Tag Archives: tracks

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Trains, Hudson Yards

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Trains, Hudson Yards
Trains on tracks leading toward buildings under construction at Hudson Yards

Trains, Hudson Yards. New York City, New York. December 28, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trains on tracks leading toward buildings under construction at Hudson Yards

We seem to have developed a habit of visiting Manhattan at slightly odd times of the year — usually either during the uncomfortably hot summer months or else in the dead of winter. (Between the two, my vote is for winter!) When we are there we spend as much time as possible out walking around, and I’m almost always carrying a camera — this city is an amazing source of opportunities for all kinds of photography.

On the final morning of our trip we took one last walk along the elevated High Line Park since we wanted to walk the new (to us, anyway) northern extension. The park affords wonderful elevated views, which means that there are clearer lines of sight to more distant features and that it is possible to get a kind of aerial view looking down into the closer landscape. Near the end of the park it takes a loop out toward the water to go around the old Hudson Yards, where many train lines converge on the eastern part of Manhattan. Today this is the site of a gigantic construction project, and as I understand it, the yard is going to eventually end up beneath the huge buildings.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman at Crosswalk

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Woman at Crosswalk
A women waits alone at a cross walk for the light to change, San Francisco.

Woman at Crosswalk. San Francisco, California. September 5, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A women waits alone at a crosswalk for the light to change, San Francisco.

One thing that might surprise some folks about my street photograph is that I do not think that it is unrelated to my nature and landscape photography. I think that it all connects together as “photography,” whether the subject is a mountain or a building, a bird or a person. I also believe that photographing more than one type of subject — which some might regard as a dilution of vision — actually makes me better at seeing all kinds of subjects as photographs. Shooting street, where things often happen quite quickly and in the midst of a lot of visual stimuli, forces me to be “on” all the time, to see potential subjects quickly, to recognize things that work instinctively, and to look for juxtapositions. And photographing natural landscape subjects informs the way I see the urban landscape.

One obvious potential thread in urban photograph is the juxtaposition of individual figures against a constructed and sometimes massive and impersonal urban landscape. I often look for these “stages” and then watch for people to appear and populate them. This location can actually be a fairly busy street corner, but here I first found the massive stone building, then waited for the scene to clear with the exception of the solitary woman waiting for the light.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Old Tracks, San Francisco Bay

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Old Tracks, San Francisco Bay
Abandoned railroad tracks on a pier along the shore of San Francisco Bay

Old Tracks, San Francisco Bay. San Francisco, California. May 29, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abandoned railroad tracks on a pier along the shore of San Francisco Bay

I made this photograph of a gray and foggy morning along the San Francisco waterfront, an hour or two before the sunlight began to break through the gloom. I ambled along this area of the waterfront, an area that is rapidly changing as this pressure for growth and upgrading increases here, and I poked my nose into any odd little alley or side-walk that I could find. This one turns out to not be all that obscure, and it even has a relationship to photography.

The old tracks lead out onto the edge of a dilapidated pier. The Bay lies beyond and far in the distance the Oakland shoreline is barely visible.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Penn Station Subway Platform

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Penn Station Subway Platform
Penn Station Subway Platform

Penn Station Subway Platform. New York City. August 15, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Subway tracks and a few people on the platform, Penn Station

There is not a whole lot to say about this photograph, though I might tell a technical secret about it.

The photograph is obviously from the New York Subway system, shot underground with available light at a relatively quiet time between trains while we were waiting for the next one to arrive. I shot this in street photography mode, during a week when I did not once use a tripod or a remote release, and when I shot entirely with a small handheld camera while on foot. I probably don’t have the point out that this photograph could be “about” several things: the small family group sitting on the bench and waiting for their train, the light and colors of the underground station, and the geometry of the structures and tracks.

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.