Tag Archives: person

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

Walking Man, Columns

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Walking Man, Columns
Walking Man, Columns

Walking Man, Columns. San Francisco, California. June 13, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man walks between architectural columns, San Francisco

This is what I think of as a “compose and wait” shot, something I often do when shooting street photography. I find an interesting composition — here the series of columns, with shadows falling across them, and the mottled foreground light reflected from the windows of nearby downtown buildings — and then I wait for a person to walk into the frame and provide a center of visual interest.

This approach provides an interesting combination of intentional and carefully composed elements (the selection of overall subject and its composition) with elements that are almost completely out of my control — I have no idea who will walk into the frame, exactly where they will be, or what they will be doing. Things tend to happen very quickly, too. Obviously, I could not really track this subject into the frame, as he was behind these large columns, so I have to react quickly. In truth, when I work this way I often end up making quite a few exposures that just don’t quite work… but if I’m lucky it may all fall together in a single frame.

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

Escalator and Stairs

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Escalator and Stairs
Escalator and Stairs

Escalator and Stairs. San Francisco, California. June 13, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Escalator and stairs at a San Francisco BART station

These BART entrance stations are well-known to San Francisco Bay Area residents. (As are the many stories about them: the wisdom—or not—of outdoor escalators, the necessity of, uh, cleaning them frequently, and more.) They tend to feature a combination of escalators for those going up and stairs for those descending.

I think that they sometimes create a visual center of interest in the cluttered environment of the downtown city. They are ringed by a low metal fence, and this one at least is designed in an attractive curve. (Some other photographs of mine work with that subject.) Looking down from the railings of this fence and tightening the crop enough, I could create a composition of shapes and colors that excluded just about everything but the large vertical shapes broken up by the smaller horizontal shapes, and the contrasting blue and yellow tones. A person begins to enter the frame at the lower right.

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.

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

Ding

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Ding
Ding

Ding. New York City. December 25, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pedestrian walks past a New York City post office building.

An apology might be appropriate for this photograph, which might be the oddest Christmas Day photograph of 2013. We had arrived in New York City the previous evening, and when we woke up on Christmas morning in Manhattan things were relatively quiet. We had an afternoon engagement in Brooklyn, but plenty of morning time to kill before that, so we figured that we might just take a (rather cold) walk deeper into Lower Manhattan, and we ended up heading toward the World Trade Center site.

Because there were so few people – and so few cars – out this morning, certain photographic opportunities arose that might not usually be easy or even possible here. You can bet that on a more typical day this street would have been filled with vehicles and the sidewalk filled with other pedestrians. But on this quiet day it was much easier to photograph unobstructed views or to find an individual figure in this urban landscape. As this man in black strode purposefully (very purposefully for Christmas day!) past this post office building I saw that I might have a brief opportunity to frame him against the architecture of the building and as soon as I saw this particular shot, a little voice in my head said… “Ding!” (Sorry. But probably not sorry enough.)

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.

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Reading on the Steps

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Reading on the Steps
Reading on the Steps

Reading on the Steps. Heidelberg, Germany. July 11, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A student studies a book on steps at the Physikalisches Institut of Heidelberg University, Germany

On our several walks to and along the Heidelberg Philosophen Weg, we passed by this university building, so I finally stopped for a moment and made a few photographs. The main building looks like an academic structure of some sort, so I had made a guess as to what this place was before I found the sign. One student reads on the steps, and a few of the ubiquitous bicycles are parked nearby. Also ubiquitous is the bit of political graffiti – found in many places near the University buildings, and often relatively small compared to the stuff we frequently see here in the US.

Yes, in a general sense, another postcard photograph. :-)

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.