Tag Archives: sign

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

Loading Dock Doors, Townsend Street

July 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on the wall of an industrial building with black loading dock doors along Townsend Street, San Francisco.

This photograph was made very near to where I made another I posted recently, one of a pair of freeway overpasses near the San Francisco Caltrain station. After making that photo, I headed back on Townsend toward the station and as I walked along a row of industrial buildings these loading dock doors and the bright light from the morning sun caught my attention. So, in a suitable old-school approach, I pulled out the camera with the 50mm prime and found a way to frame the scene.

If you are into this sort of thing, you might relate to a few small details in the scene that I like. One is the faint shadow of the two overhead electric lines that cuts a diagonal from upper right to lower left, which also happens to be along the same dimension over which the sunlit diminishes. Aside from the predominant shades of tan on the wall and shades of gray elsewhere, there are a couple of bits of yellow-orange on the curb and the sign near the far right.

If you can read the signs – hard to do at this small size – you will understand that it would be a very bad idea to park here. :-)

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.

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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.)

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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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Peter Macchiarini Steps

May 4, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of the Peter Macchiarini Steps, Kearny and Broadway, San Francisco.

I finally decided to look up the name “Peter Macchiarini” and see who he is and why these steps bear his name. I like this description:

“San Francisco has a history of naming its ugliest streets for famous people. Alice B. Toklas Lane is a scary alley that hosts drug dealers and hookers, Caesar Chavez Avenue is a run down street that primarily serves as a freeway onramp, and the Peter Macchiarini Steps are weather worn stairs fronting a decaying street.”

I’m unfamiliar with his output, but he is described as a well-known jeweler, sculpture, (and in one reference photographer) who is “known for his depiction of Emperor Norton.” (Emperor Norton is yet another San Francisco historical character – the place is joyously rich with them.) Rather than letting this become a history lecture, I’ll suggest a search on his name to find out more.

This photograph largely confirms the description in the above paragraph. This street is so steep that a normal sidewalk would probably not be very safe, so steps were installed instead. And the steps do front some pretty worn and dilapidated structures – though perhaps not so awful as they might appear, given that this sort of wooden construction is quite common in San Francisco and actually a good part of the City’s charm.

To some extent, this is one in a series of “f/8 and be there” photographs using my take on street photography. It was shot at, yes, f/8 using a 50mm prime. I probably most often shoot zooms even when I shoot street, since their flexibility is often very useful. But sometimes I do like to go out with just a 50mm lens and keep things simple.

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

Laundry, Fire Escape, Chinatown

May 2, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Laundry is hung to dry on fire escape above the streets of Chinatown, San Francisco.

This is a photography from one of my early morning photo-walks in San Francisco last summer. I take the train to the City very early in the morning and then walk. A lot. On this morning I passed through Chinatown on my way to the North Beach area fairly early in the morning – well before the tourist crowds showed up. A few blocks from the main tourist area it is a different world with markets opening up, deliveries being made, and busy people everywhere. I was working in more or less traditional street photographer style – to the extent that someone armed with a DSLR can do that ! – and shooting with just a 50mm prime lens on the camera and trying to work quickly as images presented themselves.

I imagine that many people who pass through here may easily be so focused on the activity at the street level that they might not look up. It often strikes me as surprising that in areas where so much is going on at street level – many people, colorful shop fronts, lots of action – the fronts of buildings right above present a completely different appearance. The first thing that caught my attention here was the laundry festooning the fire escape landings. But I also like the geometry of dark landings, ladders, and pipes against the lighter stucco wall, and the wonderful light coming through the morning haze from upper right and casting the lined shadows across the walls of the building.

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