Tag Archives: structure

Detail, Tower Bridge

Detail, Tower Bridge
Detail, Tower Bridge

Earlier today we were talking about how it has been too long since we’ve been across the Atlantic — our last trip was back in the summer of 2013. We started in London, spending nearly a full week there, enough time to feel like we were beginning to get past the most obvious things — but not nearly enough time exhaust the possibilities of the place. Making that trip extra special, we managed to meet up with a bunch of family members there, and then continue more or less together as we continued on to Germany for about a another two weeks.

As I like to do in American cities, we wandered a fair amount while we were in London. While I know that planning is very useful when going to a new place and having limited time, I know that I also like to just follow my nose a bit and get out and walk around and see where I end up — in some ways I feel that this may eventually give me a better sense of a place. Not that this location is exactly off the beaten track! In fact, this photograph shows details of one of the best known iconic bridges, with bits of the River Thames visible in the background.


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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Parking Structure

Parking Structure
Parking Structure

Parking Structure. New York City. August 14, 2010. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Parking structure and urban scene near the Highline Park in New York City

When in New York City… visit the Highline Park, as we did on this 2010 summer visit. For those who may not know, the Highline Park is a novel New York location, a park high above the streets that occupies the right of way of an old elevated railway. It is widely regarded as one of the most innovative public spaces in this city, and it really is a remarkable place.

It is also a great place to do photography. There are plenty of people subjects there, and there is all of the other stuff that is worth shooting in New York, plus the elevated perspective provides a lot of views that are different from those seen from street level. We’ve all seen this urban parking structures, which stack cars up several deep in order to make more efficient use of limited space. But we don’t often see them from above, where the metal framing suggests planes that aren’t visible from below but which connect in interesting ways with the angled lines and planes of the other nearby buildings.


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.

Gate Latch and Padlock

Gate Latch and Padlock
Gate Latch and Padlock

Gate Latch and Padlock. Pasadena, California. November 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon sun on a fence with a gate latch and lock

We were in Southern California on a family holiday vacation in late November, and on the day after Thanksgiving we decided to “go do something” other than sitting around and digesting the previous day’s dinner. We planned a get-together with family/friends way up in Pasadena and the Southern Californians suggested the Huntington Library (and gardens and museums), which we had not visited before — so off we went.

We did not know what to expect from this place, but soon realized what a large and diverse and interesting facility it is. There are a number of museums on the huge grounds of the former Huntington estate, a few of which we visited (including one housing an intriguing Caponigro/Davidson exhibit), places to eat and drink, and many gardens — Chinese, Japanese, desert, and more. We walked through the Japanese garden that the start of the beautiful light time of the afternoon, when the late season sun was low in the sky and producing soft, warm light as it shone through trees and bushes on this small gate.


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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.

Low Water, San Luis Reservoir

Low Water, San Luis Reservoir
Low Water, San Luis Reservoir

Low Water, San Luis Reservoir. Central California. November 21, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Low water at the San Luis Reservoir, Autumn

California is currently in the third of three years of historically bad drought conditions. Water is power in the state — and a lot of politics has gone on around the acquisition of water, the use (and misuse) of water, and the construction of water projects. I’ve lived in the state long enough to have been in the valley now filled by this huge reservoir before it was filled. I have a faint memory of traveling across the valley bottom in a car with my dad at the wheel, looking at things that he told me were soon to be submerged — I have a specific recall of a bit of roadway and a bridge. That valley is long gone now, having been filled by the late 1960s.

The reservoir is an unusual one. The water it holds is pumped up into the reservoir from below and stored from year to year, producing some electrical power when the water flows back down from the reservoir to the valley. Essentially, water goes both directions though the dam! At the end of this third drought year the water level is extremely low — as low as I recall seeing it — and some of the huge structures at the dam are well above the water line. This is partly a photograph of those structures, partly a record of a phase in California’s water crisis, and partly a juxtaposition of angles and surfaces and curves, all under beautiful hazy late-autumn California light.


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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.