Tag Archives: station

Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Waiting For Transit

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Waiting For Transit
People await their ride at a San Francisco light rail station.

Waiting For Transit. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People await their ride at a San Francisco light rail station.

Perhaps you already knew that I made this photograph a few years ago — it is in San Francisco, it is at a transit stop… and no one is wearing a mask! You wouldn’t find that combination today. (That’s one reason that the San Francisco Bay Area has among the lowest infection rates in the country, but I digress…) I made the photograph on one of my photography days in San Francisco, which tend to follow a familiar pattern: Up well before dawn, catch a train to the City, arrive around sunrise, spend the morning wandering on foot and photography, then take the train back home my mid-afternoon. San Francisco is a very walkable city, and you can cover a lot of ground there on foot.

Recently I had the pleasure of giving a talk on street photography to a somewhat surprising group, the photography section of the San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club. That’s not your typical topic for this group, and I was aware that there might be some skeptics. My premise is that doing street photography (and other kinds of not-nature photography) can make you a better photographer, and that the benefits can accrue to your nature photography, too. I can’t recreate the entire talk here, but this photograph embodies a few key ideas. First, it takes advantage of a very local photographic opportunity, so I can photograph even when I can’t travel to lovely, far away, natural places. Second, it treats the street as a kind of urban landscape, occupied by “human wildlife.” In fact, I often construct photographs like this one by first finding the “landscape” and then waiting for passers-by to populate it. Third (and final for now) photographing these local subjects is good “practice” that keeps my ability to see photographically tuned up.

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: People In Landscape, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Hot Shower $5.00

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Hot Shower $5.00
An inviting sign on a door at a trailhead packstation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Hot Shower $5.00. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An inviting sign on a door at a trailhead packstation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

I have been a Sierra backpacker for a long time. How long, you ask? A significant number of decades. My first backpacking trip, something I had dreamed about for a few years, was the summer I turned 16. Two buddies and I headed off into the Desolation Wilderness for something like five days. Unsupervised. (I still cannot believe that my parents allowed this.) Both friends had at least some backcountry experience, one with his family and one in the Boy Scouts. But this was all entirely new to me.

Often we think of the peak moments in the backcountry, the astonishing sunrises, climbing to the summit of a peak, and encounter with wildlife, visiting a place to which few others have been. Or perhaps we tell “hero stories” — the time I took a five day pack trip with a broken toe, my first solo (two weeks long), bad weather, getting lost. But the truth is that a lot of the experience is based on some pretty simple pleasures: sitting on a comfortable rock as the day ends, eating that freeze-dried food out of the pot, traveling for days with friends… and that shower at the trailhead when you return from a week or more in the backcountry.

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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Formerly Bob’s Auto Service

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Formerly Bob's Auto Service
A downtown garage in San Francisco

Formerly Bob’s Auto Service. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A downtown garage in San Francisco

I often walk past this business when I take the train to San Francisco to do street photography. My typical circuit has me doing some sort of walking loop to the north from the train station and then back by a different route. This shop is on a very busy intersection, squeezed into a small space. It looks like it has been there forever, and there is empirical evidence of this if you look closely.

These places fascinate me for a whole bunch or reasons which range from purely visual to questions about the story that might lie behind them. Visually, I’m challenged by trying to see some kind of shape and order in urban chaos, but I also like the sometimes wild layers of color on business that use it to gain visibility. In addition, especially on individual businesses that have been in a location for a while, elements appear that reflect ownership and/or management by individuals — as differentiated from the slick and ultimately uniform appearance of chains and be businesses. Here I love the hand-painted blue letters across the top of the building — they are not up to the “standards” of contemporary design, but they reflect someone’s great care in producing them. Below that, on the yellow panel above the garage, you can look closely and see the painted-out words that I used for the title of this photograph.

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: Sierra Nevada

Back Country Taxi Service

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Back Country Taxi Service
Pack mules waiting to carry photographers into the Sierra Nevada back country

Back Country Taxi Service. Onion Valley, California. September 11, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pack mules waiting to carry photographers into the Sierra Nevada back country

Mules like these are the delivery trucks and taxis of the backcountry, something that I didn’t always appreciate. There was a time some years back when I was simply annoyed by them, and felt that having to move to one side to let a string of animals pass was an affront. Then I found myself using pack animal support on a couple for long photography trips into the Sierra, and I was forced to modify my thinking a bit. There are places that the beasts shouldn’t go, but they also have a very long history of supplying and supporting back-country travelers. I started backpacking long enough ago that I even recall occasionally seeing a lone backpacker leading a mule.

This trip was the first and only time that I’ve actually ridden a mule into the backcountry. It was, as those who have tried it probably know, and “interesting” experience. I don’t have the space here to relate the whole story. I made this photograph on our first morning, when we went to the pack station to load up our gear before hitting the trail.

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.