Tag Archives: town

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Schoolhouse Ruins, Rhyolite

October 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning sunlight shine through the window frames of the ruins of the abandoned schoolhouse in the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada, near Death Valley National Park.

The ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada is located just east of the boundary of Death Valley National Park, along the edge of the Amargosa Valley, and not far from Beatty, Nevada, which itself is close to the Nevada Test Site. Put all of that together and you have the potential for a bit of a spooky place!

Rhyolite was a short-lived mining town in the early 1900s, when it apparently was home to thousands of people who streamed to this forsaken landscape to find silver. The town was eventually abandoned – although some mining still takes place in the area – but a good number of the larger buildings are still there, in various states of decay. An old train station that looks pretty fancy is fenced off to keep us out, but you can walk (respectfully and carefully!) among many other old structures including the old school house that is the subject of this photograph.

I’ve been out here a number of times and dawn is my favorite time to photograph here. The light makes it to many of the old ruins very shortly after actual sunrise, and there is a moment of often beautiful light at this time. From Rhyolite the hills inside Death Valley National Park are visible to the west and above the nearer hills you can see Telescope Peak, the highest point in the park at over 11,000′ elevation.

The school (like a few of the other ruins) looks like it must have been a very large and robust structure. Even though the roof and the second floor are gone, almost all of the exterior walls still stand and don’t show any immediate signs of incipient collapse. On this morning I made a series of photographs from just inside one of the “doorways” of the school with a wide-angle lens. I selected and shared a few of them back in 2009, but I recently went back to my original raw files and decided to try this one in black and white.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Chrysler Building and Street Lamp

August 20, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Black and white photograph of the Chrysler Building and a lamp post in New York City.

Yes, we are in New York City. Needless to say, this is a “target rich environment” for street, urban, and architectural photography. This familiar building is the first post from this trip. It is a black and white photograph for a couple of reasons. First, this turns out to be one of those photograph where I like both the color and black and white interpretations. Second, and more practical, I am working from an uncalibrated monitor and can’t be certain what the colors will look like. With that in mind, it seemed like a good idea to post the BW images first!

The Chrysler Building is an easily recognized Manhattan landmark… especially if you saw “Ghostbusters.” We were out for a “first morning in New York walk” on our first full day here, and the area around this nearby building seemed like a decent objective.

(On a practical note: As with the color calibration issue, I’m not in my usual workflow environment while on the road, so don’t be surprised if some things don’t look exactly like they normally do.)

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stairs, Person Walking

July 29, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A person walks past the bottom of a stairway along Stockton Street, San Francisco.

When I posted a color version of this photograph a week or so ago I mentioned that there was also a black and white version – and that I was up in the air about which I prefer. I’m still not certain, though I’m leaning more towards this monochrome version. While there are some aspects of the subtle colorations in the other version that I am hesitant to give up, I think that the angles and forms and masses of dark and light may be more the focus in this version.

Since I told the story on the original post I’ll keep it short here. I was in the Stockton Street area of Chinatown in the morning and had crossed the “bridge” at the termination of a dead end alley that sits above Stockton. There were two stairways down to the street level where Stockton emerges from a short tunnel. As I went down the stairs I thought that the angles and the light in the stairwell looked interesting as forms and was working out a composition or two when the figure walked through the frame and I reacted quickly to make a photo that is quite a bit different from what I was thinking of when I started.

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

Chinatown Alley

July 23, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A nearly deserted Chinatown alley lined with trash cans, San Francisco.

On this mid-July morning as I walked from the Caltrain station to the Bay near North Beach, I passed through parts of San Francisco’s Chinatown district. I was there early enough that many of the shops on the short section of Grant Street that I visited were not open, and after making a few photographs there I headed west to Stockton Street where the real action is happening in the early morning. While I’m definitely the outsider here (most people seem to ignore me, though a few seem a bit amused by this guy with the camera), I enjoy visiting and photographing this area far more than the tourist zone down on Grant.

In the morning the place is intensely busy. Trucks line the street and disgorge boxes and boxes of produce and many people seem to be doing their shopping. Crowds line up at the bus stops, and every grocery store and market seems very busy. I don’t take too many photographs, most often focusing on architecture and colors. As I walked along the busy sidewalk and passed this side alley, several things caught my attention. First, unlike Stockton Street, it was almost deserted – a couple of people were walking down the alley and by the time I framed my photograph only one remained. (You’ll have to look closely.) While my first impression was that this was a dilapidated and messy place, upon further thought and observation it is actually very ordered. Considering the number of people in the area and that the alley is used at least partially for loading in and out of shops, there is actually very little litter. Small ramps have been set up in the gutter in a few places and the receptacles are lined up along the sidewalk. I wonder what the meaning is of the two pieces of cardboard stuck behind the pipes on the red wall at the right?

The light was also conducive to shooting here. On this typical San Francisco summer day – e.g. cold and windy and foggy! – the overcast softened the light and allowed it to fill the shadows and intensify some of the colors.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.