Tag Archives: rail

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

People on MUNI Platform

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People on MUNI Platform

People on MUNI Platform. San Francisco, California. May 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene from an overhead perspective of several people waiting for the train on a MUNI platform in San Francisco.

There is a good chance that this photograph isn’t going to make a lot of sense to some of my friends who enjoy my landscape work – but it is actually one of my personal favorite recent photographs. There are several things that I like about it. For one, I actually like the mostly muted color palette of grays and blues, but with the warmer yellow stripes on the platform and the two odd “international orange” pylon bases. I also like the combination of a strong symmetry with a bunch of elements that are anything but perfect and symmetrical: the positions of the five figures, the paving stones with squares of dirt, the slightly off-angle barricades. I can also look at this as an abstract image of shapes, most of which are related in some way to rectangles. And then there is the interesting (to me, at least) arrangement of the people into three groups: the two guys on the right who seem to be looking up towards my camera position, the couple who appear to be gazing at each other, and the girl on the left who is facing the other direction and seemingly oblivious to her surroundings as she talks on the phone. I also like the transparent curving wall beyond the four figures at the right and the position of the two trash cans (trash cans!) between them and the girl.

You certainly don’t have to share my enthusiasm for this photograph, but perhaps you’ll understand a bit of what I think I see in it.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: man, woman, people, cell, phone, couple, gaze, trash, can, barricade, curve, roof, platform, cement, concrete, aggregate, tile, rail, track, muni, trail, transit, station, fence, curb, city, downtown, urban, street, paving, san francisco, california, usa, travel, stock, king, barrier, transparent, curve

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

Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco

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Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco

Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. May 15, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene at 2nd and King Streets with elements of the San Francisco skyline and Bay and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge – photographed from AT&T Park.

Switching gears away from the natural landscapes I’ve been posting recently, here is an urban landscape. I was at a Giants-Mets game at AT&T Park in San Francisco (I’d rather not discuss the score, OK? ;-) on a beautiful mid-May Friday evening with my wife. While I do like the baseball (especially on those occasions when the Giants actually play well…) I also like all of the other stuff that makes the ballpark experience what it is: the view of San Francisco Bay (especially as the sun sets), ballpark food (but why oh why did they take away my lemon chicken sausages!?) and wandering around looking at the ball park and the crowd. I also like the great views from around the upper deck of the park.

About 15 minutes before sunset I told my (very understanding) wife that I was going to wander off for a while and do some photography as the last light fell on the City and the bay. There are really wonderful views toward downtown (especially if the fog is just starting to come in – which didn’t happen on this evening) and out toward the SF Oakland Bay Bridge and the rest of the bay. This photograph overlooks the intersection of 2nd and King Streets and, beyond, the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: san francisco, frisco, california, the city, usa, 2nd, king, street, downtown, muni, train, rail, light, paragon, restaurant, crosswalk, car, truck, dusk, sunset, evening, oakland, bridge, yerba buena, treasure, island, person, tree, building, structure, urban, tower, skyscraper, giants, stadium, park, at&t, baseball, upper, deck, walkway, sky, travel, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Red-Winged Blackbird on Fence, Foggy Morning

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Red-Winged Blackbird on Fence, Foggy Morning

Red-Winged Blackbird on Fence, Foggy Morning. Calero Hills, California. April 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A female redwing blackbird stands atop a post of an old weathered fence among grasses.

I photographed this bird on an early mid-April morning just before fog began to clear. I frequently walk past this small pond – Castillero Pond – when I begin my hikes into the hills, oaks, and grassland of Calero Park. I’ve learned that it is often possible to find an egret here, so I usually approach the pond slowly and quietly so as not to scare the bird off if it happens to be there. On this morning it wasn’t, but I was pleased to see that the pond had filled after late-season rain, and I found that a flock of redwing blackbirds was flying around – it seems like must be mating and nesting season for them. So I left the long lens on the camera and remained quiet and was able to get fairly close to some of these small birds. While this shot doesn’t exactly fill the frame with the bird, I like the curving form of the fence as it blurs into the distance and the subdued colors in the background.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: red-wing, black, bird, blackbird, female, avian, perch, stand, beak, animal, wildlife, nature, grass, dormant, brown, weathered, worn, fence, post, rail, stand, atop, spider, web, plant, dry, lichen, old, morning, fog, mist, cloud, stock, nature

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Nimitz Avenue at Night

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Nimitz Avenue at Night

Nimitz Avenue at Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California. March 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of buildings and shipyard structures along Nimitz Avenue near the waterfront at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This is perhaps one of the “classic” Mare Island Naval Shipyard scenes, where the giant shipyard scaffolding crosses Nimitz Avenue from the shipyard buildings to the shoreline facilities, varieties of artificial light lend a warm glow to the view up the street, and faint star trails appear above in the dark sky.

I think that this is a good scene for first-time Mare Island night photographers to work with. It presents a lot of interesting challenges, but they can all be handled with some thought and care. You need to get the sky right – not too light and you want at least some star trails. I could have done a longer exposure since a bit more than three minutes left me with short star trails, though they weren’t my main subject. The dynamic range is absolutely huge, especially if you don’t take care to obstruct direct line of sight to some of the lights up the street. I had to look around quite a bit to find one small spot where the composition worked and the buildings and towers are positioned to block them. If you don’t block them you either completely blow out those highlights or else you must shorten the exposure to the point that the foreground roadway ends up almost completely black. The lighting also has to be just right on the structures at the top of the frame. On this night we were perhaps 3 or 4 days short of the full moon so a combination of moonlight and artificial light illuminated the structure. (A full moon might have been a bit better.) Then you need the right focal length to get the right parts of the scene into the frame. Here I used a 35mm prime on a full-frame DSLR and cropped the result a bit to eliminate some distractions along the right edge.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: mare island, naval, shipyard, minsy, night, photography, nocturnes, vallejo, california, usa, building, road, tracks, rail, train, shipyard, structures, minsy, brick, street, sky, star trails, smoke, stack, smokestack, truss, nocturnes, window, light, stock