Tag Archives: scaffolding

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Scaffolding Detail, Manhattan

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Scaffolding Detail, Manhattan
Scaffolding supports against a dark wall, Mahnattan.

Scaffolding Detail, Manhattan. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Scaffolding supports against a dark wall, Manhattan.

Some who know me as a “landscape” or “nature” photographer might be surprised to hear that I love photographing in the urban environment, particularly doing street photography and looking for interesting bits a pieces of the city world. Manhattan is among the most fascinating places to photograph — there’s constant action and a density of people and subjects that is rarely equalled.

On the final morning of my recent visit I had time before heading to the airport to do one more quick walk in the area just below Central Park. Among other subjects I found the ever-present construction scaffolding above sidewalks. These structures are ostensibly there to protect pedestrians from overhead work, but one New Yorker explained to me that sometimes they are simply left up since that is easier than paying to stow them!

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: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman Walking Past Scaffolding

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Woman Walking Past Scaffolding
A woman walks past scaffolding in front of Manhattan shops

Woman Walking Past Scaffolding. New York City. December 21, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman walks past scaffolding in front of Manhattan shops

There are several things that I find interesting about this photograph. First, I don’t remember making it! I remember many other subjects from this evening — we had walked across the Williamsburg Bridge, stopped in a tavern, visited Stand Bookstore, and more. But I have no recollection of making this final photograph of the evening. Second, the scaffolding lining the sidewalk and, above where we cannot see it in this photograph, seems like a common feature in Manhattan. I walked through, past, and around scaffold-covered buildings frequent.

My subject here is yet another example of that modern species of human who walks (at least at the moment of my photograph) along city streets and elsewhere, absorbed in the world of that little handheld device and giving no indication of being connected to the surrounding world. OK, I like the light, too. The light from the shop spills out of the front windows and across the sidewalk, creating shadows that are muted and filled by light from the surrounding neighborhood.

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Friday Night, Manhattan

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Friday Night, Manhattan
Friday Night, Manhattan

Friday Night, Manhattan. New York City. August 8, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People out on a Friday night in Manhattan

On this evening I finally got to seriously try out something that I had been thinking of doing for some time — handheld street photography at night. Current digital cameras are providing low-light capabilities now that were almost unimaginable just a few years ago, to the point that it is possible to shoot at very high ISO setting and shoot in urban darkness almost as if it were daytime. (To be sure, there are some issues related to things like dynamic range, the need to use very large apertures, narrow DOF, dealing with noise in post, etc.)

We had just left a club where we heard a musical performance and we decided to head over to Washington Square where yet another performance was going on. Almost as soon as we left the first building it hit me that this was my opportunity to give this a shot, so I worked with a 23mm (35mm equivalent) f/1.4 lens and cranked up the ISO and started shooting. I quickly noticed that I actually had some exposure headroom, and I could lower ISO stop down a bit. I also quickly became fascinated by the nighttime shadows, which are nothing like what we see during the day. I started looking for bright “pools of light” under artificial lighting and then constructing compositions and waiting for an interesting juxtaposition of people and other elements.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Events, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Hangar One, Control Tower, Water Tank

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Hangar One, Control Tower, Water Tank - An abandoned control tower and a checkerboard-painted water tank stand near the historic Hangar One, stripped of its outer skin, at the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield
An abandoned control tower and a checkerboard-painted water tank stand near the historic Hangar One, stripped of its outer skin, at the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield

Hangar One, Control Tower, Water Tank. NASA Ames Moffett Field, California. September 21, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned control tower and a checkerboard-painted water tank stand near the historic Hangar One, stripped of its outer skin, at the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield

This is almost certainly the final photograph from my September 21, 2012 visit to the NASA Ames Moffett Field for the flyover of space shuttle Endeavour on its flight to its new home in Los Angeles. As I have written earlier, since I (and thousands of others) arrived here hours before the main event, there was plenty of time to see things and make photographs. I found a position at the edge of the runway with the huge historic Hangar One located right behind me. Hangar One was originally built to support and house lighter-than-air craft, and it has long been a visual icon on the San Francisco Peninsula.

After the Navy gave the base over to NASA it was discovered that the hangar was polluting the nearby waters of San Francisco Bay – as I understand it, largely due to the use of lead paint on this gigantic structure. (It is so large that 6 football fields could fit inside.) This led to a decision to remove the outer steel skin of the structure, leaving only the skeletal steel structure beneath. While there is talk of replacing the outer covering, for now the hangar remains in this incomplete state. I was intrigued by the huge open structure and its juxtaposition with the very old and weathered control tower in front and the colorful water tank behind.

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.