Tag Archives: urban

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Lamp and Open Window

January 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street lamp and two windows on a building wall along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

I saw these interesting lamps on my first day walking around in Salzburg but didn’t think much more about them until later. They were attached to walls by what look like curved rods of iron, and were not like anything that I’m familiar with. Later, when visiting a location near but not in Salzburg, I saw the same lamps on other buildings. Now, seeing a pattern, I started looking for them, and they popped up in lots of different places in and around Salzburg.

This wall belongs to what I presume is a home or apartment along a narrow street not far from central Salzburg. In the afternoon we walked away from the busy old central city and headed toward a nearby area where we had parked, and as we did we passed through a number of these old, narrow streets. In places, the afternoon light was almost parallel to the streets, and here it glances across the rough surface of the wall, hitting one window and casting a shadow on the open upper window.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New York City

Winter Trees, Central Park

December 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low-angle late afternoon sun on winter trees casts shadows across Central Park lawns, New York City

For this photographer, New York provides a much wilder landscape than anything in the Sierra – though here “wild” may have a slightly different meaning. I like New York a lot, and I find the pace and density energizing, at least for a while. Most of the time, it provides an almost completely different sort of shooting for me (with only some of my San Francisco photographs being a bit similar in concept). I shoot entirely handheld, with a small camera, and almost entirely with a single prime lens. (Contrary to what you’ll here, a reason for shooting with the prime is that it requires less thought, since there are fewer options to consider, thus allowing me to work a lot faster.) I make many photographs, the great majority of which are not wonderful and which will never been seen by anyone else. But every so often something happens in front of the camera that is worth the search.

But this is not that kind of photograph. It was shot handheld and using that very same prime lens, but it is a landscape. On this afternoon in Central Park the winter sun was low in the sky, and beautiful light filtered through hazy sky. There were thousands of people out in the park, having a different sort of “outdoor experience” than I’m used to – not a solitary sort of thing at all. There was the usual assortment of pedicab and carriage rides, food stands, people walking dogs, bike riders and runners… and always beyond the winter-bare trees the skyline of tall buildings. In this corner of the park I found a place to point my camera towards some trees and into the low afternoon sun.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Downtown Storefronts

December 19, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A row of downtown bars and restaurants, Seattle, Washington

This is another Seattle photograph, shot quickly in street style while walking around portions of the city and exploring. It is hard for me to put my finger on precisely what it is that appeals to me about subjects like this, but let me make an attempt. My first impression of such a location, especially in the daytime when everything is more clearly seen and fewer people are around, is that a lot of it is simply run down and even drab – weathered bricks, worn and peeling paint, construction that isn’t quite square. This patina of age and use is itself interesting, and somehow a photograph of it (or the act of making a photograph of it) helps me see it for what it is and for what else I might otherwise not see.

On the large scale, there are patterns that appeal to me – and, yes, patterns are part of my way of seeing. The scene is divided into successively smaller and smaller rectangular shapes for the most part, ranging from the largest one formed by the green facade to the very small ones formed by things like the spaces between the bars of a gate. Superimposed on this are things that don’t fit the geometric grid – the car (which also seems a bit out of context with the old buildings), the roughly triangular shapes of umbrellas, and many other odd little bits and pieces. In fact, if you like this sort of thing, seeing those “bits and pieces” might make the photo become a bit more than what it first seems to be: the figure of a red and white chef statue in the window at far right above some sort of bright green carts, the tree bright blue flower pots and a pink watering can on a ledge, the bright colors near the “Il Chiosco” sign, one door that has been varnished rather than painted the same drab colors as everything else, etc.

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Salzburg Cafe

December 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People sit at an outdoor cafe on a sidewalk along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

This is sort of a photograph of nowhere in particular in Salzburg, Austria. A ways off from the busy downtown area around the touristy shops and other old buildings, things seem to quiet down a lot. There are few or no cars on many of this very narrow streets – barely wide enough for a single car anyway, and the tightly packed multistory buildings create a sort of canyon effect. There do not appear to be any gardens here, and every plant I recall seeing on most of these streets was growing in a pot. The buildings are not all the same color, but they do all seem to be pastel shades.

As we walked in this area we came to a t-intersection, with this little cafe occupying the middle of the upper bar of the “t.” I photographed it straight on from the other street on the intersection. I was fascinated by the almost complete lack of “branding” on this business – it was only by looking very closely at the photograph that I could make out a name for the place. The most obvious sign simply says “cafe & restaurant.” I was also interested to see that the seating, of which there must not be enough inside the building, not only spilled onto and across the narrow sidewalk, but extended right into the street, where its boundaries were defined by the large potted plants! A couple sits in the green chairs on the right with a very young child. They seem to perhaps be the grandparents – and grandpa is catching a smoke while grandma tends to the child. The colors in the seating area contrast with the pale, pastel colors of the buildings (and the matching umbrellas), and include a green that is brighter than that of the plants and lemon yellow back near where two men talk on the right.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: urban

Street Lamp and Open Window

Winter Trees, Central Park

Downtown Storefronts

Salzburg Cafe

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