Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Garden Steps

Image July 12, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Steps follow a curving path down an incline at the Portland Japanese Garden.

Although it seems odd to me now, this is one of those photographs that I “left behind” at the time I made it. I no longer recall whether that was a matter of becoming distracted by something else or possibly I wasn’t able to see it correctly at the time. I only came across it again recently while doing my shelter-in-place review of my archives of older raw files. I had actually forgotten about the photograph — or, more accurately, a small series of photographs I made of this subject.

The specific location hardly matters, but it is in the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon. My recollection is that as we walked through this part of the garden and descended these steps I paused very briefly to make a few handheld exposures. There were other photographs from that day that seemed took my attention, and I apparently had too little left for this. But when I came upon it last week, it suddenly seemed like it would work in black and white.

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Waterfall and Pond, Japanese Garden

Image July 11, 2020 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Some years back we used to get to visit Portland, Oregon somewhat regularly when we had family in the area. (Our youngest son lived there for a few years.) Portland is a rather unique place, especially in the central core. I won’t try to explain except to point out that there is a rather unique fusion of cultures in the area. We like the place, though it has been a few years now since our last visit.

Portland seems to me to be a city off gardens. Two wonderful Asian gardens are in the area — the Chinese Garden in an urban setting close to the downtown area, and the Japanese Garden set in more rustic surroundings in the hills. We spent a day in the latter garden, and this photograph of a lush scene of water and vegetation is one of several photographs I made there during this visit.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Detail, Steel Bridge

Image July 10, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This might be the most unimaginatively named steel bridge in the United States — as far as I can tell it is actually called “Steel Bridge.” Which it is. The bridge crosses the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, where its double-deck structure (with a center section that can be raised) carries trains, cars, pedestrians, bicycles, and rapid transit across the water. When we visited we joined the pedestrians, which gave me a chance to look at the structure close up.

Old distressed and weathered structures like this intrigue me, and I know I’m not the only photographer who has this interest. Sometimes I imagine the contrast between some engineer crafting very careful and precise design drawings of the structure and its smaller elements, producing materials that reflect the conceptual perfection of such structures… and the real-world reality the creeps in over the long life of such structures. The latter is visible here in the multiple layers of paint, now marked by stain patterns and split open to reveal rust.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Tree, Red Rock Ledge

Image July 9, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree grows at the apex of a sandstone ledge, Zion National Park.

I recall composing the photograph and making several versions of it as I thought about where to position the tree at the apex of the ledge, a question made a bit complicated by some of the subjects surrounding the main focus and by the need to have the camera pointing upwards rather steeply. Shortly after this visit to Zion National Park I shared one or two early version of the scene, one in portrait and one in landscape orientation, if I recall correctly.

The compositional questions remaining in the back of my mind, however. When I came back to the original files recently I decided to work a bit with a different image from among the original group. As I worked it started to seem that it might be good to try a crop that I had not considered originally, one that took out some extraneous material. (A big part of editing is determining how much you can remove!)