Tag Archives: plaza

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

Exterior, One Maritime Plaza

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Exterior, One Maritime Plaza - Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.
Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.

Exterior, One Maritime Plaza. San Francisco, California. August 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.

This photograph focuses on details of the exterior frame of Maritime Plaza Building, in the general area of the financial district and not far from the Embarcadero and San Francisco’s waterfront. I photographed in “interesting” light – the weather provided a combination of high clouds, lower clouds that were dropping sprinkles of rain, and incoming ocean fog. Oddly, even with tall these sources of atmospheric opacity, there was still some light. Some came through the clouds, while some came from nearby areas that were a bit more clear.

As I have been doing a bit more recently, I chose to shoot towards a corner of the building, allowing the darker side on the right to seem to recede a bit. Meanwhile, the strongest ambient light fell on the “front” of the building facing to the left. I chose a black and white rendition of this photograph partly because, frankly, there wasn’t much interesting color in this subject, but also because I felt that black and white abstracted the image a bit more.

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

Buildings, Lamp Post

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Buildings, Lamp Post - A lamp-post in front of the Embarcadero Center and Maritime Plaza buildings, San Francisco
A lamp-post in front of the Embarcadero Center and Maritime Plaza buildings, San Francisco

Buildings, Lamp Post. San Francisco, California. August 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lamp-post in front of the Embarcadero Center and Maritime Plaza buildings, San Francisco.

The buildings in this photograph are in the financial district of San Francisco, very close to the Embarcadero, the roadway that travels along the waterfront where all of the old shipping piers are located. The taller building to the left is part of the Embarcadero Center, a major landmark along the waterfront, and the darker building occupying much of the rest of the frame is the Maritime Plaza Building, one that I’m less familiar with. The lamp-post is… a lamp post.

This summer, while my wife has been involved in an ongoing musical event in The City, I’ve been taking advantage of this to spend more time that usual wandering around the downtown area and making photographs. I have a number of general ideas in mind for photographs, but one thread has been to shoot the large forms of these buildings at odd angles, often with fog or bright sky above. Recently I was thinking about some of the factors that attract me to shooting here. One is, obviously, that this is where the large urban downtown closest to me is located – it is an hour drive away and I can get there by public transit in not much more time than that. It occurred to me yesterday that San Francisco is perhaps the most likely place to find “interesting” weather this time of year here in otherwise mostly blue-sky-boring California – between full sun and dense fog, there are a lot of visually interesting conditions to be found here… occasionally all at once!

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

Towers and Sky

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Towers and Sky
“Towers and Sky” — Two downtown San Francisco buildings and a patch of clear sky.

Whether or not it is apparent, this photograph is the result of some simple shooting and some significant post-processing work. The shot was made handheld during an early evening walk through a portion of San Francisco’s financial district. In addition to looking for the usual street stuff, I was giving my attention to what was above me. I made a series of photographs of very tall buildings, shooting almost straight up and from very close to the bases of the buildings. In “street” style, I was working with a 50mm prime and framing subjects within the constraints of that lens. (Since the subject comes up in this context from time to time… no, I’m not making any statement about the “right” lens to use for street. Sometimes I just like to work with a prime. Sometimes I like to work with a zoom. Sometimes I like both!)

When photographing these subjects in this way, the vertical shooting angle and closeness to the buildings can eliminate the reflections of other buildings and let each structure be seen apart from its surroundings to some extent. In this photograph, the windows (almost) do not reflect anything but sky. In order to emphasize the presence of those windows I chose to apply a blue (!) filter in post, which also had the effect of making the sky almost perfectly white, especially after some curves adjustments. I applied a few other processes as well to get the look I was after here – but those can be my secret!

For probably 90% or more of my photography, I’m pretty much a tripod kind of guy. Working without the tripod, walking through urban areas, and responding somewhat quickly (as least compared to some of my landscape work) to subjects, and then moving on – all of this can be a welcome change from my more typical shooting style.

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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: New York City

1 WTC, August 23, 2011

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1 WTC, August 23, 2011
1 WTC, August 23, 2011

1 WTC, August 23, 2011. New York, New York. August 23, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The 1 World Trade Center (1 WTC) building under construction on August 23, 2011, New York City.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” – Ansel Adams

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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