Tag Archives: seattle

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Leaves and Red Metal Door

Leave a comment
Leaves and Red Metal Door - Leaves grow against a red metal roll-up door in the Fremont District of Seattle, Washington.
Leaves grow against a red metal roll-up door in the Fremont District of Seattle, Washington.

Leaves and Red Metal Door. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Leaves grow against a red metal roll-up door in the Fremont District of Seattle, Washington.

In early May I was in the Seattle area of three days on non-photographic business, and fairly busy with those other affairs for much of time that I was there. However, when I happened to mention online that I was in that area, someone let me know that there was going to be a “Seattle Photowalk” the next evening. The plan was to meet in the Fremont area (“under the statue of Lenin” – it’s a long story…) and then wander about for the next four hours, ending up at the Gas Works Park at sunset. I couldn’t pry open a full four hours in my schedule, but I did manage to find one hour, so I made plans to meet the group.

I arrived at the appointed starting time and place and found a small group of photographers ready to go. After the obligatory group photo (indeed, beneath the statue of Lenin!) we split up and began to photograph. I think that I may have been in Fremont once before, perhaps a dozen or more years ago, since the general area seemed a bit familiar, but as far as photography went I had no specific ideas at all about what I would find. The area does have an interesting “worn” quality – at least the parts that aren’t trendy new corporate buildings – so I figured that I could probably find something. And having only one hour to photograph an area I’d not scouted, I knew that I’d better get to work! It only took me a few minutes – and this is typically true – to get into the “seeing” mode and start to find potential subjects. Shooting mostly with just a 50mm prime I wandered up side streets, alleys, and a few driveways, looking for odd bits of shape and color. This branch was growing across the sliding metal door on a small eating establishment that was apparently closed for the day.

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.

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Door Knob, Green Wall, and Grass

Leave a comment
Door Knob, Green Wall, and Grass - A worn green wall with doorknob, grass along the street, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington
A worn green wall with doorknob, grass along the street, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington

Door Knob, Green Wall, and Grass. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A worn green wall with doorknob, grass along the street, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington.

I made this photograph on my one-hour “Seattle PhotoWalk” in the Fremont District back in early May. A group of Seattle photographs was getting together to photograph between here and the Gas Works Park in the late afternoon and evening, and it turned out that I was in the Seattle area and able to pry open a bit of time in my schedule to meet up with them and explore the interesting photographic opportunities in the Fremont area.

We started in what I suppose must be “downtown Fremont,” right beneath the statue of Lenin. Yes, a statue of Lenin. It is a long story – but the short version, as I understand it, involves a post-Glasnost trip to the junk yard (in Poland) for the statue, its discover there by someone from Seattle who thought it had historical significance, its transport to the US, and then setting it up in Fremont for lack of a better place. Or something like that. (Google Fremont Lenin statue for more.) In any case, from the meet up at the statue we commenced our “photo walk,” and first explored the immediate surroundings. A lot of the buildings right there seem pretty old and a bit worn – though they have also been modified and updated in interesting and sometimes idiosyncratic ways. Take this bright green wall and door, for example! I was struck by the juxtaposition of the garish green paint and the natural green of the grasses that had sprung up at the base of the wall.

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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District

Leave a comment
Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District - Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof on a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington
Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof on a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington

Viaduct and Blue Roof, Fremont District. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Seattle Viaduct and the blue roof of a building, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington.

Yet another photograph from the early May photo walk I joined up with in the Fremont district of Seattle. A viaduct crosses the water high above this section of Seattle, and the structure more or less dominates portions of the view here. After shooting some of the buildings near where the photo walk began, I decided to head over towards this bridge and see what I could find to shoot there. I shot straight up at it from underneath, towards it from further away, along its length, and eventually made a few close-up photographs of details.

For this photograph I decided to create a more or less abstract juxtaposition of the underside of the bridge, almost straight overhead, and a bit of the underside of a building with a blue roof. Usually I might prefer to shoot such a thing from the tripod and perhaps even combine multiple exposures in post as a way of dealing with the wide dynamic range, but this time I simply composed the shot handheld and made a single exposure. Well, actually I made two slightly different versions, but still. :-)

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.

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District

Leave a comment
Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District - Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington
Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington

Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington.

This was one of the first photographs I made on my early May visit to the Fremont district of Seattle with a group on a “Seattle Photowalk” between Fremont and the Gas Works Park. Although they were going to make an evening of it, I was only able to join them for about an hour – but it turned out to be a productive hour as I came back with nearly a dozen photographs that I like.

Once I got in the spirit of the place, I found the visual opportunities in Fremont to be quite interesting. There is a lot of the expected urban funkiness, with old buildings, small business crammed in odd corners, old structures, a waterfront, bridges overhead, and a few truly odd features such as the Lenin statue where the group met up. It is the sort of place I might initially look at and wonder what I’m going to shoot, only to discover ten minutes later that there almost more potential subjects than I know what to do with. This section of a brown wall was one of my first subjects. Initially the interesting pattern of crisscrossing conduit and pipes caught my attention, but when I looked closer I noticed the remnants of what might have been a small collection of paper figures glued to the wall.

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.