Tag Archives: stock

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Chinatown Alley

July 23, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A nearly deserted Chinatown alley lined with trash cans, San Francisco.

On this mid-July morning as I walked from the Caltrain station to the Bay near North Beach, I passed through parts of San Francisco’s Chinatown district. I was there early enough that many of the shops on the short section of Grant Street that I visited were not open, and after making a few photographs there I headed west to Stockton Street where the real action is happening in the early morning. While I’m definitely the outsider here (most people seem to ignore me, though a few seem a bit amused by this guy with the camera), I enjoy visiting and photographing this area far more than the tourist zone down on Grant.

In the morning the place is intensely busy. Trucks line the street and disgorge boxes and boxes of produce and many people seem to be doing their shopping. Crowds line up at the bus stops, and every grocery store and market seems very busy. I don’t take too many photographs, most often focusing on architecture and colors. As I walked along the busy sidewalk and passed this side alley, several things caught my attention. First, unlike Stockton Street, it was almost deserted – a couple of people were walking down the alley and by the time I framed my photograph only one remained. (You’ll have to look closely.) While my first impression was that this was a dilapidated and messy place, upon further thought and observation it is actually very ordered. Considering the number of people in the area and that the alley is used at least partially for loading in and out of shops, there is actually very little litter. Small ramps have been set up in the gutter in a few places and the receptacles are lined up along the sidewalk. I wonder what the meaning is of the two pieces of cardboard stuck behind the pipes on the red wall at the right?

The light was also conducive to shooting here. On this typical San Francisco summer day – e.g. cold and windy and foggy! – the overcast softened the light and allowed it to fill the shadows and intensify some of the colors.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Alpenglow, Trees, and Granite

July 22, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 9 Comments

This is one of my favorite locations in the Yosemite back-country and, in fact, in the entire Sierra Nevada range. This beautiful sub-alpine basis contains three lovely lakes and is surrounded by varied terrain that includes distant views, peaks and ridges towering above, lodgepole pine forests, meadows small and large, and an open view to the west that often provides stunning light late in the day.

As is usually the case, I was camped at the of the three lakes – this time for several days of photography – and I had headed to the upper lake late in the day to do some evening photography. I have photographed there quite a few times, but I still haven’t come close to exhausting the photographic potential of the place. On this evening I knew that I wanted to be ready to photograph the golden hour light, but I was also interested in the smaller groups of trees that grow among the granite boulders and I wanted to see what might develop as alpenglow struck the glacial slopes above the lake.

There is a small, fun twist to the story of this visit. I took a semi-cross-country route to the upper lake from my camp at the lower lake, and because I knew that I’d be returning alone in deep twilight or after dark, on the hike up I was concentrating intensely on fixing a series of landmarks in my mind for the return hike. I was so single-minded about this that I made it all the way to the lake and my first intended subject (a small shoreline tree) without looking around much. It was only a moment after arriving that I got out of focus-on-the-route mode and looked around. I had walked right past the campsite of a couple of photographers without even seeing them, much less saying “hi.” Turns out that the photographers were John Sexton and Anne Larsen. After exchanging greetings and conversation, I went about my business of shooting along the edge of the lake. (If I recall correctly, John was shooting nearby as I made this exposure.)

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

Blue and Green Receptacles, Yerba Buena Gardens

July 21, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Blue and green waste receptacles next to a glass wall at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco.

I’m tempted to not say much about this photograph, beyond the basics of where and when and what. The “where” is along the wall of the performing arts center at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center. The when is on a morning with high fog that produced some nice, diffused light. The “what” is, well, a couple of trash cans in front of a large window, behind which there are a couple of other trash cans in the same color scheme, a drinking fountain, and some yellow walls. Profound, no? :-)

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Two Gulls, Ocean and Horizon

July 20, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two sea gulls glide along the top of coastal bluffs above the Pacific Ocean north of Santa Cruz, California.

Since I’ve related the basic story previously – more than once – I’ll keep it short this time. Since I live within an hour or less of the California coast, I head over that way frequently to photograph. Among my favorite subjects are the pelicans that travel up and down (but mostly, for some inexplicable reason up) the coast, riding the updrafts along the tops of coastal bluffs. I had some free time on this day, so I headed over with photographing the birds as one of my possible goals.

When I got to this familiar spot, there were no pelicans. (Eventually a few did fly past, but this was not a good day for pelicans.) Before moving on to other subjects I thought I’d at least stay here a while and practice the skills involved in photographing these birds in flight since even though there were no pelicans, there were plenty of other obliging birds. Most of the time it is difficult to get two gulls in the frame once they get close and start to fly past, but these two hung close enough together to be in the same frame, and their low trajectory placed them right in front of the deep blue water, with the fog-softened horizon near the top of the frame.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.