Tag Archives: wall

Night Photography, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wall, Window, Garden

December 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light shines across a wall with a lighted window

In a way, I would almost prefer to not identify this location, even the city — but since it is my habit to provide some information I will confess that I made the photograph in San Francisco. I joined up with a few of my fellow Studio Nocturne SF photographer to head out into the San Francisco night to do some night photography. We stopped at two locations. This first one is actually a fairly well-known location, but I decided to mostly not photograph the familiar subject but instead wander around and look for other things.

Recently I have been doing a lot of my night photography, especially the part of it done in cities, using a small, handheld camera. I’m essentially able to do street photography in the (near) dark, which means that I can often work quickly and without drawing as much attention as I would with a larger camera and a tripod. This photograph, which seems more like something that would warrant the use of a tripod, was made in this way.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Urban Geometry

August 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A study in shapes, colors, and textures, Manhattan

When I photograph urban/street subjects I am usually looking for quite a range of different things: individual people doing interesting things, masses of people, odd little vignettes, color and line, and sometimes the urban landscape itself. It is, I think, possible to regard the city as a kind of landscape, and even to photograph it in ways that are similar but perhaps not identical to how we photograph the so-called natural landscape.

On this day I was on foot (hiking?) through Manhattan, on my way to meet people, when we passed through the area around Washington Square. The stark and angular architecture of this bit of a building caught my attention, and some of the colors and textures brought to mind a sort of idealized representation of the red rock canyons of the Southwest.

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Two Women, Street Art Vendors

July 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two women at a street art vendor beneath an umbrella, Manhattan

I recently gave a talk on street photography to a local camera club in the South San Francisco Bay Area. It was the first time I’ve done a talk on this subject, so I spent more time that might be typical considering how to present the subject and how to illustrate some of my ideas about it. Since I don’t like to think there is only one way (or a “right way”) to photograph street or any other subject, I decided that part of the talk would involve looking at various ways to approach street subject. These could include street landscapes, street portraiture, people in groups, and much more — and the ways to photograph could range from very fast and spontaneous to as slowly and carefully as with any other subject.

This photograph came from the fast and spontaneous approach — so much so that I later don’t even recall making the photograph! (That is unusual — I typically have some recall of every photograph, and sometimes I remember a whole lot about it.) We were on a walk in Manhattan, likely heading uptown from the Little Italy area, and I had my camera out and in hand and was in a shooting mode in which I work very quickly — see subject, make photograph. I might take no more than a second or two to contemplate a composition, instead working very instinctively. There must have been something about the almost furtive appearance of the two women and something about the art for sale.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Napping Man on Bench

July 10, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man taking a nap on a sunny bench in Manhattan

This is the second of a pair of photographs featuring this red wall near Washington Square in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. If my memory is correct, the building is part of the NYU campus. We were passing that way on a walk in the uptown direction from our hotel, and soon after I made this photograph we spent a good chunk of time enjoying the Sunday morning ambiance of the park, where (no surprise!) lots of stuff was going on: a piano performance, a couple of jazz groups, people exercising, folks reading the Sunday paper, “pigeon man” (a story for later), and much more.

New York City is a pretty warm place this time of year. (I can hear New Yorkers exclaiming, “Duh!” right about now.) Lots of people, including me, and find it enervating, especially when the humidity is high. As it usually is. Looking now at this photograph (which I made almost as much for its geometry, light, and color as for its human subject), I can feel that heat and humidity and relate personally to the urge to simply fall asleep for a moment on such a bench!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wall

Wall, Window, Garden

Urban Geometry

Two Women, Street Art Vendors

Napping Man on Bench

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