Tag Archives: shadow

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

Blue, White, and Shadow

Image Leave a comment
Blue, White, and Shadow
A shadow falls across a blue wall and white window.

Blue, White, and Shadow. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A shadow falls across a blue wall and white window.

Today’s photograph comes from yesterday on my (almost) daily neighborhood walk. Since the beginning of the pandemic and its attendant lock-down, we’ve been doing a lot of local walking, going out almost every day for walks ranging from as little as a mile (just got to get in my mile!) and up to perhaps ten times that distance. Yesterday’s walk was one of the shorter ones, and my initial plan was to “just get in my miles,” likely walking no more than about a mile. But one thing led to another and I ended up doing about several times that distance.

The unanticipated extensions of the walk often come in small increments. Arriving at a turning point, instead of taking the most direct route back home I decide to just add a bit more, heading down one more block. Often that leads to another extension, then another, and before I no it the miles add up. One of those unplanned extensions took me past an older building, once a home but now a small business. Something about the blue and white paint, the old, narrow siding, and the shadow draped across the way persuaded me to stop and make a photograph.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

World Headquarters

Image Leave a comment
World Headquarters
An abandoned building at the location of a future high tech center, San Jose, California.

World Headquarters. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned building at the location of a future high tech center, San Jose, California.

You might have to look a bit past the superficial visual constituents of this image to see the world headquarters, but something close to that is coming to this location. Far enough from where I live that it is a very long walk, a major “tech giant” is beginning a long-term project to create a major urban campus. At this point about all one sees is a whole lot of empty lots and abandoned buildings, structures from a much earlier period in the history of this city — homes, small businesses, warehouses, and more. The plan is that a decade from now this will be some sort of ultra-modern, thriving technology center with access to transit and more. We’ll see.

For now though it can be a bit of a photographic playground if your interest includes old, abandoned places and things. I did not investigate closely enough to know what actually went on in this building, but it has the appearance of a small shop or light industrial facility — perhaps automobile repair, some kind of fabrication, or similar. Beyond these associations with an earlier time in this region, it also has the appeal of a nicely weathered look, and some interesting paint colors. On this day the light also proved interesting. In fact, if you look at this the right way, there are — or at least it seems to me — two structures on the scene. One comes from the square angles of the building itself and the other comes from the oblique and curving lines of light and shadow.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

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

Two Poles, Three Doors

Image Leave a comment
Two Poles, Three Doors
Two unility poles in front of an abandoned industrial. building with three doors.

Two Poles, Three Doors. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two utility poles in front of an abandoned industrial. building with three doors.

This is another take on a subject that I posted about recently while sharing a portrait-orientation image of much the same scene. Keeping in mind that photographs posted here are often part of my “working out” process with images, trying out different ways of seeing them, here’s a bit of my thinking. In the previous version I chose the alternate orientation in order to include more of that sky (a reference to my landscape photography?) and the full height of the utility poles. This time I left only a sliver of the sky, and you have to imagine how tall the poles are. (That’s an important visual concept about which I could write an article, by the way.) So here, I think, we see the geometries of the structure, the poles, and the slanting shadows more prominently.

In that earlier post I wrote something that wasn’t completely accurate regarding the building. I pointed out accurately that it is in a former produce canning area and that it is no longer part of that industry, but I also stated that it is “abandoned.” Technically, it _was_ abandoned, but it appears that the building is now being used as some sort of warehouse or storage area. Of course, you would not see that from the outside where I was, as there are no commercial markings at all — which is a very unusual thing in this country.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

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

Abandoned Building, Poles, Sky

Image Leave a comment
Abandoned Building, Poles, Sky
Utility poles in front of an abandoned brick building.

Abandoned Building, Poles, Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Utility poles in front of an abandoned brick building.

This is one of my occasional walking-around photographs. I like to walk, and I done this even more during the pandemic when local walks were much more possible than drives to more distant locations. I always carry a small camera that fits in the little bag I carry on these forays. (The camera is a small rangefinder-style camera fitted with a single very small prime lens.) On most walks the camera stays in the bag, but every so often I see something that catches my eye… and I’m happy that I brought it along.

I have traveled past this spot for decades. Long ago it was part of a busy cannery run by a major company. (We could spell the aroma of incipient tomato paste and sauce from this factory miles away.) Those days are gone, and the area now features a growing collection of high density urban housing, but some of the buildings still remain. I think of this photograph as an urban landscape, and the inclusion of that sky and those clouds perhaps makes the connection more obvious.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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