side street in San Francisco last summer. I first walked up this street to photograph the “Peter Macchiarini Steps” that ascend steeply here in place of a normal sidewalk. Then I saw the opposing shapes of the large square ductwork and the smaller round pipes against the weathered and dilapidated exterior of the buildings. Finally, I found that the occasional person descending the steps might add a point of interest, so I waited…

When I look at a photograph like this one I see layers of different things – but maybe that’s just me! :-) At one level it is just a slightly gritty little street scene, presented in a pretty unvarnished manner. (I did some work to straighten angles and so forth in post – I generally don’t get to use tilt/shift lenses when I shoot street!) Then I see several interesting-to-me geometries in the scene. I mentioned above the opposing bends of the pipes and ducts and their relative positions on the wall. I also see a collection of rectangular shapes throughout the frame: the lighter area of wall behind the figure, the doors in the lower center, the small window above the doors, the three upper windows, and the sections of wall between them. Then there are a bunch of horizontal components: the large lighter band across the upper center, the very small patterns of the siding, the sequence of upper story windows against siding, the lower edge of the siding. And within these separate layers of order there are things that don’t quite fit. The man of course, wearing black and in motion with one foot suspended in mid-step, but also the trash can in front of him – also black, the bits of conduit running in odd directions, the small section of pipe in front of the door, and the concrete sidewalk steps.

Of course, you are free to see a picture of some guy walking down the steps…

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

Power Plant Wall, Night

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Power Plant Wall, Night
Power Plant Wall, Night

Power Plant Wall, Night. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. April 16, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of the exterior wall of the power plant at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I have wandered past this building on many previous night photography sessions at Mare Island and have photographed quite a bit nearby, but this is the first time I have photographed it, at least from this perspective. (The iconic power plant smokestack above this building has been a subject of mine in the past.) The first thing that caught my interest about this building is that wonderful bundle of pipes that emerges near the upper left area and then heads off to who-knows-where in both directions. As I looked at the side of the building and imagined what it would look like in a long exposure under this artificial light, the rectangular shapes of the painted sections of the concrete wall seemed like they might also be interesting. And only after I made the photograph and looked at it in post did I realize that there was enough light in the scene – and perhaps inside the building – to faintly light some parts of the interior seen through the windows. The many shadows coming from different directions are produced by multiple overlapping light sources nearby.

To give you an idea of how dark it was on the scene, there was not enough light to focus. Usually I can get just enough by using the live view feature on my camera and finding an edge or a reflection somewhere that provides a line that has enough light, but not here. I finally ended up using one of the standard night photography tricks: I took a very small pocket LED light, walked over and set it against the wall, walked back to my camera to focus on this point of light, returned to the wall to retrieve the light, walked back to the camera and made my exposure.

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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.