Tag Archives: travel

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Winter Light and Cross Walks

February 17, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter backlight illuminates pedestrians and cross walks in Manhattan

People in cross walks seems to be becoming a bit of a theme here. I think that a reason may be that people tend to stay more or less in one place a bit longer while waiting to cross and their paths are more constrained while crossing the street. On top of that, encountering the temporary end of the sidewalk at a street corner does tend to face people into groups, and once the light changes they retain some connection to the group for a moment.

A few other factors appealed to me in this scene, and it wasn’t just the people. The light was wonderful, low winter light coming up the street from Lower Manhattan, and impossible to keep its sources out of the camera’s field of view in this shot. That produced the soft glare of light in front of the buildings on the right and it backlit the figures and case long shadows. Those shadows cross perpendicular to the light-colored lines of the cross walk, with become wider as they get closer to my camera position.

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Equipment

Travel Photography Gear

February 7, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

It can be difficult to figure out what gear will work well for photography while traveling, what kind of camera and what lenses to take. I do a fair amount of travel photography, and I’ll going this use this article to summarize a few approaches that can work. (Article updated April 25, 2026.)

Je Suis Bleu, Paris — “Je Suis Bleu” — Sidewalk, graffiti covered wall, and women (virtual and real) on a Paris street

A starting assumption: There is no one “right” or “best” approach to photography while traveling, and what works for me may be far from ideal for you. I’m hopeful that this article may help you figure out about what fits your approach to travel.

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Photographs: San Francisco

South Beach Harbor, Morning

February 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on South Beach Harbor and buildings of downtown San Francisco

On this late-January morning I was up — you know the drill… “hours before dawn” — to catch a train up the Peninsula to San Francisco for a morning of street photographer and a visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where an extensive show of Walker Evans photography was nearing the end of its run. (At some point I should write a bit about my response to the show. A quick summary: great show, some brilliant work, some work I identify with personally, some work that makes me wonder why it is on the wall.) For these trips I’m usually up around 4:00 AM, giving me a half hour for coffee and a quick breakfast before I walk to catch a bus to the train station, where I catch one of the “baby bullet” express trains that has me in San Francisco an hour later.

The weather was in flux, and when by the time I arrived it was clear that a dome of solid high clouds was over San Francisco. However, as I left the train just before sunrise I was able to see some light on the underside of the clouds that was apparently coming from a gap in the cloud cover across the Bay to the east. I quickly headed over to the nearest shoreline location and ended up at the South Beach Harbor. I found some unusual light here as the sun rise. The light was coming through a narrow gap between the western edge of the cloud shield and the low, East Bay hills. Meanwhile, the clouds over and to the north of San Francisco kept the sky there somewhat dark. As the light hit the shoreline area where I had gone, the foreground boats and buildings and so forth were lit by this lovely filtered light and set off against that darker sky. The conditions did not last long — soon the sun rose above that cloud gap and the light soon became gray and flat.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Central Park, Winter

January 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bare trees and an empty plaza on a cold winter day in Central Park

It was an utterly frigid day in New York City when I made this photograph. This Californian is not really used to such weather, but we gave it a good try, heading out each day on long walks that sometimes lasted many hour despite temperatures around and sometimes lower than 20 degrees. (Some of you are used to that, but a “cold” midday temperature here in near-the-coast Northern California would be in the upper-forties.) Our morning began with an aborted attempt to visit the Guggenheim Museum — we made it there, got in line, stood there gradually getting colder and colder, finally figured out that the line wasn’t actually moving, gave up, and found a warm and cozy place to go eat and drink.

Afterwards we headed out on foot once again, eventually ending up back at Central Park. I’ve been there at different times of the year. In summer there are often many thousands of people in the park — walking, cycling, skating, sitting around, eating, lounging on lawns, and more. There are expansive green lawns and big, leafy trees. In winter those lawns die and the trees lose their leaves. There are people in the park, but only a tiny fraction of the number seen in summer, and most seem to be on their way somewhere else — probably somewhere else warm. But I like the park this time of year. The gray solitude of the place appeals, and the leafless trees permit more of the surrounding urban world to be seen. This little plaza, nearly empty, was along the east side of the park as we gradually worked our way to the lower end of the park.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: travel

Winter Light and Cross Walks

Travel Photography Gear

South Beach Harbor, Morning

Central Park, Winter

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