Tag Archives: street

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Escalator and Stairs

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Escalator and Stairs
Escalator and Stairs

Escalator and Stairs. San Francisco, California. June 13, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Escalator and stairs at a San Francisco BART station

These BART entrance stations are well-known to San Francisco Bay Area residents. (As are the many stories about them: the wisdom—or not—of outdoor escalators, the necessity of, uh, cleaning them frequently, and more.) They tend to feature a combination of escalators for those going up and stairs for those descending.

I think that they sometimes create a visual center of interest in the cluttered environment of the downtown city. They are ringed by a low metal fence, and this one at least is designed in an attractive curve. (Some other photographs of mine work with that subject.) Looking down from the railings of this fence and tightening the crop enough, I could create a composition of shapes and colors that excluded just about everything but the large vertical shapes broken up by the smaller horizontal shapes, and the contrasting blue and yellow tones. A person begins to enter the frame at the lower right.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Man at Crosswalk

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Man at Crosswalk
Man at Crosswalk

Man at Crosswalk. San Francisco, California. June 13, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man at a crosswalk extends his arms as a bus passes

On Friday the 13th I spent part of my morning walking around and photographing in San Francisco, starting very early at about 7:00 AM, and making a large loop that eventually took me back to the Caltrain station and out of the city before noon. This photograph was a quick shot at a corner along Market Street.

I do this kind of shooting for may reasons, among them being simply that I’m interested in more than just “nature” photography and I am fascinated by the urban landscape, too. (There’s also a deeper philosophical question about just where boundaries between “natural” and “not natural” actually do and do not lie.) When it comes to the process of how I photograph, this work also provides a sometimes-welcome contrast. Most of the work shared here is created by going out with some amount of equipment that typically includes lenses, camera, tripod, and more and then finding more or less static locations from which to shoot. On the other hand, photography like that which I did on this day is more dynamic and fluid. I work with a small handheld camera, carrying only a rather small messenger bag with two more small lenses, and keeping the camera out and ready to shoot in an instant. Sometimes I may work a subject more slowly, but I also sometimes simply raise the camera quickly and almost without conscious thought and make an exposure. In fact, in some situations like this one, that is the only option. There was almost no time to think at all in this case. Without warning I found myself standing behind this fellow who spontaneously put his arms out, in a gesture that is open to many interpretations. The camera was in my hand, I quickly raised it and shot without looking through the viewfinder, making perhaps three quick exposures, one of which included the blurred shape of the bus beyond him, without which this would have been a very different photograph.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Winter Morning, Rising Steam

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Winter Morning, Rising Steam
Winter Morning, Rising Steam

Winter Morning, Rising Steam. New York City. December 31, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds of steam rise into the winter morning sky above Manhattan

It must have been a slow week in Manhattan. When we arrived at our Canal Street hotel on Christmas Eve day, they upgraded us to a better room and put us something like 20 floors up, in a room with huge windows with a view to the east over lower Manhattan. A week later, on the final morning of our visit, we were enjoying this view one last time before checking out and starting the process of heading back to the west coast. (First a few hours in Brooklyn, then a trip to JFK, then a long flight…) It was a cold early morning, not too long after sunrise, and there was a high shield of thin cloud to the east. The sun was coming in under these clouds at a low angle and back-lighting the rising columns of steam all over the city, so we made a few final Manhattan photographs through the window before heading out.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

At the Museum

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At the Museum
At the Museum

At the Museum. New York City. December 29, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Feet, legs, carpet, and a bit of white wall at the museum

Yes. It is at the museum…

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.