Tag Archives: sidewalk

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

Corner Store With Boarded-Up Windows

May 9, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A corner store with boarded-up windows in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

There probably isn’t a whole lot to say about the subject of this photograph other than it is a boarded-up corner store in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, photographed in morning light last July. The components of the scene are kind of odd, I think: a bit of a flag, green awnings and painted wall, the slanting sidewalk with some poles and boxes, and the layers of older and newer boards and graffiti over the windows. I also though the light was interesting, partly because it was short period when the San Francisco fog is breaking up and the light is brighter but still soft, and partly because of the diagonal shadows cast across the vertical and horizontal shapes of the wall.

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

Osgood Place

May 6, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

A steep street in downtown San Francisco with a sign for “Osgood Place.”

I came across this photograph from last summer while going over old raw files again this week. To be honest, I barely remember shooting this scene, and the only hints about the precise location are the “Osgood Place” sign (referring to one of the buildings) and the base of the Transamerica Pyramid beyond the end of the street.

When I saw it this week, something caught my attention about it. I like the vantage point that roughly as high as the third story of buildings near the bottom of the street – this does some slightly odd things to perspective lines. I also like the various types of red to brick-red coloration and the row of steel posts along the narrow sidewalk. The subtle green beer bottle against the first post at the right is a touch I like, too. ;-) It is surprising that I managed to take a photograph of this area of San Francisco that includes no people.

(Update: Thanks to some folks who saw this photograph elsewhere, I have learned that the street is also called Osgood Place.)

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

Golden Eagle Hotel

May 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Man sitting on steps in front of tattoo parlor below the Golden Eagle Hotel, San Francisco.

Last summer, on one of my “walking shoots” in San Francisco, I wandered into a less-than-lovely area of The City – though it has its points of visual interest, for sure. I named this photograph after the Golden Eagle Hotel at least partly because I assume that the dilapidated green apartment building above the colorful (in many senses) shops at street level comprise the “hotel.” Another reason is that I wasn’t sure I wanted to title a photograph “Tattoo” or “Naughty Laundry!” (I don’t know what the “Naughty Laundry” place is, and I probably am better of keeping it that way! :-)

In a sense, every photograph I make is “about” something, though often they are simply about the qualities of the subject or subjects themselves. You could certainly look at this image that way. I was certainly intrigued by the juxtaposition of the very colorful and closely packed shops and the very drab apartments above. The building itself, which may have seen better days, is interesting to me architecturally. What is with the little round windows, with their thick frames, between the conventional rectangular windows? And despite having some interesting San Francisco qualities, the building is terribly run down. A close look reveals peeling paint, wires running here and there, painted over spots of what might have been graffiti, and so forth.

Then there is that guy sitting on the step of “Goldfield’s Original Broadway Tattoo Studio.” There are no other people in the scene, and my recollection is that there really weren’t many people around. He sits, face downward and headphones on, apparently completely engrossed in whatever technology he holds in his hand, and apparently also completely disassociated from his environment. You can find a lot of people like this today.

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

Motorcycle Parking, Night

March 7, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photograph of a covered area for motorcycle parking at the front of a clinic, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This should be the final image in the recent run of night photography from Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, near Vallejo, California. To recap, near the end of February I joined my fellow night photographers from The Nocturnes for a “Mare Island Alumni” meetup and shoot. I’ve shot this location – virtually always at night – for something like five years now, and I still find new things to shoot on each visit.

Early on I mostly focused on what some call the “historic core” of the place – an area of dry docks, giant cranes, and old shops and factory buildings. Later I began to investigate areas around the periphery of this location and to poke my lens into odd little alleys and corners that I didn’t see at first. More recently I have begun to look at smaller and less obvious features of the place and I continue to expand the boundaries of the areas that I know and shoot. This shot and the companion shot I posted just before it are a bit of a departure from my usual Mare Island work in that the scene is a more modern sort of urban landscape illuminated by modern lighting that doesn’t have the warm glow of the security lights and other forms of illumination found elsewhere.

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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.

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