Tag Archives: street

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

Blue, White, and Shadow

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Blue, White, and Shadow
A shadow falls across a blue wall and white window.

Blue, White, and Shadow. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A shadow falls across a blue wall and white window.

Today’s photograph comes from yesterday on my (almost) daily neighborhood walk. Since the beginning of the pandemic and its attendant lock-down, we’ve been doing a lot of local walking, going out almost every day for walks ranging from as little as a mile (just got to get in my mile!) and up to perhaps ten times that distance. Yesterday’s walk was one of the shorter ones, and my initial plan was to “just get in my miles,” likely walking no more than about a mile. But one thing led to another and I ended up doing about several times that distance.

The unanticipated extensions of the walk often come in small increments. Arriving at a turning point, instead of taking the most direct route back home I decide to just add a bit more, heading down one more block. Often that leads to another extension, then another, and before I no it the miles add up. One of those unplanned extensions took me past an older building, once a home but now a small business. Something about the blue and white paint, the old, narrow siding, and the shadow draped across the way persuaded me to stop and make a photograph.

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: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Suburban Fence

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Suburban Fence
A weathered fence along an urban trail, San Jose, CA.

Suburban Fence. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A weathered fence along an urban trail, San Jose, CA.

This is another in the occasional series of photographs from the neighborhood, make while on one of my (almost) daily walks. The walks are not primarily about photography, though I always have a camera with me. They are mostly about “stretching my legs” (for perhaps three to eight or more miles) and clearing my mind. Few things allow the mind to wander productively more than walking.

Years ago I discovered that having a camera in hand can alter the way we (or at least I!) see the world around me. Often when I walk I don’t regard the urban landscape with any great focus, but as soon as I think of myself as a photographer and visual opportunist I start to see things that I had not noticed. I distinctly recall a winter walk years ago when I first realized this. I headed out through the same areas that I see every day… and suddenly I saw all kinds of things that I simply had not paid attention to before: the second story of downtown buildings, shadows on walls, old tiles, patterns in the sidewalk, and more. This more recent photograph features a section of fence that I probably pass once or more per week.

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

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

World Headquarters

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World Headquarters
An abandoned building at the location of a future high tech center, San Jose, California.

World Headquarters. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned building at the location of a future high tech center, San Jose, California.

You might have to look a bit past the superficial visual constituents of this image to see the world headquarters, but something close to that is coming to this location. Far enough from where I live that it is a very long walk, a major “tech giant” is beginning a long-term project to create a major urban campus. At this point about all one sees is a whole lot of empty lots and abandoned buildings, structures from a much earlier period in the history of this city — homes, small businesses, warehouses, and more. The plan is that a decade from now this will be some sort of ultra-modern, thriving technology center with access to transit and more. We’ll see.

For now though it can be a bit of a photographic playground if your interest includes old, abandoned places and things. I did not investigate closely enough to know what actually went on in this building, but it has the appearance of a small shop or light industrial facility — perhaps automobile repair, some kind of fabrication, or similar. Beyond these associations with an earlier time in this region, it also has the appeal of a nicely weathered look, and some interesting paint colors. On this day the light also proved interesting. In fact, if you look at this the right way, there are — or at least it seems to me — two structures on the scene. One comes from the square angles of the building itself and the other comes from the oblique and curving lines of light and shadow.

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: Germany, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stolpersteine, Heidelberg

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Stolpersteine, Heidelberg
Sidewalk memorials to the memory of German Jews who were victims the Holocaust.

Stolpersteine, Heidelberg. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sidewalk memorials to the memory of German Jews who were victims the Holocaust.

This photograph has been sitting on my computer for several months now, and I have been debating when and how to post it. It isn’t “the usual thing” for me to post, but there you go. I’m not an expert on the Stolpersteine (wikipedia says “literally ‘stumbling stone,” metaphorically ‘stumbling block’.”) so I’m relying on some material I have found online plus some context provided to me by people I know who live in the areas where they are found. (You can read more about them here, including some of the controversies about their installation.) In front of homes, shops, all kinds of buildings you fine these plates indicating that “Here lived…” a specific person who was deported or killed in the Holocaust, thus de-anonymizing the effects of that horror and tying it closely to places where people seem to live normal lives today.

One reason I have been thinking about the Stolpersteine is that here in the US we have been engaging in a (sometimes absurd) debate about how to best recognize and come to terms with very difficult and awful parts of the history of our great country, in particular the enslavement of Africans and the long and ongoing oppression of people of color. An element of this has been the call to remove monuments to slavers and traitors who fought a war agains this country. The counter cry is “Don’t take our history away.” The history should, of course, remain and be readily visible and available. But glorifying the perpetrators of that history is another matter entirely. It might not be a bad idea to have our own version of the “stumbling stones,” perhaps marking the places where enslaved people were sold, where post-Civil War atrocities took place, 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | 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.