Tag Archives: shops

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Chinatown Street

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Chinatown Street
Chinatown Street

Chinatown Street. New York City. August 10, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A narrow, empty street curves past small shops in New York City’s Chinatown

First off, I’m obviously not a “real” New Yorker — I love the place, but I’m most certainly a visitor and a west coast guy at heart. However, that means that for me many things that might seem familiar and perhaps even ordinary to long time New Yorkers are still special and new. My first visit to New York’s Chinatown area was only a few years ago. We came into the city on Christmas Eve and pretty much the only restaurants open nearby (we were staying on Canal Street) were in Chinatown, so we plunged into the throngs that typically seem to crowd the sidewalks here, eventually wandered down some narrow streets, and arrived at a restaurant where we met up with friends and family members for a wonderful dinner.

This time we got there a bit later during our trip, on an evening when we were all perhaps becoming just a bit travel-tired and when we wanted a dinner that wasn’t quite so expensive as some others we had recently enjoyed. One or both of our sons suggested that we meet up at a place in Chinatown again, and since we arrived a bit early I took advantage of the situation and made a few photographs on this wonderful little street, with its beautiful curve, small shops, and wildly colorful store fronts and signs. Most of the time this street was busy with passing pedestrians, but I waited a bit and managed to make this photograph of the empty street in the evening light. The details of such photographs are often fun and intriguing — the picture on the hair salon sign at the left, the bicycle sitting on its rear wheel at the far right, the colorful flags on one store front, and more.

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: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Happy Hour

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Happy Hour
Happy Hour

Happy Hour. London, England. July 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Happy Hour in London can apparently take place in the street.

This scene caught me just a bit by surprise – in a good way – as we walked out of a street market on the south side of the River Thames and emerged into the streets of the neighborhood. It was late in the afternoon – more like evening, actually – and crowds of people were building everywhere along these narrow streets.

I didn’t stop to investigate inside this pub, but it looked like business was so good that the party simply had to spill out on to the sidewalk, and then continue to spill right into the street! There aren’t too many places in the US where such a thing could happen – both the drinking in the street and the standing in the street, but this area seemed to not be at all car-centric, so pedestrians could more or less be wherever they wanted to be.

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.

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

Buttnick Mfg. Co.

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Buttnick Mfg. Co.
Buttnick Mfg. Co.

Buttnick Mfg. Co. Seattle, Washington. August 14, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A person wearing a backpack walks in front of the Buttnick Mfg. Co. building in Seattle, Washington

OK, I admit that this isn’t perhaps an easy photograph to warm up to and, yes, the guy is way out of focus. As often happens when wandering the streets of some city – or, frankly, with other kinds of photography, too – one thing caught my attention and once I looked I saw other things… and then there was an unexpected accident. Despite rumors to the contrary, sometimes photography works that way. (To reassure some of you, photographs also work the opposite way sometimes – carefully thought out and made in a state of prolonged contemplation.)

As we walked past this corner, for some reason the name “Buttnick Mfg. Co.” caught my attention all by itself. This, and the visual appearance of the sign got me thinking about how the presentation and appearance of commercial entities has changed. Today, if “Buttnick Mfg. Co.” was starting up in this part of Seattle or almost any other relatively large city, there would be plastic signs, a carefully contrived sign designed to present and foster a particular way of viewing the firm, electronic lights, and probably a motto along the lines of, “Innovative Design and Manufacturing for Today’s Buttnick Buyer.” But this sign was probably painted by some local sign-painter and it offers nothing more than the name of the company, which is probably the name of the founder and perhaps someone who actually worked there. But, urban development being what it is, it looks to me like Buttnick is probably no longer to be found, and instead we see a group of smaller shops inside the building. (There now are electronic signs in the window and there is a SALE going on.) About that person in the photograph… while I was planning to include the people on the far side of the street as they walked in front of the building, the out-of-focus, photobombing, Seattle street person was entirely accidental – but somehow appropriate.

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.

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Narrow Street, Cyclist

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Narrow Street, Cyclist
Narrow Street, Cyclist

Narrow Street, Cyclist. Salzburg, Austria. July 15, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bicyclist disappears around a corner on narrow cobbled streets of Salzburg, Austria

During our July 2013 three-week travels to London and parts of Germany and Austria, we ended up in Salzburg on several occasions – despite the fact that we weren’t actually staying there. We spent a week near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, staying with a bunch of family members at a rambling old farmhouse. We spent most of the time there in Bavaria, but on a couple of occasions we ended up in nearby Salzburg, plus out train arrived at and departed from the Salzburg station.

The old part of Salzburg combines, as many places we visited also did, some beautiful old history and lots of very wonderful old places with a whole lot of touristy stuff! I wonder how Mozart might react to discover that fast food places are now a short distance from the place in which he was born! Several times we walked away from the main, popular area and walked through some narrow and twisty streets leading away from the tourist sites. As we walked down this narrow and curving street, a cyclist suddenly passed by, and I had just enough time to lift the camera and shoot as he leaned around the corner at the end of the street.

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.