Tag Archives: seattle

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

Easy Joe’s

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Easy Joe's
Street scene with pedestrians, Seattle

Easy Joe’s. Seattle, Washington. September 8, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene with pedestrians, Seattle

Today I’m going to insert one more street photograph into what has largely been a recent stream of natural world photographs. (I suppose that focus should not be a surprise during the fall season!) Back in September I was in the Seattle area of several days, mostly on non-photographic business, but I managed to get out and spend some time photographing, too. One day I made it to the North Cascades for a bit of landscape photography, and on another I sneaked out for a few hours of street photography.

I actually have no idea what Easy Joe’s is (or who Easy Joe is or was), but since the text appears in the scene I am going with it. For some reason, this photograph feels like Seattle to me — something about the architecture, perhaps, or the light or possibly I just recognize the downtown location. It also presented a sort of urban geometry that I enjoy, with tons of vertical and horizontal forms, but broken up by the passage of a compact group of pedestrians.

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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Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Storyville Coffee

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Storyville Coffee
Patrons sitting at the window of a Seattle coffee shop

Storyville Coffee. Seattle, Washington. September 8, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patrons sitting at the window of a Seattle coffee shop

As you may have noticed — at least if this isn’t the first time you have seen one of my posts — I like to photograph a rather wide range of subjects. Some know me as a “landscape” or “nature” photographer, but my subjects include many other things: night photography, street photography, urban landscapes, musicians, and more. One line of thinking holds that this is not a good thing — that it dilutes one’s photographic identity and fails to produce a recognizable style. Yet, it turns out that I’m not alone, and lots of other photographers are fascinated by multiple subjects. (Last weekend I ran into a couple of fine photographers and friends high in the Yosemite Sierra, people who have a reputation for photographing the natural world. When I met them they were just finishing up photography of peeling paint on an empty building…) Once they have been typecast, they tend to accept that — since being recognized for a type of photography is a good thing — but they occasionally admit to being frustrated when their other work isn’t understood.

So this is from my “other photography” — the work I do when I spend time in urban environments. It is hard for me to explain the fascination of “street photography” to those who don’t get it, but I’ll try. First, I think we can regard this world as a kind of “urban landscape” — and some of the same attractions of light and texture and color and form are found here. Second, it can be an incredibly dynamic “landscape.” When things are going well, I often feel that I’m in the midst of a continuous flow of people and compositions and their collisions and that there is almost too much to see. The trick is often (though not always) to stay tuned in and to be read to see and photograph quickly. Third, the human layer is something found much less in landscape photography, and it fascinates me. Here I just happened to spot one of the little vignettes that are everywhere in the city — an interest group of people in different poses and likely with different attitudes.

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: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

A Shadow

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A Shadow
A shadow falls across a Seattle sidewalk and roll-up door

A Shadow. Seattle, Washington. September 8, ,2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A shadow falls across a Seattle sidewalk and roll-up door

In early September I had the opportunity to spend several days in the Seattle area. I was actually there on a sort of business — not photography related — but I did have enough spare time that I could do some photography, too. It turned out that I had two opportunities. On nearly the last time of the trip I managed the long drive to the North Cascades, where I photographed in the Mount Shuksan and Artist Point area for an afternoon. Before that I managed to head to downtown Seattle for a bout of street photography. This photograph comes from that visit.

When I do street photography I work in ways that are both related to my landscape photography and also different. In both cases I tend to only select general subjects ahead of time, preferring to head out and explore and see what I can find. In both cases I am looking not just for “depictions” of the subjects, but also for bits of visually interesting material that might stand on their own outside of the specific location context. Of course, I use different equipment — for street I leave the tripod behind and I work with a small camera, typically using one or two small prime lenses. As I walk, often slowly, I am attentive to what is around me. I am discrete with the camera, only lifting it in front of me when I make a photograph. I often spot something, make the photograph, and move on quickly. (Not always, though. Some subjects demand more patience or are worth a careful exploration.) I may photograph people, architecture, or fragments of the scene. This is one of those fragments, an odd shadow falling across the slightly warped geometry of the metal roll-up door, and offset by the tilting sidewalk below.

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: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Beecher’s

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Beecher's
Seattle street scene

Beecher’s. Seattle, Washington. September 8, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Seattle street scene

I made this photograph on a recent visit of several days to the Seattle, Washington area. Much of this visit was not photographically oriented, but I did have a couple of days that I could devote to photography. Seattle has a particular character that I enjoy — to generalize, it is partly about the light and weather, partly about the nature of the city itself, and partly about the people. The light is softer and lower angled than what I’m used to in California. The “nature” of the city is a bit hard to explain — though it has both the woodsy quality of being built-in forest as another quality that is shared with San Francisco and its older buildings. There is something, again to generalize, about the people as well. Perhaps more beards and more informal and slightly outdoorsy clothing?

I made this photograph in the Pike Place area, and I just happened to notice the little tableau of people, buildings, and colorful bicycles and other elements as I walked by. If the photograph is about anything, that anything might include the contrasting square shapes of the building and the angled lines of the road and sidewalk, plus something about the positioning of the people. It is also about color, from the yellow line to the colorful elements sprinkled throughout the frame.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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