Tag Archives: urban

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Garden Wall Arches

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Garden Wall Arches
A texture wall with archest next to a small garden, Balboa Park.

Garden Wall Arches. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A texture wall with archest next to a small garden, Balboa Park.

This photograph comes from a set that I made during a visit to the San Diego area back in 2013. We were in the Los Angeles Basin, and decided to head south for a short visit. We ended up spending time at the city’s Balboa Park, one of the most impressive city park sites I’ve seen.

At times we simply strolled around the grounds, without any particular immediate agenda. This gave me plenty of opportunities to play with photographic ideas that just cropped up — nothing iconic, and often more about shape and texture and color, as in this photograph of a section of arches in a wall above a garden and colored with both warm and cool tones of light.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Urban/Street

Dog, Pot, and Shoe

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Dog, Pot, and Shoe
A small scene at a reflecting pool.

Dog, Pot, and Shoe. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small scene at a reflecting pool.

Yes, you can check for yourself. There is a dog. And a shoe. And in the distance a large pot. Image the photograph in San Diego a few years ago. Oddly, I don’t remember making it now.

Recently I was pondering various odd ideas that people hold about photography. Among them is the idea that Real Photographers™ always know before they activate the shutter exactly what the final photograph is look like, that they are utterly certain that is will work perfectly, and that every photograph is made this way. That is, of course, utter nonsense. The truth is that for every decent photograph there are many less successful attempts and often quite a few failures. It is also true that in most arts creativity involves a certain amount of “play” — of trying things to see how they work. Creativity is (and this seems so obvious that I’m almost embarrassed to write it) also an iterative process, where the first attempt is almost never the best one, and good ideas often start out rather weakly. (I make no promises, however, about the future of photographs of dogs, pots, and shoes.)

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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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.

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Sleeveless the Magician

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Sleeveless the Magician
A crowd assembled to watch a performance by Sleeveless the Magician at San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Sleeveless the Magician. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A crowd assembled to watch a performance by Sleeveless the Magician at San Diego’s Balboa Park.

This photograph comes from a visit to San Diego a few years ago. We ended up spending a good part of a day wandering around the city’s big Balboa Park along with huge crowds of other people enjoying the early spring Southern California sunshine. I recall that on this day I had left my big camera behind and instead was traveling light, using a very small camera and a couple of little primes, and having fun shooting street photographer style.

A big crowd had assembled along a wide passageway where a street magician was performing, doing tricks that seemed largely designed to appeal to children. I stood at the back of the crowd and made a few photographs. Rediscovering this photograph recently reminded me how much I miss the experience of being in huge, busy crowds in places like this. Yes, I like being alone in quiet places, but I miss busy parks, crowded restaurants, concerts, even airline travel. I’m looking forward to seeing life return to something resembling normal in 2021.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Dark Street

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Doorway, Dark Street
“Doorway, Dark Street” Light from inside a darkened building escapes through a door, casing a pattern on a dark industrial street.

This photograph comes from a San Francisco Bay Area location where I’ve been doing night photography for over 15 years. It is a place with striking visual icons including huge ship yard cranes, old buildings, and (until its removal a few years ago) a gigantic “smoke stack” towering above a power plant. Over the years I became less interested in re-photographing those things, and I began to spend more time searching out subjects that I had overlooked, scenes that are quieter and more contemplative than those icons.

I “discovered” this photograph during my pandemic-era return to old photographs that I had not looked at for years. This one exemplifies several things I’ve observed about the process of reviewing photographs shortly after making them. I usually have a few images in mind that I know will be promising, and I begin with those. As I work on the archive I invariably discover that others are more worthy than I initially expected, and this process of uncovering unexpectedly interesting photographs continues… until I am distracted by the next project, at which point I often move on and leave some interesting work behind. In this case, the “moving on” process was hastened a bit because one of my favorite night photographs came from this same evening, and I think that made me feel like I was done with that night’s work. But I wasn’t.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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