Tag Archives: wall

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

Old Brick Building and Remnants of the High Line

October 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Remnants of the old right-of-way of the High Line Railway run in front of and old and run-down brick building, New York City.

There is, no doubt, a lot of history in this scene that I’m unaware of – but the visual elements mostly caught my attention as we walked past this spot. On the final morning of our August 2011 visit to New York, we were walking from West Village to Chelsea when we passed this area. My son, who lives in Brooklyn and is obsessed (in the good way!) with walking around lots of areas of New York City and making photographs and noting what he sees, first pointed out the terrace in the lower part of the scene (bounded by the railing) and the steel structure at the lower left. He told me that this was part of the High Line Railroad that used to run through this part of Manhattan. A more famous section of the High Line has become a very popular “elevated park” in Chelsea, but in this area it is pretty much just abandoned and, in places, gone.

I don’t know what the tall and worn-looking brick building is, but I’d sure like to know. My hunch, given the appearance of a former white paint job and the proximity to the railroad tracks, is that it must have been some sort of industrial building at some point.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and Granite Cliffs, Evening Light

September 30, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Evening sun backlights trees ascending granite slopes in front of cliffs, Yosemite National Park.

This is very similar to a photograph I posted very soon after returning from this trip about a week ago – the previous one was a portrait orientation variation on this landscape orientation version. The beautiful conjunction of trees, granite, and evening light occurred along the Tuolumne River in an area not far from where the river leaves is wide and relatively flat and peaceful path through sub-alpine meadows and enters a canyon that gradually becomes steeper and deeper as it leads to the unfortunate obscenity of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. (I visited that location this summer for the first time in many year, and I found it to be the saddest place that I can ever recall visiting in the National Park System.)

But to leave that gloom and doom behind, this portion of the Tuolumne is spectacularly beautiful! Here the river begins to flow quickly and sometimes wildly across granite slabs, sometimes pausing to flow serenely in more level sections. As I was photographing other more intimate subjects above the river I happened to look up and see this beautiful late afternoon back-light shining through the trees that climbed up towards these folded granite ridges, with the haze-obscured vertical cliffs beyond.

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

Fire Escape Ladder, Brick Building

September 22, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

On the final morning of our August (2011) visit to New York City, we took the subway down toward the lower end of the island to meet our son – the plan being to walk though Soho and (I think) the West Village, ending up at a gallery in Chelsea. After taking care of the most pressing bit of initial business – coffee – we wandered on through Soho… and I think this photograph was made there.

New Yorkers undoubtedly know exactly is going on with this light, but for the rest of the world… the morning sun was passing through a relatively narrow gap between buildings to strike this brick wall and partially pick off this green emergency exit zigzagging down the front of this building. In a lot of ways, this isn’t totally different from shooting natural landscapes – go out early, look for interesting subjects, find good light, make photographs. It isn’t totally the same – duh! – either. Not only can you walk here from coffee, but we (my son and I) shot without tripods, and I stuck to a single 50mm prime to keep things simple.

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

Apartment Windows, Brooklyn

September 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two apartment windows look out from an upper story apartment in Brooklyn, New York.

Looking through the curtains of this upper story apartment in Brooklyn, New York, the upper walls and rooftops of surround apartment buildings are visible.

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