Tag Archives: photography

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

New Louie’s Inc, Evening

October 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening scene as markets close in San Francisco

This photograph comes from another evening spent doing street photography in the late afternoon and on into the night in downtown San Francisco. The plan was to meet up with a small group of like-minded photographers who like urban subjects and the magic of the city at night. The other arrived before I did, and we finally caught up with one another on a street in a non-tourist area of the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

This street has fascinated me for a long time. Most often I’ve passed through in the morning, when produce trucks line the streets, and the sidewalks are crowded with people doing their shopping. At those times I often feel like a bit of an outsider, interjecting myself into a community that is not my own, but I’m attracted to many things about it and I return frequently. On this evening visit the neighborhood had a very different feeling. There were far fewer people out and about, and the shops that are so busy in the morning were now closing down one by one. Tables of merchandise were cleared and put away, sidewalks swept, shutters rolled down, and one by one the shops closed. Now, without the crowd of people, a different visual quality appeared, with the primary elements being the colors of the shops, signs and awnings, and the shapes of and relationships among the scattered tables, bins, and shelves.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Staggering Couple

October 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A couple staggers past a closed business along a San Francisco sidewalk.

To me, this photograph has a sort of strange and somewhat perverse quality — like a scene from some bizarre circus or suggesting a madhouse or a dream. It is, admittedly, something of a construction — a construction by means of limiting what is shown of the surroundings and by means of a shutter speed slow enough to blur details and create a fantastical quality. It didn’t hurt that the postures of the couple are somewhat awkward and strange.

As is so often the case for me when photographing in places like this, my attention first went to the architecture and the wild colors and patterns painted on the closed shutters of this shop. That would be somewhat interesting, but hard to make work as a photograph on its own, especially when shooting handheld. And then this couple appeared, walking (sort of) along the sidewalk, hanging onto each other. Set against this incongruous background, they become something quite different from what they actually were.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Bargain Depot Chinatown

October 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Man with guitar walks past a Chinatown souvenir shop at night.

When photographing in the “street” you never quite know what will show up, when it will happen, or how quickly it will appear and disappear. And you have very, very little control over the elements that might make a photograph — you can sometimes pick your point of view, perhaps create a composition out of the static elements, watch a person approaching who might put a point of focus in the scene… but they you simply have to work with whatever happens. I think this can be even a bit trickier at night, since not all of the interesting things take place in light that can easily be photographed.

Here the first focus for me was the gaudy, colorful, and well-lit interior of this open front store in San Francisco’s Chinatown district. There is some interest in that subject alone, but frankly it can be a pretty static thing when not populated by people. As I looked at this storefront and pondered how to make a photograph out of it I noticed a man wandering up the sidewalk with a guitar, a literal strolling minstrel. At that point, he became the important element, and as he passed I attempted to time several exposures that placed him in interesting places in the composition.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bargains of Chinatown

September 26, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photograph of a closed Chinatown shop, San Francisco

In early September I again joined a group of folks who like to photograph San Francisco urban and street subjects after dark. Most of the group met before sunset, did a bit of street photography, joined for dinner at a place along the edge of Chinatown, and then headed out for a couple of hours of photographing in the urban nightscape. Once again we passed through Chinatown — hard to resist when we were already there! — and on down into areas closer to Market Street.

Late in the evening it was time for me to head back to my car, so I said good-bye to the rest of the group and headed back the way I had come, walking alone this time. It was now much later, and this area pretty much shuts down — surprisingly so for a Saturday night in The City. But this meant that the earlier crowds were gone and the scene was a lot quieter and slower. When I passed this corner earlier the shop was open and there were quite a few people around, but now the shutters were closed and the green light washed over the urban landscape of sidewalks and steps leading up toward a dark alley. After years of doing night photography the “old way” — tripod and long exposures — I’m still amazed that I can wander out and shoot stuff like this using a small handheld camera these days.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: photography

New Louie’s Inc, Evening

Staggering Couple

Bargain Depot Chinatown

Bargains of Chinatown

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