Tag Archives: sidewalk

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Closing Time, Sunnyland Produce

August 15, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Closing time at shops in San Francisco’s Chinatown district.

In late July I met up with a group of fellow night/street photographers in San Francisco. The group’s explorations ranged between the commercial hub of Union Square and the old neighborhood of North Beach. (The rest of the group got there before I did and they began with dinner in the latter district.) I finally connected with the group along Stockton Street, the less touristy portion of Chinatown.

I frequently walk though here but often don’t make too many photographs. I love the Stockton Street area, with its vibrant shops and busy morning crowds, but sometimes I feel a bit too intrusive making photographers there and then. But on this evening things were quieting down, shops were closing, and there were fewer people.

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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Post and Grant, Night

August 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

san francisco, california, usa, urban, street, photography, night, post, grant, streets, corner, intersection, black and white, monochrome, people, sidewalk — Friday night at the corner of Post and Grant, San Francisco

Friday night at the corner of Post and Grant, San Francisco

This is (yet another) photograph from my fruitful nighttime wanderings in an area of urban San Francisco in late July, when I joined a small group of fellow photographers to do some night street photography. They started with dinner, but I arrived a bit late and finally met up with them between my starting point (near Union Square) and their location in North Beach. We first photographed in the less-touristy areas of Chinatown, then wandered into tourist central, the well-known Grant Avenue area, where we knew we would find people and interesting lighting.

Eventually we wandered on down beyond Chinatown and ended up in the Union Square vicinity, where the group began to split up — it was getting late, some had been photographing for many hours, and their cars were a distance away. I continued on down Grant a bit further, where I made this photograph at the intersection with Post Street. You might detect one or two odd compositional choices in this photograph — why is that car poking into the right side of the frame?

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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Children in Striped Hoodies

August 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two children in striped hoodies walk along a San Francisco street at night

This is yet another photograph that I don’t actually recall making! Sometimes when shooting street I think I work so quickly and spontaneously that I simple capture an image and move on to the next one without imbedding the specific experience in my memory. This almost certainly was one of those very quickly made photographs, and I only made two exposures of these subjects before moving on to something else.

There is a lot in this photograph, some of which I was likely considering in the moment when I made the photograph and some of which may have been more or less a happy accident. I’m pretty certain that I was attracted to the fact that the two kids were both wearing hoodies with horizontal stripes — perhaps someone’s mother or father had just gone shopping for the two of them? A wonderful bonus was the child on the right (big sister?) putting her arm gently on the shoulder of the other child — her younger brother? Then there are the other bits of color — the blue form on the left (which houses an automated carnival-like figure) and the wildly painted lamp-post on the right. And, yes, there is something a bit disconcerting about seeing two young children alone on the nighttime streets of a big city — at least to this photographer who brought up three such young children.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Couple, Night

August 1, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A couple out for the night in San Francisco

Although it is not particularly apparent in this photograph, one of the things I like about photographing at night is the way that the darkness, lit by multiple artificial light sources, becomes magical. You’ll never see shadows like those on the wall behind this couple in sunlight! This light, and the responses to the night of the people who are out and about, make the nighttime environment very different from the daytime world, and places that might be mundane in daylight can become special at night.

This must have been a quick and spontaneous photograph… because I don’t even remember making it, much less precisely where I was! I think I may have been along Grant Street somewhere below Chinatown and getting closer to Union Square. In all likelihood, I saw the two of them and quickly lifted the camera to make an exposure and kept walking. I love the expression on the woman’s face.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sidewalk

Closing Time, Sunnyland Produce

Post and Grant, Night

Children in Striped Hoodies

Couple, Night

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.