Tag Archives: roof

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Snow, Ridgewood

January 15, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A snowy morning in the Ridgewood area of Queens, New York

For years, at least since our sons started moving there, we have visited New York City. People who know the place will likely note that we must be nuts for scheduling most visit for near the end of December or, wait for it, in August. (If you have been to New York City in August, you understand how unwise it is to go there once that time of year, and how crazy it is to voluntarily repeat the original blunder. ;-) Truth be told, while August still isn’t impressing us as a wonderful time to go, we actually do like going during the winter. The cold seems like a welcome change for these San Francisco Bay Area Californians, and there is quite a lot to see there at this time of year.

However, we usually miss out on snow, the one factor that would really make it feel like the winter we don’t experience at home. We have been snowed on there during our end-of-year visits, but typically no more than a trace, if that. I’m told that real snow is likely to arrive a few weeks later. This year we got our wish, as it were. We had a full week of terribly cold conditions, and on our last day there it finally did snow — not a lot, but enough. I made this photograph as we left an elevated subway (I know, oxymoron!) in the Ridgewood area, where we were able to look out over the urban environment and see snow-topped roofs fading into the distance.

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

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

Abandoned Loading Dock

March 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Railroad tracks and a weather protection structure above an old loading dock, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

This is another very still and quiet image from my recent evening photographing the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard. Image walking alone in the darkness among these old (mostly) abandoned ship yard buildings: shops, warehouses, towers. Occasionally a lone car drives past, momentarily raising my level of alertness. It is mostly silent except for a sound of distant traffic across the water in Vallejo. The air is typically cold and damp, and on this night a bit of a breeze blows. The photographs are visual images, but they also evoke, for me, a whole series of associations, memories, and sensations associated with the place the experience of making the photographs.

There is always a question of just how to treat luminosity and color with these nighttime subjects. The fact of the matter is that many of these scenes are barely visible to the human eye, and details are shrouded in darkness. In this low light color is mostly desaturated, only becoming visible afterwards in the photograph. And much of the color is not the true color of the objects, but rather is the color of the light that illuminates them — and it can range from yellow to reddish, but white or even blue-green. The concept of accurate rendering becomes moot, since an “accurate” photograph (if “accurate” means “what it looked like”) would be almost colorless and nearly pitch black. Instead I take this as an opportunity to capture “what the camera sees” and use that as the raw material for what must be an interpretation of the captured light — almost inevitably brighter and more colorful than the original, but still trying to evoke that mysterious and quiet nocturnal quality.

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Graffiti on the Roof

January 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Grafitti on urban roofs beyond cyclone fence near the Manhattan Bridge, New York City

This is another photograph from our “hiking day” in New York City during our December 2013 visit. It wasn’t quite our plan when the day started, but we ended up walking from our Canal Street Hotel down to the Brooklyn Bridge and across, then around the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, and back across the Manhattan Bridge to the city again. The two bridges are a study in contrasts. Brooklyn Bridge is, of course, a huge tourist destination and walking across it is almost a requirement for New York visitors and others. Even on this very cold – sub freezing – winter day there were thousands of people crossing. The Manhattan Bridge, on the other hand, is a rather lonely place for pedestrians. we had been warned that it is tremendously noisy, since above ground transit trains cross it only feet from the narrow pedestrian walkway.

Probably because it has not been spiffed up to be a tourist attraction, the Manhattan Bridge also has a lot more aesthetic rough edges. The bridge structure seems mostly to be utilitarian steel, trains run constantly and not far from the walkway, and especially at the Manhattan end the bridge passes above some neighborhoods that don’t appear to be exactly upper class. Looking down from the bridge I saw some of the most extensive graffiti I have seen… on the roofs of buildings, where it is only visible from the bridge and not at all from the streets below. Most of the time I make it a rule to not photograph graffiti, but here it was so extensive and so established that it seemed worth it to make a few photographs through the cyclone fence protecting the bridge walkway.

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: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Salzburg Cathedral

September 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Salzburg Cathedral, in the city of Salzburg, Austria

While we stayed in the Schönau am Königssee area of Bavaria, we were very close to the AUstrian border and to the city of Salzburg. In fact, we ended up there on parts of at least four days during our week in Bavaria. Our train arrived at and departed from Salzburg, and on two other days we found ourselves in the area for various reasons. Of course, with our music backgrounds, neither Patty nor I could pass up the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Mozart – though we managed to resist the temptations of virtually all of the Mozart-focused tourist attractions, only taking time to walk past the building where he was supposedly born and then looking at but ultimately not purchasing any of the ubiquitous mozartkugeln, including the version that is supposedly “only available in Salzburg.” On the other hand, we were unable to resist the Salzburg “coffee culture,” which we enjoyed on more than one occasion!

The spectacular Salzburg Cathedral dominates, even in a city with many spectacular things. (If you look closely, you can spot a couple of the other church spires in this photograph.) The interior is, to my eye, astonishing, and I spent a good amount of time inside just standing and staring at the structure, the decoration, and the light. I made a few photographs there, too. It turned out that just the right viewpoint for this exterior view – in more than one way – was from a hillside terrace restaurant that we visited twice, sitting outdoors and overlooking Salzburg as we had late lunch.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: roof

Snow, Ridgewood

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Graffiti on the Roof

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

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