Tag Archives: uk

Photographs: England, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Storey’s Ltd

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Storey's Ltd
The Storey’s Ltd shop, with prints and maps displayed, London

Storey’s Ltd. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Storey’s Ltd shop, with prints and maps displayed, London

If I recall the circumstances correctly, I quite possibly made this photograph on the evening we attended a ballet performance in London. In any case, this scene is in the neighborhood, and my recollection is that we may have been walking a bit before we went into the theater, first for dinner and then the performance.

I’m not absolutely certain of what attracted me to this little shop, one of many booksellers and similar establishments on Cecil Court off of Charring Cross Road. I’m fascinated by what they sell — old books and, especially, old maps — but we did not go inside. However, from in front of the tiny shop we could look in and see the walls covered with all sorts of fascinating documents.

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: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Balthazar, London

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Balthazar, London
Street scene, bakery, bar, and red car

Balthazar, London. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene, bakery, bar, and red car

Here is another photograph in what I sometimes refer to at the “this-will-perplex-fans-of-my-landscape-photography” category. :-) The scene is a busy London street, photographed during a visit last August as we walked though this area. (If memory serves, we may have been on our way to a concert.)

In general, I’m not a fan of photographs that require too much explanation. That being said, I acknowledge that some photographs do require this… so here is a bit of explanation. You could look at this simply as a visual record of a place in the city. In fact, there is a bit of that here, since part of what got my attention was the red “Balthazar” awning above the bakery across the street, and my wonder at the use of the same name for a popular bakery in Manhattan. You can also try looking at the photograph simply as an image constructed of a limited range of colors (one in particular!) and forms, some of which may reveal surprises if you look closely. Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

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: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club

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Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club
A few people stand outside the Colchester Billiards and Snooker Club along a narrow curving street

Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club. Colchester, England. August 4, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few people stand outside the Colchester Billiards and Snooker Club along a narrow curving street

During our lengthy travels (five weeks on the road!) this past summer we spent a bit more than a week in London. While most of our plans were in London, we decided to get out into the country at least once on this trip. So, more or less on a whim, we decided to take the train to the town of Colchester after reading a brief entry about it on some website or similar. (In some ways we are fans of injecting a bit of randomness into our trip planning — we often discover interesting things that way.)

Colchester is a smallish town at more or less the end of a spur railroad line. It obviously attracts a certain number of tourists, perhaps day trippers from London, since it has a number of shops and places to eat and so forth. It also has a few historic structures including a castle (of course!) and a very old church. On the other hand, it also features some mundane things — we saw a lot of hearing aid shops! Up this narrow, curving street I spotted an interesting spot of color in the green building, along with a few people populating the tables in front of the local Billiards and Snooker Club.

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: England, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Utah

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall

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Walking Man, Mirrored Wall
A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall. London, England. August 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Here we have (yet another!) photograph of someone using a smart phone in the urban world, though here there are, I think, a few other elements that got my attention. I’m sure that I was paying attention to the continuous stream of people moving along this sidewalk, and I like to think that some sense of their motion comes through in the photograph. The mirrored wall that contains most of the subjects not only let me capture a “double” of the primary subject, but it also let me bring him forward from the reflected background of all the other people who are only visible in the mirrored image. You might also notice some interesting things related to color.

And there are some surprises. I read somewhere that one of the differences between painting and photography is that while the painter personally puts everything on the canvas (at least mostly) and therefore can know it fully, the photographer cannot possibly know every element of the scene. In fact it is common to only realize that the photograph contains unintentional elements after the fact. One of those is present here — look at the head of the man in his reflected image.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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