Tag Archives: siding

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Weathered Blue Building, Fences, and Plants

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Weathered Blue Building, Fences, and Plants - A weathered blue building with fences and plants in evening light, Mendocino, California.
A weathered blue building with fences and plants in evening light, Mendocino, California.

Weathered Blue Building, Fences, and Plants. Mendocino, California. August 28, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A weathered blue building with fences and plants in evening light, Mendocino, California.

I had been thinking that I really should photograph some of the old, weathered buildings in Mendocino while we were there, but it just seemed like I was never quite in the right spot in the right light with the right amount of time – so, for the most part, while we were there recently I mostly just talked about how “sometime I should really photograph some of these old buildings.” Sound familiar? The village is full of various kinds of interesting places: severe-looking old churches, badly weathered older buildings, neatly restored and updated homes and businesses, old shops, and vignettes of old windows, fences, gates, and more.

In the evening we decided to walk out toward the coastal bluffs southwest of the village, with the plan of photographing the bluffs, coastal rocks, surf, and ocean in golden hour light. As we walked along a boardwalk toward the water I looked to my right and saw this very weathered old building, with its surrealistic garden of very strange shaped, well, what exactly? Trees? Bushes? Whatever they are, with their conical shapes, their twisting trunks, and odd angles they seem like they could be the model for some of the plants in a Dr. Seuss book. I was a block away when I spotted the scene, and the low angle side light was about to be cut off, so I simply set up where I was and made a few photographs – using a very unusual architecture lens, a 100-400mm zoom! This actually turned out to be a good choice – and not just because I would have lost the light if I had switched to a shorter lens and run toward the building. The long focal length flattens the depth of the elements of the image and draws them together. It also eliminated the perspective convergence that often causes walls and other vertical elements to slant inward. Do I worked quickly, and managed to get this shot while the side light was still illuminating one of the odd plants and highlighting parts of the worn fences in the foreground.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

“Feel Better”

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"Feel Better" - A barber "pole" with the words "Feel Better" and a hand painted laundry sign on the exterior wall of a dilapidated building, San Jose, California.
A barber "pole" with the words "Feel Better" and a hand painted laundry sign on the exterior wall of a dilapidated building, San Jose, California.

“Feel Better”. San Jose, California. December 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A barber “pole” with the words “Feel Better” and a hand painted laundry sign on the exterior wall of a dilapidated building, San Jose, California.

Another photograph made while wandering about in my neighborhood. These signs are on the side of a very old and very dilapidated little wood-sided building that houses a barber shop and a cleaners. The building is leaning so badly and on such uneven ground that it is a wonder that it is still standing and that the city still allows people to occupy it. Yet, it seems like the two businesses inside, which give the appearance of having been there a long time, continue to hang on.

The crazily tilting, off-kilter walls along the side of the building first caught my attention, so I went around to the side to make some photographs of this wall. Once I got closer I was intrigued by the barber “pole” (or the cheapest imaginable imitation of the real thing, nailed to the wall) with its odd label, “FEEL BETTER” near the bottom. The hand-painted sign for the cleaners was also interesting. Today it seems like most business signs have been extruded at the same business sign factory, and they often share a uniform slickness and lack of individual character. Not true of this sign! I looks like perhaps the owner painted it himself or herself, and that this person had just enough painting skill to pull it off, but not so much as to be overly slick, to put it mildly. The oddly spaces hand-lettering and the “personalized” paintings of suits hanging on hangars are not the sort of thing you usually see in this area, but they do have a certain charm.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps

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Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps
Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps

Man Descending Peter Macchiarini Steps. San Francisco, California. July 12, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man descends the Peter Macchiarini steps past worn and dilapidated buildings in downtown San Francisco.

I photographed this rather bleak scene on a side street in San Francisco last summer. I first walked up this street to photograph the “Peter Macchiarini Steps” that ascend steeply here in place of a normal sidewalk. Then I saw the opposing shapes of the large square ductwork and the smaller round pipes against the weathered and dilapidated exterior of the buildings. Finally, I found that the occasional person descending the steps might add a point of interest, so I waited…

When I look at a photograph like this one I see layers of different things – but maybe that’s just me! :-) At one level it is just a slightly gritty little street scene, presented in a pretty unvarnished manner. (I did some work to straighten angles and so forth in post – I generally don’t get to use tilt/shift lenses when I shoot street!) Then I see several interesting-to-me geometries in the scene. I mentioned above the opposing bends of the pipes and ducts and their relative positions on the wall. I also see a collection of rectangular shapes throughout the frame: the lighter area of wall behind the figure, the doors in the lower center, the small window above the doors, the three upper windows, and the sections of wall between them. Then there are a bunch of horizontal components: the large lighter band across the upper center, the very small patterns of the siding, the sequence of upper story windows against siding, the lower edge of the siding. And within these separate layers of order there are things that don’t quite fit. The man of course, wearing black and in motion with one foot suspended in mid-step, but also the trash can in front of him – also black, the bits of conduit running in odd directions, the small section of pipe in front of the door, and the concrete sidewalk steps.

Of course, you are free to see a picture of some guy walking down the steps…

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | 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: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building Exterior, Peter Macchiarini Steps

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Building Exterior, Peter Macchiarini Steps
Building Exterior, Peter Macchiarini Steps

Building Exterior, Peter Macchiarini Steps. San Francisco, California. July 12, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of weathered and dilapidated building exterior wall along the Peter Macciarini Steps, San Francisco.

This is another in a small series of photographs I made of the old, weathered buildings along these very steep sidewalk stairs in San Francisco. In this case I decided to go with black and white since it seems to me that the main interest in the image would be the shapes and forms rather than colors. (Though the color images has a certain appeal, too – the colors are very subtle and almost all in the “tan” range except for a bit of reddish brick, a couple of small colorful stickers on the wall, and the nearly gray concrete.)

I had seen other named stairways elsewhere in San Francisco, but was unaware that this one warranted a name. A web site with information on this and other stairways in SF points out that the city has a history of naming some of its ugliest streets and other features for famous people. This one, despite having a kind of gritty urban charm, seems to fit the mold.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/8, 1/640 second

keywords: san, francisco, california, usa, peter, macchiarini, steps, kearny, broadway, street, steep, stairs, railing, pipe, siding, duct, exterior, cement, brick, window, door, urban, street, brown, dilapidated, weathered, worn, curb, sidewalk, north america, stock, downtown, trash, garbage, can receptacle, grafitti, monochrome, black and white