Tag Archives: street

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Scene From the Urban Jungle

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Scene From the Urban Jungle
A tree in a planter on a Manhattan sidewalk, amidst urban detritus of various sorts.

Scene From the Urban Jungle. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A tree in a planter on a Manhattan sidewalk, amidst urban detritus of various sorts.

This is yet another photograph from my spring visit to New York City. There’s more going on in this photograph than might be immediately apparent. I’ll share a few hints here, but you may want to look a bit deeper, beyond my description, and even consider potential metaphors, not all of which may be immediately obvious. Some of them were not even obvious to me when I made the photograph, and I only saw them later. Yes, I’m being a bit opaque about this. Have fun…

The backstory is pretty simple. I was staying in Manhattan, a few blocks south of Central Park, while visiting my sons and daughters-in-law. My usual plan is to get out for a bit of a walk in the morning before connecting with them, though the constant wet weather interfered a bit with that. But I did head out for a random walk with my camera. I passed this planter before thinking that it might make a photograph, so I backed up and framed a couple of shots, mainly thinking about colors, the petals on the ground, and a few other odd juxtapositions.

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: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Scaffolding Detail, Manhattan

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Scaffolding Detail, Manhattan
Scaffolding supports against a dark wall, Mahnattan.

Scaffolding Detail, Manhattan. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Scaffolding supports against a dark wall, Manhattan.

Some who know me as a “landscape” or “nature” photographer might be surprised to hear that I love photographing in the urban environment, particularly doing street photography and looking for interesting bits a pieces of the city world. Manhattan is among the most fascinating places to photograph — there’s constant action and a density of people and subjects that is rarely equalled.

On the final morning of my recent visit I had time before heading to the airport to do one more quick walk in the area just below Central Park. Among other subjects I found the ever-present construction scaffolding above sidewalks. These structures are ostensibly there to protect pedestrians from overhead work, but one New Yorker explained to me that sometimes they are simply left up since that is easier than paying to stow them!

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Trees, Rain, and Bedrock

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Trees, Rain, and Bedrock
Spring trees and a Manhattan schist bedrock outcropping in Central Park, Manhattan.

Trees, Rain, and Bedrock. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Spring trees and a Manhattan schist bedrock outcropping in Central Park, Manhattan.

This and several other photographs from my end-of-April visit to Manhattan will be interspersed with earlier photographs of the natural world over the next few days. I wrote earlier about my bad luck with New York weather — I went in April hoping for the beautiful spring weather than New Yorkers had told me about, only to have three days of rain! I managed to get out for a walk into the spring-green but very wet reaches of lower Central Park on this morning.

Considering that it is located in the middle of this huge metropolis, Central Park still surprises me with moments of quiet and (near) solitude. There were plenty of people out on this rainy morning, though the crowds were suppressed a bit as I walked up this path through trees and near some of the exposed Manhattan schist bedrock formations that are found throughout the park.

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 | Twitter | 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.

Equipment, Reviews

Moving On: Fujifilm XPro2 to XT5

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The XPro is dead! Long live the XPro! That’s not the main subject of this essay, but based on tea-leaf reading and my own experience with the XT5 I think that’s where we are headed. I’ll get to why I think so near the end of this article.

This article is primarily aimed at Fujifilm users (and potential users) considering the retro XPro design versus the recently released (DSLR-style) mirrorless XT5. It is partly about techie camera stuff, but it is also a story about letting go of preconceptions and adapting to something new.

Since some readers may be unfamiliar with the cameras, here’s a quick summary.

XPro2 — The XPro2 is one of three Fujifilm “XPro” bodies — originally the XPro1 , the subsequent XPro2, and the most recent XPro3. These are rangefinder-style cameras with retro appeal due to their similarity to classic rangefinder film cameras and the inclusion of full manual controls. A key feature is the hybrid viewfinder system combining an old-school optical viewfinder (OVF) and a modern electronic viewfinder (EVF). The XPro2 has a 24MP APS-C sensor, while the newer XPro3 has a 26MP sensor.

XT5 — The XT5 is the most recent (as of this writing) in Fujifilm’s series of XT cameras that combine a small DSLR-like mirrorless body with a full set of manual controls, similar to what is found on the XPro bodies. This new camera uses an updated 40MP sensor — previous models (XT1-4) used 16MP, 24MP, and most recently 26MP sensors.

Fujifilm XT5 (l) and XPro2 (r) with Fujifilm 27mm f/2.8 lenses.
Fujifilm XT5 (l) and XPro2 (r) with Fujifilm 27mm f/2.8 lenses.

Because virtually all models in a generation of Fujifilm cameras use the same sensor, Fujfilm owners are more attentive to other functional differences between them. That is why I’ll focus on those things and say little about the sensor.

Continue reading Moving On: Fujifilm XPro2 to XT5 →