Tag Archives: skyline

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Urban Wilderness

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The Urban Wilderness
People climb on a rock outcropping at The Lake, Central Park, New York City.

The Urban Wilderness. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

People climb on a rock outcropping at The Lake, Central Park, New York City.

This photograph comes from a well-known, popular rock outcropping along the shore of The Lake in Manhattan’s Central Park. I made the photograph on an October morning as we killed time before heading to the airport for our flight back to the West Coast. We wandered across the park, down the East Side to the Columbus Day parade, and then back to our hotel. One thing that struck me about this scene was how familiar the appearance of the people climbing the rocks was — I could find a similar scene in the Sierra..

I enjoy the parallels between photography of the urban and natural worlds. There’s no denying that they are rather different, but I think there are similarities,. too, and I’m able to apply my experience photographing the natural world to urban photography. It is possible to see the human presence in the city as almost a kind of wildlife — and photographing people and wild life can be challenging in similar ways. The city also presents a landscape, and the same principles that work in wilderness can work here, too. ( I sometimes think that the particular landscape in this photograph, with those ridiculously tall and slender buildings, may have more I’m common with movie depictions of cities on distant planets!)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: France, Photographs: People, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman and Clock

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Woman and Clock
A woman gazes through the portal of a Musee D’Orsay clock towards Paris

Woman and Clock. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman gazes toward the Paris skyline through the portal of a Musee D’Orsay clock

I can tell something of a story on us regarding the Musee d’Orsay. On a previous visit to Paris we were trying to get to various specific locations including a few museums. However, we can be a bit “seat of the pants” when it comes to wandering around in such cities — rather than making specific plans we tend to decide things on the spot and/or wander around and see what we find. We knew we wanted to visit this museum, but it wasn’t until later on that visit that we made it there. We paid our admission, went inside, and discovered that we had perhaps 90 minutes left before it closed. Needless to say, we moved very quickly through sections of the place and missed a ton of stuff.

This time we wanted to go back and spend a more reasonable amount of time there. And we did. We got there in time to see a good portion of the marvelous exhibits. At one point we were getting hungry, and we ran into a restaurant on one of the upper floors and decided to stop. Overlooking the restaurant was a clock like what you see here. I was very confused. I knew I had seen “the” clock briefly on the previous visit, but I didn’t recall a restaurant… so I chalked up to, “they must have remodeled things and installed this restaurant by the clock. ” We finished eating, went back to visiting the exhibits, and eventually worked our way to the far end of the floor… where we found the other clock, the one that I had seen before. Usually there are a ton of people standing in front of the thing — and who can blame them — but for a moment I was able to frame this photograph with a solitary woman standing and looking through the clock’s windows towards the skyline of Paris.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Reflecting Pool, Structural Components, Skyline

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Reflecting Pool, Structural Components, Skyline
A pool and exterior components of Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

Reflecting Pool, Structural Components, Skyline. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pool and exterior components of Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

The Centre Pompidou in Paris is a fascinating place in many ways. To start with, there’s a lot going on in the surrounding neighborhoods, the large courtyard in “front” of the building, and inside. The art collection is quite wonderful. And, of course, the building itself is unusual and something of a marvel. It also provides plenty of opportunities for photography.

Many of the components of the building are on the exterior instead of being hidden behind a shell. Architectural structures, stairways, ventilation systems and more are right there for the observer to see. This photograph incorporates some of those structural elements, which form the main criss-crossing form in the image. It may not be immediately obvious, but the photograph was made outdoors and many floors above the ground level. Here a shallow pond reflects the structural elements and a bit of Paris sky, with the upper floors of surrounding buildings filling in the middle of the scene in the distance.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook |
Email

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Central Park, Winter

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Central Park, Winter
Bare trees and an empty plaza on a cold winter day in Central Park

Central Park, Winter. G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bare trees and an empty plaza on a cold winter day in Central Park

It was an utterly frigid day in New York City when I made this photograph. This Californian is not really used to such weather, but we gave it a good try, heading out each day on long walks that sometimes lasted many hour despite temperatures around and sometimes lower than 20 degrees. (Some of you are used to that, but a “cold” midday temperature here in near-the-coast Northern California would be in the upper-forties.) Our morning began with an aborted attempt to visit the Guggenheim Museum — we made it there, got in line, stood there gradually getting colder and colder, finally figured out that the line wasn’t actually moving, gave up, and found a warm and cozy place to go eat and drink.

Afterwards we headed out on foot once again, eventually ending up back at Central Park. I’ve been there at different times of the year. In summer there are often many thousands of people in the park — walking, cycling, skating, sitting around, eating, lounging on lawns, and more. There are expansive green lawns and big, leafy trees. In winter those lawns die and the trees lose their leaves. There are people in the park, but only a tiny fraction of the number seen in summer, and most seem to be on their way somewhere else — probably somewhere else warm. But I like the park this time of year. The gray solitude of the place appeals, and the leafless trees permit more of the surrounding urban world to be seen. This little plaza, nearly empty, was along the east side of the park as we gradually worked our way to the lower end of the park.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.