Tag Archives: wall

Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Urban/Street

Photographer Doug Kaye

November 7, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photographer Doug Kaye prowling a San Francisco alley in late afternoon light

Back in early September I joined up with a group of fellow photographers to explore areas of downtown San Francisco in late afternoon light, followed by dinner, and then a return to the streets to photograph at night. Among the group was photographer Doug Kaye, here seen walking into the light along a narrow San Francisco street, a street lined with a bit of Dr. Seuss architecture with wildly dissonant angles from shadows, fire escape leaders, perspective convergence, and a crazily tilting lamp-post.

Later on this evening we headed back out after dark to photograph areas between roughly upper Chinatown and the Union Square vicinity. Night street photography is rapidly becoming a bit of a passion. Last year on a trip to Manhattan I realized that my little mirrorless camera performs well enough at high ISOs that I can effectively do handheld photography in the urban night environment — and this was a revelation!

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

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

The Crossing

October 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two men wait on the sidewalk for the traffic light to change, San Francisco

Taking a brief break from the stream of photographs of eastern Sierra Nevada fall colors — I think I need to rest my eyes! — I’m next sharing a couple more San Francisco street photography images from early September of this year, when I joined a group of fellow photographers to wander about in some downtown areas. We started in the late afternoon, with the plan of shooting in the sunset and twilight and then continuing right on into the night. This photograph comes from a later hour, shortly before I wrapped up for the evening.

We eventually ended up in San Francisco’s Chinatown district. This is, of course, a popular tourist area during the daytime, but it has a different character in the evening as the shops close up. From here we wandered down to the Union Square area, where there are almost always crowds of shoppers, tourists, and people passing through. At about this point it was time for me to head back to where I started, so I left the group and started back toward my car, stopping occasionally to make a few more photographs. In a way, this photograph is a bit of a lie and a contrivance — though all photographs are such to some extent. Here, in a rather busy area, I spotted the two men along at a corner and by choosing my composition careful (and quickly, this being street photography!) I managed to exclude the rest of the bustling scene and place them against a sort of amorphous form of the back ground building and in front of the geometry of the cross walk.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wall and Shadow

September 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The shadow of a passing person on a bright yellow wall, San Francisco

I had been walking along a busy San Francisco street as I traveled from the Caltrain Station up toward Market Street, photographing people and structures and construction zones. Right near Moscone Center I took a detour up a stairway leading towards the “Zeum” and the area around it.

It was still early morning and the low angle light struck a very brightly painted yellow wall where a staircase led to the upper level. I was working on ways to photograph this color (trickier than it seems!) and the angles of the stairway and the shadows when a person fortuitously walked across behind me and added her shadow to the scene.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Green Door, Brick Wall

August 22, 2015 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Repainted and patched green door in the brick wall of an old San Francisco building

On this mid-August morning I got up early, took the bus to the train and the train to San Francisco, then walked right up into the downtown core of the City. The walk began with among train commuters heading up toward Market Street, past construction zones, freeway interchanges, and lots of traffic. Once at Market Street I turned toward the Bay and walked slowly, stopping frequently to watch and photograph. At the end of Market I turned south and began my walk back to the train station along the Embarcadero.

Eventually I decided to leave the Embarcadero and follow smaller streets to cross back to the Caltrain station. Like so many parts of San Francisco today, this is an area in transition. There are still some gritty old buildings, but things are rapidly evolving in a much more upscale and expensive direction — and for now the gritty and the modern live side by side. But not for long. Given the price of real estate in this area, funky old buildings like the one with this doorway do not have much of a future. I imagine that almost all of them will be knocked down for more condos and townhouses, and those that remain will be cleaned up and gentrified in ways that retain only the stylish chic quality. Two things (at least) caught my attention about this doorway, at least sufficiently to make me stop for a minute and make a few exposures. First is the stark contrast between the pinkish color of the painted bricks and greens of the doorway. Second is the sum effect of paint over graffiti and then painting it over again, which often produces interesting cubist patterns on San Francisco architecture in places like this.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wall

Photographer Doug Kaye

The Crossing

Wall and Shadow

Green Door, Brick Wall

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