Tag Archives: wall

Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrians, Le Marais

May 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Le Marais, where we ended up almost by accident as we searched for a photography museum in Paris, turned out to be a wonderful place to make photographs. The old streets are narrow, predating the more recent modernization of many parts of Paris, and the buildings are often old. Most people are on foot, and there are wonderful back drops for photographing them everywhere.

The person in the colorful clothing, paused against the textured and weathered wall for a cellphone check, first caught my attention. I did make another photograph in which this person is the only figure, set off against a very large expanse of wall. But when I have the chance I often like to try more than one interpretation of a subject, so I framed a vertical composition and waited for other passers-by to walk through the frame, trying to catch them in interesting juxtapositions and poses.

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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: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Exposition Le Bikini

May 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Surprising juxtaposition of signs posted on a wall in Le Marais, Paris

Street posters on urban walls can be interesting in a variety of ways. Often the colors are wildly juxtaposed, ranging from retro monochromatic looks to posters that go for very bright colors of paper, illustration, and text in an attempt to stand out from the other posters. They are not designed to last, and they often weather in interesting ways, with rips and runs and flaps and gouges. Interesting juxtapositions develop as the old layers are covered by the new and, over time, the new may fall off and reveal even older material.

These “Exposition Le Bikini” posters, in various sizes, were all over this part of Paris — we were walking through Le Marais. They may show up in some of my other street photographs from this visit, though not as central elements as in this one. I found the juxtaposition of “bikini” posters with posters for what I presume is a performance of very old Russian sacred music to be mildly jarring!

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Fall Color, River Canyon

March 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees and other fall color along the bottom of a river canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

I made this photograph a few years back on a beautiful autumn day when a small group of friends walked down a river canyon, exploring and photographing the river, the vegetation, and the rocky walls. Direct sunlight does not reach the bottom of these canyons most of the time, especially during the times of the year when the sun’s path is lower in the sky and the daylight hours are shorter. Instead, the light strikes the upper walls, bouncing back and forth, diffusing and picking up the color of rocks and fall leaves as it makes its way downwards. If you look, you can see it in this photograph — in the glow on the canyon wall, the saturated colors of the leaves, and the light making its way into shadows.

Such canyons are wonderful places to go if you want to be cut off from the rest of the world. The landscape above the canyons is often relatively bare, perhaps dry and flat with occasional junipers. But none of that flat land world is visible once you are down in the canyon, where cottonwoods and brush spring up along the creek and every bend promises something new an interesting.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cliff Detail

February 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A section of a Yosemite Valley cliff

I was in Yosemite Valley for the weekend, initially for the opening reception for the Yosemite Renaissance 32 exhibit in the Yosemite Museum Gallery next to the Visitor Center. Friday was all about the exhibit — the wonderful reception and then afterwards with my many friends among the artists in the show and others artists who have a connection to the event. This was also the seasonal peak of the annual Horsetail Fall excitement, a phenomenon that brings hordes of people to a couple of small areas… but consequently brings a degree of solitude and quiet to many other parts of the Valley.

In any case, my visit was also an excuse for photography. On my last morning there I was up an out in the 17 degree chill before sunrise. I headed to a nearby clear area from which I had an unobstructed view of some of the mighty cliffs. As I photographed I alternated between subjects that were typical landscape material — trees on ledges, morning light slanting across granite, snow and ice — and more abstract images focusing a sort of disembodied landscape and isolation striking bits of pattern and color high on the cliff walls.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wall

Pedestrians, Le Marais

Exposition Le Bikini

Fall Color, River Canyon

Cliff Detail

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