Tag Archives: walk

Night Pedestrians, London

Night Pedestrians, London
Pedestrians walk through an area of shops at night, London

Night Pedestrians, London. London, England. August 2, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians walk through an area of shops at night, London

I made this photograph on a night when we attended a concert, a somewhat atypical one for us. The event was connected to a group that is, if we understood correctly, trying to counteract the negative prospects of Brexit and related social issues in Great Britain and perhaps beyond. It featured an extremely wide variety of performers, ranging from an opera singer accompanied by a small orchestra to jazz and more.

After the concert we left the venue and headed to a tube station. One of my main goals for this visit was to do some night street photography, so I pulled out my camera and looked for potential subjects as we passed through a commercial district with lots of small shops. Not surprisingly, there were tons of people out and about, and when I saw these two buildings I figured it would only be a matter of a short time before someone interesting walked into the frame. I ended up with the central copy walking almost in lockstep, plus a pair of more furtive figures in the shadows near the edges of the frame.


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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Sidewalk Shoppers, Night

Sidewalk Shoppers, Night
Shoppers and tourists walk past Chinatown shops at night, San Francisco

Sidewalk Shoppers, Night. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shoppers and tourists walk past Chinatown shops at night, San Francisco

Allow me to continue to indulge my (relatively) new obsession with handheld night street photography! This is yet another photograph made after dark in San Francisco, in a popular tourist area full of people, shops, and plenty of wildly colorful artificial light. This might look a bit like just a photograph of a crowd, but when I look closer I’m fascinated by the variety of faces and activities and ways of engaging that I see.

It was only perhaps a couple of years ago that I discovered that I can use small handheld mirrorless camera set to high ISO to photograph in the nighttime city environment. In the past this was sometimes marginally possible in very well-lit areas, but most such photography required a tripod and its attendant disruption of the scene — people behave very differently when they see a big camera on a tripod. But now it is quite possible to roam with a very small camera and produce viable photographs that can even be printed rather large.


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.

Grant Avenue Sidewalk Scene, Evening

Grant Avenue Sidewalk Scene, Evening
Crowds of people walking past shops along Grant Avenue on a summer evening, San Francisco

Grant Avenue Sidewalk Scene, Evening. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Crowds of people walking past shops along Grant Avenue on a summer evening, San Francisco

To me, this photograph has a feeling of San Francisco. Yes, it is in a tourist location, but the crowded sidewalk, the diverse group of people, the somewhat old and (lovingly) worn buildings and sidewalk, the narrow street, the clutter… all contribute to the charm of The City.

There are a lot of small things in this complex photograph that I like. The center, though it is subtle, may be the man facing the camera and looking into the light of the store. But there is also the family with two children, one clutching dad’s hand and the other, barely visible, looking into that light. There’s more, but I’ll leave it to viewers to look.


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.

A Purple Mask

A Purple Mask
People gather outside a store at night.

A Purple Mask. San Francisco, California. July 25 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People gather outside a store at night.

A purple mask, eh? You may need to look closely at this small web version of the photograph, but if you do you may see that one of the people in the scene is carrying a furry purple mask. Don’t ask. I didn’t.

I’ll keep the commentary on this one to a minimum since I have already written a few times about the circumstances of such photographs. I made it on a summer afternoon and night walk through sections of downtown San Francisco. Here I was wandering slowly along Grant, the main tourist street of the city’s Chinatown district. By this time at night the crowds had diminished quite a bit, but most shops were still open. With fewer people on the street, there were better opportunities to find compositions that were less cluttered.


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 | FacebookGoogle+ | LinkedIn | Email


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