Tag Archives: san diego

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Nature

Succulent Leaves

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Succulent Leaves
Patterns formed by the bright edges of succulent leaves.

Succulent Leaves. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns formed by the bright edges of succulent leaves.

This image comes from 2013, and was made in a sort of off-hand manner on a family visit to San Diego. (Off the top of my head, I can’t actually recall exactly where I photographed it, though it may have been at Balboa Park.) Indeed, it is another photograph that emerges from my pandemic review of my archives of old raw files.

Photographs like this one are both fun and challenging, at least in my experience. Like many photographers, I’m intrigued by forms, shapes, curves as abstract things, and they often underly photographs that seem to be about more obvious content. The opportunity to work with subjects where these elements of shape are almost the entirely of the image is hard to resist. It also almost always (again in my personal experience) turns out to be harder than I think it will be. More often than not, when I first see such a subject I am certain that it will work… but as I begin to actually make the image small things interfere with what I’m looking for. In this case, I do like the result, and I enjoy trying to see the pattern of the bright leaf edges as their own abstract form.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Green Building, Windows

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Green Building, Windows
Green Building, Windows

Green Building, Windows. San Diego, California. April 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A downtown San Diego building with windows and green walls

Right around April Fools Day we spent several days in San Diego. Oddly for a long-time Californian and a person who has visited that city before, I really don’t know San Diego that well. (Past visits have mostly been for various conferences and meetings, and I’ve tended to fly in, head straight to a hotel, do my business, head back to the airport, and leave.) On this visit – yes, for the first time – I spent some time photographing at Balboa Park, where there are a number of interesting subjects ranging from architecture to people. Lot’s of people!

We also walked around the downtown area of San Diego quite a bit, as that is where we stayed. Downtown San Diego has a character, as most cities do, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Architecturally, much of the area near where we were seems to be that type that is alternately attractive on account of its wide streets and very modern buildings but also a bit sterile for much the same reason. The overall place, not surprisingly, seems to mix up some of the Mexican influence, a wannabe tropical quality that occasionally reminds me just a tiny bit of Miami, and a somewhat toned-down version of the over-the-top LA Basin atmosphere. We were out walking in the morning on a weekday when I looked up as we passed the back of this building, with its interesting color combination and various window patterns.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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: Urban/Street

Woman in Black, Sidewalk, Petals

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Woman in Black, Sidewalk, Petals
Woman in Black, Sidewalk, Petals

Woman in Black, Sidewalk, Petals. San Diego, California. March 31, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The legs of a woman wearing black, cracked sidewalk, bright flower petals.

This is a photograph that I might not have gotten if I had been working in my more typical manner – e.g. shooting with a full frame DSLR and an assortment of lenses. Instead, I was shooting with a small rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and only a 14mm prime. (Roughly equivalent about a 24mm prime on a full frame camera.) Shooting this way encourages working quickly – with a single focal length there is much less to think about, and shooting happens more quickly and, in some ways, more instinctively.

For what its worth, the photograph was made while walking in San Diego’s Balboa Park, near a spot where these brilliantly colorful flower petals were falling from a nearby tree. I suddenly got the idea to shoot the lens and feet of the people walking in front of me, and it was serendipitous that this happened as we were walking through the flower petals.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.