Tag Archives: print

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street, Tongue in Cheek

Now Open

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San Francisco Photograph - An abandoned toilet stands next to a Chase Bank "Now Open" sign in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.
An abandoned toilet stands next to a Chase Bank “Now Open” sign in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

Now Open. San Francisco, California. July 15 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned toilet stands next to a Chase Bank “Now Open” sign in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

Sometimes the world just hands you things that you couldn’t come up with on your own if you tried.

The opportunities for bad puns are so tempting here, but I’ll struggle to resist, and instead simply offer a few words about the location and the, uh, scene. On this summer day I was wandering around San Francisco to do street photography, and walked up Grant Street. Grant is such a tourist place that I often instead head off to some nearby streets that are a bit less geared to the tourist trade, so I picked up a cross street and wandered up toward Stockton Street. At one point as I walked past a busy area of markets and other small businesses I happened to notice this odd (and perhaps unfortunate, if you are the bank) juxtaposition of sidewalk “decorations.”

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

Two Bridges and Fog, San Francisco Bay

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Two Bridges and Fog, San Francisco Bay - Morning fog floats above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and Yerba Buena Island.
Morning fog floats above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and Yerba Buena Island.

Two Bridges and Fog, San Francisco Bay. San Francisco, California. July 14, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog floats above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and Yerba Buena Island.

This is certainly not a unique viewpoint for photographing the Golden Gate (and the bridge named after it) and the rest of San Francisco Bay… but I keep returning anyway. While the principal physical elements of the scene – Marin headlands, bridge, the City, bridges, Yerba Buena Island, the East Bay – the conditions of light and atmosphere change constantly. The variations in the fog alone could be the subject of a book, I’m sure! It can come from the west (summer) or the east (winter), it can be high or low (or both at once!), thin or thick, opaque or luminous, static or moving quickly, illuminated by sun or by artificial light at night, and more.

On this morning it was a combination of several of those. There was a sort of thin fog/haze at the lower levels, but the thicker fog was quite high, above the bridge towers and even a bit above my position in the Marin headlands. The fog was beginning to break up, starting to the east and gradually moving westward toward the coast, and when I made this photograph large beams of diffused light were coming through the fog deck and lighting areas around the San Francisco waterfront and even on the bay waters. Lining up the elements of the photograph wasn’t terribly hard once I found the composition I liked, but then I waited for boats for move into or out of the frame (see a large freighter passing between towers of the distant Bay Bridge) and for the light to appear in (as close to) the right places (as one can hope for).

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: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Sports

Kitesurfer, Pacific Ocean

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Kitesurfer, Pacific Ocean - Kitesurfer on the Pacific Ocean coast south of San Francisco, California.
Kitesurfer on the Pacific Ocean coast south of San Francisco, California.

Kitesurfer, Pacific Ocean. Highway One, California. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Kitesurfer on the Pacific Ocean coast south of San Francisco, California.

In the right weather conditions you can find people engaged in a range of water sports along the California coast in locations like this one a few miles north of Santa Cruz (and not far south of San Francisco.) In addition to the classic and iconic surfers, there are windsurfers and, as in this photograph, kiteboarders or kit surfers. It is difficult to not stop and make a few photographs when I catch the sight of a line-up of colorful sails just off the shoreline.

On this July day, a group of people were “playing” not far from the shore, alternately heading straight out into the ocean, only to return close to the shoreline where they could do some wild airborne maneuvers by picking up speed and then flying off the tops of waves. This fellow seems to be going for speed as he made a traverse of the area just beyond the beach.

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: San Francisco

Pier, San Francisco Bay, Morning

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Pier, San Francisco Bay, Morning - An old pier along the Embarcadero, San Francisco Bay, with structures of the Port of Oakland, California across the water.
An old pier along the Embarcadero, San Francisco Bay, with structures of the Port of Oakland, California across the water.

Pier, San Francisco Bay, Morning. San Francisco, California. July 8, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old pier along the Embarcadero, San Francisco Bay, with structures of the Port of Oakland, California across the water.

I wonder how long it will take for me to feel that I have exhausted the possibilities of this walk along San Francisco’s Embarcadero? Here is (yet another!) morning photograph made it this area, once again with what is perhaps my favorite light in this location – the early morning glow of backlit fog/haze over the waters of the Bay.

I made this photograph on a very calm summer morning when there waters of the Bay were almost completely smooth, at least until a bit of boat traffic began to come by and a breeze came up. Interjecting itself into the left side of the frame is one of the old piers along this section of the waterfront. In the far distance, all the way on the other side of the bay and muted by the morning haze, are giant cranes used at the Port of Oakland.

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.

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