Tag Archives: travel

Building and Reflections

Buiolding and Reflections
One Front Street in black and white, San Francisco.

Building and Reflections. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One Front Street in black and white, San Francisco.

At this point it is probably no secret that I like photographing urban subjects — not just nature — and that the urban landscape is near the top of my list. I’m fascinated by city subjects, from the bustle of people-filled scenes to the almost abstract possibilities found in modern buildings.

This is an often-photographed San Francisco building that towers above pedestrians in the central downtown area. The parallel curved structures extending skyward capture and reflect light in all sorts of interesting ways. Here the reflections of surrounding structures merge with the forms of the building itself.


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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Waterfall and Pond

Waterfall and Pond
A waterfall empties into a small pool, Portland Japanese Garden.

Waterfall and Pond. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A waterfall empties into a small pool, Portland Japanese Garden.

This is a portrait-orientation photograph of the same subject I recently posted in landscape orientation — a beautiful and quite peaceful scene from the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon.

With some subjects I go ahead and photograph both waits — vertical and horizontal — for several reasons. My first impressions of a subject while I’m on the scene don’t always turn out to be the rest ones, and sometimes I discover later on that a compositional option I had dismissed actually works well. So I recognize that it is possible that a scene that seems to work in landscape mode may turn out to work in portrait mode. On top of that, and thinking in practical terms, sometimes a particular usage of a photograph demands one or the other orientation, and I’d like to be able to offer both options. In this case, the vertical orientation may emphasize the verticality of the waterfall a bit more than the alternative view.


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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

4th Street Bridge

4th Street Bridge
Looking across the Fourth Street Bridge toward the lagoon at the outlet of Mission Creek.

4th Street Bridge. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Looking across the Fourth Street Bridge toward the lagoon at the outlet of Mission Creek.

This photograph comes from one of my frequent — or so they used to be — walks around San Francisco. My practice is to head up there on the train, arriving early in the morning, then exit the train station and go wherever seems interesting. On this morning I walked south on Fourth Street, crossing the outlet of Mission Creek (which is now pretty much a small bay) and continuing on into the China Basin area.

These San Francisco visits are among the things I miss during this time of pandemic and sheltering in place. I can literally walk to a train station and then be in the City in one hour in normal times — but right now I’m not about to voluntarily spend a couple hours on a train. Once we get this thing under control (and I’m convinced we will) a trip back up there is high on my agenda.


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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Garden Steps

Garden Steps
Steps follow a curving path down an incline at the Portland Japanese Garden.

Garden Steps. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Steps follow a curving path down an incline at the Portland Japanese Garden.

Although it seems odd to me now, this is one of those photographs that I “left behind” at the time I made it. I no longer recall whether that was a matter of becoming distracted by something else or possibly I wasn’t able to see it correctly at the time. I only came across it again recently while doing my shelter-in-place review of my archives of older raw files. I had actually forgotten about the photograph — or, more accurately, a small series of photographs I made of this subject.

The specific location hardly matters, but it is in the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon. My recollection is that as we walked through this part of the garden and descended these steps I paused very briefly to make a few handheld exposures. There were other photographs from that day that seemed took my attention, and I apparently had too little left for this. But when I came upon it last week, it suddenly seemed like it would work in black and white.


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.

Blog | About | Flickr | FacebookEmail

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.


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