Tag Archives: stairs

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Up The Stairs

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Up The Stairs
A woman pauses at the bottom of a staircase, San Francisco.

Up The Stairs. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A woman pauses at the bottom of a staircase, San Francisco.

This was one of those unexpected opportunities that make me operate on pure instinct, with almost no time to carefully think about what I’m doing. I saw the staircase in this fascinating light because we were at this concert hall in the daytime instead of at nighttime. I quickly whipped out the iPhone and framed a shot of the stairs. The masked woman — whose presence makes this a very different photograph than it might have been — was completely serendipitous.

We sometimes dismiss iPhone photography as not being serious. Well, some people do — but more and more folks recognize that it has its place. I wouldn’t normally carry a “real camera” to a symphony concert, but I do almost always have the phone. In this situation I was able to deploy it quickly, make a few adjustments, and capture a raw image that otherwise would have escaped.

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

Upper West Side

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Upper West Side
Steps leading to residences on the Upper West Side, Manhattan

Upper West Side. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Steps leading to residences on the Upper West Side, Manhattan

Recently I’ve been sharing a steady stream of landscape photographs, most of which came from trips to photograph fall color on the east and west coasts. We were in the East twice in recent months, and both times took us to somewhat more rural areas of New England — southern Vermont in August and New Hampshire (and a bit more Vermont) in October. But both times we include some time in New York City. That lengthy introduction is all by way of warning you that there’s some Manhattan urban and street photography coming up!

I start gently with this photograph, one that you might even think of as a sort of “urban landscape.” We often stay at a place on the Upper West Side, a bit west of the Natural History Museum, since it is outside of the busiest parts of Manhattan, provides good subway access, and is closer to some folks in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx. We walk a lot while we’re there, and I photographed these steps in the neighborhood on one of those walks. The line-up of the steps intrigues me, but I also like the unusual palette of colors.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stairway, San Francisco

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Stairway, San Francisco
A steep stairway ascends through a residential area of San Francisco.

Stairway, San Francisco. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A steep stairway ascends through a residential area of San Francisco.

The terrain underlying the city of San Francisco is in many places quite complex. Before settlement it was a place of hills cut by streams, flatlands, and shallows that were later filled in to expand the available land area. I made this photograph in an area along a ridge where the “sidewalks” are sometimes more vertical than horizontal and mostly consist of stairways.

There’s something a bit mysterious about this bending stairway as it winds upwards and twists out of sight. The mixture of angles and textures here is also fascinating — wood and concrete, horizontal and vertical, rigidly aligned to the horizon and angled in odd directions.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

No Parking

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No Parking
No Parking sign and colorfu paint on a San Francisco residence.

No Parking. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

No Parking sign and colorfu paint on a San Francisco residence.

There are lots of places offering similar visual opportunities in San Francisco, and they aren’t hard to find, especially if you get out and walk the City. And this is a very walkable city! I often walk almost all the way across between the CalTrain station and points north, following various favorite routes. This spot, if I recall correctly, is on a side street in roughly an area between North Beach and the tourist center known as Fisherman’s Wharf.

There are plenty of ways to photograph the sometimes-eclectic (and other times quite classic) architecture of this city. In terms of scale, I can go anywhere between including entire buildings (or even groups of them) and photographs that focus on very small elements — a door, a stairway, a bit of a window. In this one the colors, of course, were the main attraction. But I also was taken by the almost Cubist composition that resulted from cropping tightly.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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