Tag Archives: truck

Schnitzel Truck Line

Schnitzel Truck Line
Schnitzel Truck Line

Schnitzel Truck Line. New York City. August 7, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Workers line up at a Manhattan schnitzel truck

I had just stopped nearby to grab a quick coffee and some breakfast, but these downtown workers were apparently already lining up for schnitzel at this mid-morning hour. Food carts and food trucks are ubiquitous in this part of Manhattan, though most are the standard hot dog and pretzel (and more) places. This one offered something a bit different from the usual fare.

The truck itself caught my attention — it isn’t every day that you catch a schnitzel-selling food truck. But there were several other visual elements that seemed interesting to me as well. In a purely visual sense, the complex pattern of the tree shadow on the concrete was striking, almost as if the pattern was part of the sidewalk. (As I shot it I thought about how this “pizza light” might pose similar challenges when photographing in the forest.) The people, obviously, also were intriguing. Except for the second guy in line, who apparently doesn’t want to risk losing his place, each person keeps a rather large distance between himself and the others. The guys at the back of the line busy themselves with their smartphones, and all four of them are visually almost identical, except that one of them is not wearing a pink shirt.

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.

Blue Shirt Pedestrians, Linear Landscape

Blue Shirt Pedestrians, Linear Landscape
Blue Shirt Pedestrians, Linear Landscape

Blue Shirt Pedestrians, Linear Landscape. Seattle, Washington. August 14, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two pedestrians in blue shirts walk past architecture emphasizing vertical and horizontal lines

A photograph like this is a bit hard to explain, but I’ll try. At least a little bit. As is often the case, for some reason this structure – a parking lot – caught my attention. I like the texture of concrete when doing city photography, and this landscape of lines seemed a bit striking, and in fact it got me thinking again about the very linear nature of much of the urban environment. Aside from a few things – the green tree, the red card, and the people – essentially everything in this scene can be regarded as being a sum of horizontals and verticals, from the obvious vertical covering of the garage to the wires, to the street lanes and lane lines, to the sidewalk, and the rows of squares on the background building.

It occurs to me from time to time that there is something very unnatural about this, and it might even be a cause of the disconnect from the environment that can occur in such places. But as (pretty much) always, the constructed world is not perfectly linear. But still, to me, the two people walking along the sidewalk, whose blue attire also caught my attention, look very small and very passive relative to the constructed world they inhabit.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.5

Ice Cream Man in His Truck, New York City

Ice Cream Man in His Truck, New York City
Ice Cream Man in His Truck, New York City

Ice Cream Man in His Truck, New York City. New York, New York. August 19, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A mobile ice-cream vendor parked in his truck at night near Madison Square Garden on 7th Avenue in New York City.

The street vendors are certainly a part of the glorious sensory assault that is Manhattan, at least for this California visitor. They are everywhere, and they range from the generic hotdog/pretzel vendors, through folks who look like they bought a few cases of water and decided to sell them, to some that seem almost gourmet. Two small stories… I didn’t make a photograph, but when we were in lower Manhattan in the financial district we saw a line-up of perhaps a dozen mobile food carts around one small square selling a wide range of foods. While the lines at most of them included a person or two… one stand had a line stretching all the way across the square. Second story – which I’ll tell on myself: One morning we wanted to grab a pretzel. In the process I quickly forgot one of the first rules of buying from these guys, namely settle the price before getting the food. A NYC pretzel ought to cost perhaps a couple bucks, but I managed to double the price by asking for the “goods” first, taking them from the vendor, and only then asking for the price. Let’s just say he gave me the “tourist special price,” and I didn’t feel like enough of a jerk to hand them back to him over the price. :-)

This truck was parked at a corner on 7th Avenue almost across the street from Madison Square Garden, and seemed to be doing a good business during the twilight hour on this evening.

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

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Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco

Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco

Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. May 15, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene at 2nd and King Streets with elements of the San Francisco skyline and Bay and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge – photographed from AT&T Park.

Switching gears away from the natural landscapes I’ve been posting recently, here is an urban landscape. I was at a Giants-Mets game at AT&T Park in San Francisco (I’d rather not discuss the score, OK? ;-) on a beautiful mid-May Friday evening with my wife. While I do like the baseball (especially on those occasions when the Giants actually play well…) I also like all of the other stuff that makes the ballpark experience what it is: the view of San Francisco Bay (especially as the sun sets), ballpark food (but why oh why did they take away my lemon chicken sausages!?) and wandering around looking at the ball park and the crowd. I also like the great views from around the upper deck of the park.

About 15 minutes before sunset I told my (very understanding) wife that I was going to wander off for a while and do some photography as the last light fell on the City and the bay. There are really wonderful views toward downtown (especially if the fog is just starting to come in – which didn’t happen on this evening) and out toward the SF Oakland Bay Bridge and the rest of the bay. This photograph overlooks the intersection of 2nd and King Streets and, beyond, the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands.

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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