Tag Archives: tan

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

Man With Cell Phone, Maroon Wall

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Man With Cell Phone, Maroon Wall
Man With Cell Phone, Maroon Wall

Man With Cell Phone, Maroon Wall. San Francisco, California. March 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man with a cell phone walks along a San Francisco sidewalk past maroon wall.

For the first time, I went out and did street photography with my two sons in San Francisco during the first weekend in March. It was fun, though I’m not used to shooting street (or much else) with other people, and I think my work habits may have a tendency to drive others slightly crazy. (Sons, thanks for putting up with me! :-) When I shoot street and urban subjects I tend to wander about rather slowly, looking at everything, getting distracted while I stop to shoot something, and then heading off in an unpredictable direction when something else catches my attention!

We took BART to the downtown area of the City and wandered up toward Union Square along with the rest of the horde, finally heading out into some less traveled streets where there weren’t quite so many people. We photographed various back streets and then descended through the fringes of the Tenderloin to end up at the Civic Center.

One irony is that while I am fully digital these days – though I did go with the traditional approach and shoot with only a 50mm prime – both of my sons prefer to shoot film now! There is no explaining some things! :-)

When I shoot street I tend to approach it somewhat as a landscape photographer, first looking for interesting light, patterns, colors, and so forth. At that point I often square up a composition and then look for the right person or people to walk through the scene, and I try to time the exposure to put the figure in an interesting place in the composition. In this case I think it got quite lucky with the colors of the fellow’s clothing against the maroon wall!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/11, 1/100 second

keywords: man, person, walking, cell, phone, talking, maroon, yellow, tan, arch, circle, patterns, window, reflection, fire, alarm, parking, meter, sidewalk, manhole, cover, design, gate, door, vent, address, hill, slope, san francisco, california, usa, north america, street, urban, downtown, city, stock

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

Painted Bricks and Wall

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Painted Bricks and Wall
Painted Bricks and Wall

Painted Bricks and Wall. San Jose, California. January 12, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Painted bricks and painted-over graffiti on a suburban wall.

Somehow this little bit of painted surface caught my eye while I was out walking with my camera the other day. I follow a general rule of not photographing graffiti, especially the low-class street tagging sort of stuff, but I will photograph the interesting and varied ways that folks cover it up. Somehow it looks like the person who painted out this tag may have been in a bit of a hurry! I also find those painted bricks on the left side interesting and a bit strange.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

keywords: willow, glen, san, jose, california, usa, street, urban, city, structure, winter, stock, painted, green, red, white, gray, blue, tan, patch, over, graffiti, wall, board, screws

Photographs: People, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden

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Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden
Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden

Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden. Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors with umbrellas walk through the Getty Center garden beneath winter trees on a foggy and rainy day.

This is – obviously – a black and white landscape orientation take on the scene in the garden at the Getty museum in Los Angeles that I posted earlier in a portrait orientation color version. The conditions were rainy and foggy – unusual, I presume, for the Getty – as several small groups of visitors carrying umbrellas wandered along the twisting and sometimes angular path through the garden below the main buildings. The light colored umbrellas are an interesting visual feature that you’ll always see when it rains at the Getty, as they loan them to visitors by the hundreds. I’m sure it is no accident that the color of the umbrellas blends well with the color of the facility.

These photos were more or less very quick shots. As I noticed the misty view of the garden the umbrella-carrying people quickly showed up on the path – much to my surprise since I figured that few people would be out there in this murky weather. Fortunately I had a zoom lens on the camera and was able to quickly frame both vertical and horizontal compositions and then shoot fairly quickly as the people passed through the scene and assembled themselves in interesting arrangements.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

keywords: getty, center, art, museum, travel, scenic, los angeles, california, usa, fog, mist, rain, shower, visitor, people, man, woman, person, umbrella, tan, garden, tree, bare, grove, grass, lawn, shrub, plant, sidewalk, walk, trail, path, building, structure, reflection, silhouette, winter, branches, stock

Photographs: People, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street, Southern California

Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden

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Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden
Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden

Umbrellas, Getty Center Garden. Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors walk through the garden on a rainy and foggy afternoon day at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, California.

I’m probably just about the only person who goes to the Getty Center hoping for rain… and who is regards himself as lucky when he gets rain… and fog! :-)

We were in LA during the past week to visit my daughter and our son-in-law, and we decided to stop at the Getty on the start of our return drive to the SF Bay Area. I’m always fascinated by the grounds of the Getty and by the opportunities to photograph people on those grounds, and interesting weather makes this even more appealing. On top of that my daughter had told us about the wonderful Rembrandt exhibit and I was looking forward to the Irving Penn “Small Trades” photographs on display. (It is a great exhibit – see it if you are in the area.)

I often confess that as much as I enjoy the art at the Getty, I enjoy the Getty as architecture and urban landscape just as much. Although few of my Getty photographs appear here, I very much enjoy photographing the forms and lighting of the buildings and the gardens. It was raining lightly when we arrived, and by the time we made it up the hill fog had settled on the ridge. I actually made well over 100 exposures throughout the day. Many were shot quickly as momentary conjunctions of people and light and atmosphere appeared and just as quickly disappeared. I happened to find myself on a walkway overlooking the fogged-in garden just as a couple groups of umbrella-bearing visitors encountered one another near the sharp point of this path.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

keywords: getty, center, art, museum, los angeles, california, usa, path, walk, sidewalk, people, man, woman, umbrella, tan, red, white, trees, silhouette, plant, lawn, grove, step, reflection, fog, mist, cloud, rain, shower, stock