Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwoods and Big Leaf Maples, Gazos Creek

June 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Redwood and big leaf maple forest along Gazos Creek, California.

I recall that on this day I had gone out to photograph along the Pacific coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California, mostly without any specific plan. First I had gone to one of my favorite Highway 1 bluffs to photograph the birds that pass within a few feet of it as they coast along the coastal updrafts. Then I moved north along the coast and discovered a group of kite surfers at one of the beaches, so I stopped and photographed them for a while.

Continuing north I came to a turn off to one of the many small roads that head up into the mountains that lie between the shoreline and the urban areas around San Francisco Bay. I took it and found myself driving along this narrow and twisty road that followed the bottom of a valley holding a small creek. The bottom of the steep and narrow canyon was deeply shaded by thick forest, including some stands of second-growth redwoods. This photograph was made in a nameless section of the valley where there was a spot to pull over and photograph the soft light filtering down through the moss-covered trees.

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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bus Stop, San Francisco

June 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A person sits at a bus stop in downtown San Francisco, California.

I made this photograph a year ago during one of my summer walks through downtown San Francisco. These walks have become a sort of tradition for me during this time of the year – I take the train into The City, arriving very early, and then head out on foot to photograph various areas, most of which I’ve visited a number of times. I prowl for several different sorts of subjects – the early morning light above the waterfront, people, bits of color and shape, and “architectural landscapes.”

Things can evolve very quickly in this urban environment. As I recall, the first thing that caught my attention here was the solitary figure on the bench, obscured by the semi-transparent material around the bus stop shelter, followed by the juxtapositions of yellow colors on its room and the sign across the street. The scene was incredibly busy, with people walking between me that the shelter, cars and buses passing by on the street, and people moving in and out of the frame on the other side of the street. So here, as I often do in such situations, I used what I might call the “compose and wait” approach – I found a composition around the shelter that centered the far widow and red sign in the opening… and then I waited for something interesting to appear in the right parts of the frame and for the distracting elements to disappear. I made perhaps a half-dozen or more exposures. In one, a bus passes through the frame. In another, blurred people appear in the foreground. But in this one, the person in dark clothes walked right in front of the red sign as another person emerged across the street to the left of the shelter, and no other people or vehicles interfered.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wooden Door, Concrete Wall

June 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A wooden door in a concrete wall in an alley along The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

I’ll keep this description short since the photograph was taken in a location and circumstances that I have already described more fully. While walking along the Embarcadero on the waterfront of San Francisco I came across some alleys that had been locked up in the past and this time found them open. So I wandered down the alleys toward the water and discovered some old industrial buildings with worn doorways and walls and decided to make some photographs.

Much of this area is undergoing renovation or else being reclaimed by firms that find the slightly old-fashioned and dilapidated buildings to be picturesque and perhaps a bit trendy. Side by side with modern companies and offices there are remnants of a much different and rougher past.

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

Aurora Bridge, Seattle

June 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tower and steel structures beneath the Aurora Bridge, Seattle, Washington.

In early May I was briefly in Seattle on personal business, and I found myself with a free couple of hours that coincided with a Seattle Photo Walk in the Fremont district – so I left my other business behind, grabbed camera and a couple primes, and headed to the meet-up at the statue of Lenin. Really – it is a long story. ;-)

For those who don’t know, there is a waterfront along the edge of Fremont – the waterway connecting Lake Washington to the Puget Sound by way of the Ballard Locks. North of the water is a more hilly area, and Aurora Avenue crosses from there heading south over the water by way of the Aurora Bridge, which stands high above the water and above Fremont. Almost as soon as I started my “photo walk” in Fremont, I knew that I wanted to wander on over towards the bridge to see what I could find. It turns out that there is a recreational trail that passes alongside and under the bridge, so I walked down that way and made a series of handheld photographs from underneath this impressive structure.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Redwoods and Big Leaf Maples, Gazos Creek

Bus Stop, San Francisco

Wooden Door, Concrete Wall

Aurora Bridge, Seattle

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