Tag Archives: steps

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

Open Door and Stairway, Night

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Open Door and Stairway, Night
“Open Door and Stairway, Night” — The entrance to someone’s Chinatown home, San Francisco.

Originally I contemplated adding this to the “Postcards From Pandemic” series — the mood and subject seem about right. In the end I did not, since I’ve decided that those photographs will all be made during the lock-down and whatever follows. This photograph is almost five years old.

There is, for me, a lot to ponder in this photograph. Let’s start with the obvious — it is not a pretty picture. Despite the fact that the scene is so gritty, I was attracted by the colors, textures, and all that stuff, apart from the underlying reality of the scene. But, obviously, we have to ask some questions about a scene like this: Who lives here? What must it be like to enter your home through such a portal?

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Laundry, Siena

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Laundry, Siena
Laundry hangs outside a weathered yellow builiding in Siena, Italy

Laundry, Siena. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Laundry hangs outside a weathered yellow builiding in Siena, Italy.

The old part of Siena is remarkable. Yes, there are old cities and towns all over Italy, and they all have their charms. But my (too!) brief visit to Siena showed me a town that felt quite different. A maze of narrow and curving streets encircles the main piazza, it is easy to become lost here. But after negotiating the maze you can emerge at the remarkable Piazza del Campo, the large square where the famous horse races are held.

You don’t see all of that in this photograph, but you do see lots of little features that are common in this part of the world. The color of the building on the left is intense, but it is also common — many buildings are in a narrow color band between brown and yellow… and many are also rather weathered, like this one. The light is also typical of this area — intense and stark in the summer, especially in the midday.

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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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Night Street, Florence

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Night Street, Florence
An empty, curving street at night, Florence, Italy

Night Street, Florence. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An empty, curving street at night, Florence, Italy

Three years ago we visited Florence, Italy near the end of more than a month of European travel. We were in Italy for almost the last two weeks of our trip, with most of the time spent with extended family in the hills of the Chianti region. From there we went to Florence for a few days of sightseeing, eating, museum visiting, and photography before we caught our flight back home.

In the summer, central Florence is a pretty busy place, filled with tourists during most of the daytime hours. I like photographing people, but it can be overwhelming. However, there were two times of the day when I could walk and photograph in relatively crowd-free conditions: early in the morning and late enough in the evening that the crowds had thinned. By the time I walked past this street, in a place where there would have been a good number of people earlier in the day, it was essentially deserted.

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

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

Climbing The Stairs

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Climbing The Stairs
A woman slowly climbs stairs near the entrance to a tunnel, San Francisco

Climbing The Stairs. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman slowly climbs stairs near the entrance to a tunnel, San Francisco.

The last time I took one of my quick trips to San Francisco to do street photography was months ago, and I’ve been planning recently to get back up there. Yesterday I finally found time. My photographic ritual there is pretty straightforward: I get up very early and catch a train up the Peninsula, typically arriving by about 7:00am. I travel light, with only the gear that will fit in a very small shoulder bag that doesn’t really look like camera gear. I walk, and this time I wandered close to eight miles over the course of about four hours, traveling through some areas that are run down in interesting ways, through the center of the financial district, and into the Columbus and Grant and Stockton streets areaI.

I enjoy street photography for several reasons. To be honest, as much as I love the natural world, I also love cities, and even more I love wandering through them on foot. Photographically-speaking, they provide a rich lab environment for finding compositions, color, people, and more. Street photography is usually be done unencumbered by the bulky gear I often use for landscapes, and I love the spontaneous aspects of it. This photograph embodies a number of things that I look for when photographing street. I’m always attracted by color and patterns and light — and this scene just inside the end of a tunnel is full of all of these things.

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.

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