Tag Archives: sidewalk

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

Man in Blue, One Way Corner

June 5, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man in blue walking past a barren San Francisco street corner

This is a street photograph from one favorite corner in downtown San Francisco, where the buildings are tall enough that I can often photograph subjects in soft light. In addition, the buildings and the street are not very colorful, allowing whatever the subject bring to the scene to become more important.

Often when I make photographs like this I think a bit like a landscape photographer. I find a configuration of fixed subjects that interests me, I try to create some kind of composition out of it (usually working very quickly) and then I watch for a person or persons to walk into and through the scene. This time the two components happened almost simultaneously. as soon as I saw the one-way sign on the corner and realized I wanted to photograph it I also saw this man crossing the narrow street and heading toward it — and I had just enough time to lift the camera, frame the scene, and photograph him between the sign and the fire hydrant, and at the closest point on the sidewalk.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

San Francisco Street Scene

June 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Walls, doors, gates, conduits, signs, trash containers, peeling paint, reflections along a San Francisco street

I’m indulging my fascination with street scenes once again today. This photograph comes from a morning spent walking across San Francisco late last week. I arrived early in the City by train, got off, and walked by an unplanned and mostly spontaneous route across downtown, across Chinatown, through North Beach, and almost to the touristy Pier 39 before looping back to my starting point on The Embarcadero to catch a train back home.

This is a familiar sort of San Francisco scene, especially to those who wander though the City of foot, though I could find similar spots in many other urban areas. In a world where we often see things that have been carefully designed and unified, spots like this seem to occupy the opposite end of the spectrum. It would be easy to walk past and not see it — I’ve certainly done so many times — but once I stop and look I’m often amazed at the density of visually dissonant elements that are thrown together. Almost everything seem like it was initially utilitarian, but gradually a sort of near randomness seems to have crept in, and now the colors are wild and contrasting, paint is peeling, textures are varied, a few signs intrude, trash cans lean against doorways, and the sidewalk tilts.

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

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

Brick Walls, Bear Gardens

May 24, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brick buildings along narrow streets, Bear Gardens, Southwark, London

Yes, another London photograph. We had a bit of time between appointments and we ended up wandering around this area for a while in the evening. Here there are very old brick buildings along narrow streets that twist this way and that. This wall lined up almost perfectly with the setting sun, which glanced across its surface, highlighting the texture and catching an edge of the bricks straight on.

I didn’t share this photograph for a long time. I continued to go back and forth between a black and white rendition — which may allow the forms to seem a bit more abstract — and this version with its warmer colors and more subtle gradations of tones. (On an unrelated topic, why do I keep wanting to write “beer gardens” rather than “bear gardens?” ;-)

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

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Night

May 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pedestrians along a walkway leading toward Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London

St. Paul’s Cathedral is an obvious landmark at any time, but at night it is even more so, especially if you approach it from across the River Thames by way of the Millennium Bridge. We visited the bank opposite the cathedral on several evenings, so I can no longer remember precisely what we had been there for on this evening — The Old Globe Theater, meeting up with relatives for dinner, a visit to the Tate Modern? I’m not certain.

In any case, we ended up crossing the river in this direction after dark on a warm summer evening when many people were out strolling around. This was one of the first times when I realized that my little mirrorless camera was good enough in low light that I could actually do handheld night photography.