Tag Archives: red

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Green and Red Leaves

September 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Green and red leaves in Mendocino, California suggest the coming of autumn.

I really wish I knew what plant this is… but I don’t! What I do know, however, is that when I spotted it growing along the edge of a building in Mendocino, California, the red and yellow tinge coming to the lush green leaves made me think of autumn and how close the end of summer is. Even in California, the signs that the seasons are in transition are more and more obvious when you look around just a bit. Not only do the colors begin to change on some plants, especially in cooler areas like Mendocino (and in higher elevation areas like the Sierra) but other signs appear to those who have learned to recognize them. There is a change in the light. I’ve never been quite able to quantify it, but it may be something about lower sun angles or perhaps the increasingly soft atmosphere that often seems a bit more hazy.

While this might seem like a photograph of a natural area, perhaps along a trail somewhere, I’m afraid it isn’t. No matter where I am, I often keep my eyes open for little scenes in unexpected places that might make a photograph, and this is certainly one of those. As I passed along the side of a small shop in Mendocino, I saw these plants in a very small planter next to a wall. I quickly pulled out my camera and made a single hand-held shot in this beautiful, soft light created by foggy sky and a bit of a bit of shade.

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

Gated Doorway, Wall

August 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.

As an Official Aficionado of Geometry, I found this more or less nondescript front of some San Francisco housing fascinating. The location is nothing special, being perhaps a few blocks up from the touristy Fishermans Wharf are and down an anonymous side street that I happened to turn onto for reasons that I can no longer recall. At street level, the walls are less walls than places to contain other things: gated entry-ways to apartments, garage doors, windows and so on. Little space is left empty.

The shapes include lots of vertical and horizontal lines and almost nothing (aside from the edges of the metal “thing” above the central gate and a bit of the concrete next to the garage door) that isn’t moving in one of those two directions. The central gate of rust colored metal dominates the scene. While I imagine that behind the gate is someone’s nice, comfortable home, the gate itself reminds me of something I might expect to see in a prison! To the left is another security gate, thought its bars are horizontal. There are a couple of surprising bits of color, too. The red at the bottom of the main gate, which I assume is there for the safety of people who might trip on that bit of a step, is matched by the bright red of the small extended window that is just barely intruding into the upper left corner of the frame.

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

Looking In

August 5, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Almost everyone in a group of people looks into a conservatory courtyard while waiting for it to open.

Apologies for this title, but I did not get the name of the building (perhaps today I’ll do that), “A group of people looking into a courtyard with one guy looking the other way” seemed a bit too long, and I ran out of creativity before posting. I suppose there is the potential here for incorporating some quip about San Francisco “summer” weather as well – on this lovely “summer” afternoon there were high clouds and fog and it was trying to rain! :-)

I had another afternoon to kill wandering around San Francisco yesterday afternoon. My general target was something like street photography, though it also incorporated this little project I have to photograph downtown buildings from odd angles and render the images in black and white. I had been working on the latter and was heading back to where I would have dinner (and running a few minutes late) when I saw this little cluster of people crowded around what looked like the entrance to this glassed in courtyard filled with palm trees and some tables. Any sort of odd little scene like this – quite different from the general rush of people in the downtown area – catches my eye and often seems like it might make a photograph. Here I had the group of people crowded together to work with, along with the classical architecture of the building and courtyard. So I did what I often might do with such a scene: I stopped and quickly made one initial photograph so as not to miss it entirely, and then I remained and watched for something interesting or out-of-place to occur. When the fellow at the right separated himself from the larger group, my first reaction was a bit of frustration that he had broken up the group of people facing away, but in the end he makes the photograph more interesting to me than it would have been otherwise.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Day Lilies, Wockner Hospice Garden

August 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Day lilies growing in the Commemorative Garden at the Gene and Irene Wockner Hospice Center, Kirkland, Washington.

Thanks to the several people who have told me that these are almost certainly daylilies. (I originally used two words, “day lilies,” to title this and I’m going to leave the title that way for now.) I’ve also been told that the name reflects the short blooming period of the individual flowers, which might remain in full color for only a “day.” While I did not know the name of the flowers, I certainly could tell that the blooms did not last long. In fact, in this photograph, the buds of incipient flowers are visible above and to the right of the main flower, and one that has already run its course is near the top of the bright red and yellow flower.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: red

Green and Red Leaves

Gated Doorway, Wall

Looking In

Day Lilies, Wockner Hospice Garden

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