Tag Archives: stairs

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Concrete Steps

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Concrete Steps
Concrete steps with water stains.

Concrete Steps. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Concrete steps with water stains.

The simple story behind this photograph is that the steps are located at a formal garden where we had gone to photograph tulips and other spring flowers in April. As I photograph those subjects I also had my eyes open for non-floral photographs, too — in fact, sometimes my favorites from such places are not the flower pictures. On one level, this is just a photograph of steps. It is up to you how far beyond that you want to go.

I’m thinking of an insightful Minor White quotation: “One does not photograph something simply for ‘what it is’, but ‘for what else it is.” You miss out if you look at a photograph merely as “what it is.” Sometimes the photographer intends the “what else” and hopes that the viewer sees it. But in many situations the photographer may not fully see what is in the image at the time of exposure, and only discover it later. Sometimes the viewer may find things that the photographer doesn’t recognize. I’m going to leave it to viewers to consider this photograph from that perspective.

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

Stairway, Upper West Side

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Stairway, Upper West Side
A stairway with curving metal railing and gate, Upper West Side, Manhattan.

Stairway, Upper West Side. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stairway with curving metal railing and gate, Upper West Side, Manhattan.

The story of our “holiday pandemic” visit to New York continues. In our previous episode we heard that after pondering the go-don’t-go question during a week when we carefully watched rising case reports, our decision was to go ahead and do a long-scheduled holiday visit to Manhattan to visit family, including some we had not seen in person in two years. We’re triple-vaccinated, we loaded up with N95 masks, we avoided most of the usual non-family New York attractions, so we were about as safe as we could be — not perfectly safe, since no one is, but generally fine.

Given the unusual circumstances of visiting Manhattan (and The Bronx) during a pandemic, our routines necessarily changed. Every morning began with a quick, masked trip to a downstairs bakery, where we retrieved coffee and pastry that we ate in our hotel room while waiting for the 15-minute rapid tests to complete. When we were not with family, our options for entertainment were somewhat limited, but we eventually worked out a rough walking loop that we followed a few times. It took us through some West Side neighborhoods between Broadway and Central Park, including the street where I photographed this fascinating metal stairway and gate.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

People Standing By Window

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People Standing By Window
Two people stand against a dark wall next to a window, Museum of Modern Art.

People Standing By Window. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two people stand against a dark wall next to a window, Museum of Modern Art.

This photograph comes from a Manhattan visit a few years back. We usually are there for at least a week each year — though we have not been back since before the start of the pandemic. We miss the place! We have some traditions when it comes to these visits. One is to indulge me in a lot of “museum time.” (The amount of time I’m willing to spend in such places occasionally makes me the butt of family jokes.) We visited the Museum of Modern Art on this visit, and the photograph comes from there.

I’m often a bit surprised — though by how you’d think I would not be — by how interesting I find museums as photographic spaces. They are full of interesting and sometimes unusual architecture, and they are often designed to incorporate a lot of investing lighting, especially natural lighting. In many cases there is some sort of central atrium or similar that creates a tall, vertical open area… and that provides some wild and off-kilter angles of subjects that would look quite different if photographed on their own level. Here a pair of people stands at the base of a stairway, positioned in the angle between a nearly-black wall and a window.

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 | 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: Pandemia, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stage Door

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Stage Door
The edge of a shadow falls across a stage door.

Stage Door. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The edge of a shadow falls across a stage door.

This photograph qualifies as part of the “postcards from pandemic” group, as I made it while on one of the long local walks that I’ve been taking in and around my neighborhood since the lock-downs began six months ago. Yes, it has been that long. The good news is that if all goes according to plan we might be almost half way to a vaccine and the beginning of a return to something like normalcy.

This photograph is also an example of something that afflicts most (though perhaps not quite all) photographers, namely an interest or even obsession with form, color, and various kinds of patterns, even when seen in mundane locations. This is a side door to a school theater — hardly an iconic subject! But as I walked past at just the right moment, the shadow diagonally bisected this very blue door, and the angles of shadows and stairways converged in interesting ways.

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 | 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.