Tag Archives: tourist

Buildings and Sky, San Francisco

Buildings and Sky, San Francisco

Buildings and Sky, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Tall downtown buildings and sky in morning light, San Francisco, California.

These buildings are near the intersection of Market and the Embarcadero not far from the waterfront in downtown San Francisco. The fog had just cleared back a bit from this area and the first real light of the day was striking the forms of these tall buildings and setting them off against the very blue morning sky.

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

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, market, street, embarcadero, business, building, architecture, form, shape, structure, shadow, cloud, sky, bue, reflection, window, wall, column, perspective, metropolitan, travel, angles, light, morning, office, stock

Vertical Forms and Reflections

Vertical forms and reflections

Vertical Forms and Reflections. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Vertical forms of downtown buildings and reflections in windows – San Francisco, California.

On this mid-September morning I wandered up Market Street from the Ferry building just as the fog was beginning to clear back from the waterfront. The light on the downtown buildings was stunning – still relatively low given the early hour, occasionally interrupted by a few lingering clouds, and with a deep blue sky background. Instead of focusing on the street scene – at least for the most part – instead I photographed the angles, colors, and forms of the buildings and the effects of light and reflections on their surfaces.

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

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, vertical, form, structure, architecture, building, skyscraper, glass, column, shape, reflection, glass, mirror, sky, cloud, travel, abstract, perspective, light, blue, market, street, stock, lines, converge

San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light

San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light

San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on a maze of buildings in downtown San Francisco, California.

I’ll interrupt the landscape and nature photography for a bit here to post a series of photographs made on a mid-September morning in San Francisco – one of my periodic (very) early morning Caltrain trips up the Peninsula to the The City to shoot on foot in the downtown area.

On this morning I arrived on the 7:02 a.m. train to find – no surprise! – fog along the San Francisco Bay waterfront. I headed along the Embarcadero past familiar subjects including the South Beach Harbor and the Bay Bridge, then turned up Market Street into the main downtown area. The fog was clearing back from the bay and the light was wonderful – a mixture of foggy gray, early morning blue, and intermittent shadows from clouds near the edge of the clearing fog bank.

There is a huge variety of potential subjects in downtown San Francisco on a weekday morning, but I decided to focus on the almost abstract forms on the buildings in this early light.

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

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, window, wall, reflection, sun, light, shadow, pattern, structure, perspective, busy, complex, skyscraper, urban, light, stock, landscape, archtecture, design

A Somewhat Humorous Yosemite Story

When I’m out photographing I cart around the typical pile of stuff – the big, squarish bag of camera bodies and lenses and accessories, the tripod, the works. And when I photograph in popular places I make it a habit to offer to take photographs of folks with their P&S cameras. You know the scene – the family traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to get to some beautiful place, but one member of the family is missing from every photo since someone has to hold the camera. (The embarrassing thing is that sometimes I don’t understand how to operate these little cameras, but that is a story for another post.)

Put the two together and some surprising and odd conversations can ensue. Last Saturday I was in the Happy Isles area of Yosemite Valley looking for dogwood trees in bloom when I saw a mother about to snap a photo of (I presume) her daughter, so I asked if they would like me to use their camera to take a picture of the two of them together. I put down my bag and left the camera on the tripod and made the photograph. The woman inspected the photo, seemed to approve, then looked at me and my stuff and asked, “Hey, you aren’t Mr. Adams, are you?”

Sometimes it is so hard to avoid saying the wrong thing in reply, but I think I more or less succeeded… ;-)


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.

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