Tag Archives: walk

Child In The Street

Child In The Street
A toddler walks in the street in front of arches, Vienna

Child In The Street. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A toddler walks in the street in front of arches, Vienna

There are probably multiple ways to think about this photograph. It is, obviously, a photograph of a small child in a roadway. Is the child actually alone? Why is he/she in the street? Why did I make a photograph rather than running to protect the child? I’m not going to answer those questions here — partly because I think it is better to let the viewer wonder, and partly because there is no scandal in any of the actual answers. But questions remain? What IS this child doing? What, if anything, does this mean?

On a practical note, this is an example of the sort of photograph that would be pretty much impossible to make using the equipment or techniques of my landscape and similar photography. A scene like this happens instantaneously, usually with little or no warning, and it is gone almost as soon as you see it. For this sort of thing I work with a small handheld camera with a prime lens, which lets me respond to such scenes almost without taking (much) time for conscious thought.


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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Pedestrian, Old Buildings

Pedestrian, Old Buildings
A pedestrian walks past a Paris wall full of interesting shapes

Pedestrian, Old Buildings. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pedestrian walks past a Paris wall full of interesting shapes

Folks like this fellow are often subjects in my street photography. I frequently located an interesting group of buildings or similar, and then I wait for a person to populate the scene. Fortunately, this fellow came by pretty quickly after I had worked out my composition and so forth.

The person is interesting and provides a central focus. However, I feel like the photograph is actually more about the architecture than the person. The person does give the image a focus, but I was more interested in the almost-cubist forms of the wall here. The colors are all rather muted, though the dynamic range is quite large.


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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Walking Woman, Intersection

Walking Woman, Intersection
A woman walks past the intersection of two narrow streets in Le Marais, Paris

Walking Woman, Intersection. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman walks past the intersection of two narrow streets in Le Marais, Paris

This photograph has many of the features that I often look for in street photography. There is a figure, and the figure is in motion, quickly transiting the scene and providing only a very brief interval to make a photograph. In this case there is only one figure, and by some miracle other people aren’t “cluttering” the composition. The buildings are tall and the streets are narrow, so all of the light is reflected down from above, bouncing back and forth between the buildings to produce a soft effect. (The closest thing to this may be the canyon light of America’s Southwest.) There are interesting little architectural touches that may not be obvious until you spend a bit of time with the image — the lamp at upper left, a bit of graffiti on a wall, etc.

I made the photograph in the Le Marais section of Paris, where older buildings and their narrow streets are preserved — they were not knocked down during earlier modernization projects in the city. It is also an area that is (largely) devoid of big commercial signs like those found on bigger and busier streets. There are signs, but they are often quiet and unobtrusive.


See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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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Courtyard at the Louvre, Evening

Courtyard at the Louvre, Evening
In the evening a shadowy figure walks across the courtyard in front of the Louvre.

Courtyard at the Louvre, Evening. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

In the evening a shadowy figure walks across the courtyard in front of the Louvre.

Close to the end of our time in Paris this past summer we had a magical evening. As I recall, we had no particular plan at this point, but it was a warm late afternoon so we decided to walk. We headed towards the Seine and crossed at Pont Neuf right at sunset. There were thousands of people everywhere — walking, looking at the view, sitting along the river bank, dancing along the walkways, making music, riding bicycles, you name it.

Eventually, shortly after the actual time of sunset, we walked across a bridge and entered the courtyard of the Louvre. Still there were people everywhere, though things seemed to be slowing down — more of them were standing or sitting, watching the sky. I wandered into this courtyard at twilight, just after the lights on the building had come on, and I paused to make a few handheld photographs of the scene. In this one, a blurry figure seems to be exiting the scene to the right.


See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Facebook |
Email


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