Tag Archives: wet

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Leaves in Rain

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Leaves in Rain
Leaves in rain, Portland, Oregon.

Leaves in Rain. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Leaves in rain, Portland, Oregon.

Californians have been dealing with strange weather patterns for more than a decade now — a five-year drought, a few years of way above average rainfall, and then the current season that has been almost completely rainless up until now. As I write this the pendulum is apparently about the swing the other direction, and the forecasts for my part of the state predict an “atmospheric river” storm later this week that has the potential to bring absurd amounts of rain over the course of a few days. It seems to be feast or famine, though the amount of recent rain famine has been the biggest concern.

While this photograph is evocative of the weather we’re about to have, it comes from a naturally wetter place a few hundred miles to the north, namely Portland, Oregon. On a spring visit a few years back we ended up in one of that cities urban parks on a cloudy and wet day, and as we wandered though gardens I stopped to photograph these leaves.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wet Sidewalk, Shadows

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Wet Sidewalk, Shadows
Shadows and a man walking on a wet sidewalk, San Francisco

Wet Sidewalk, Shadows. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows and a man walking on a wet sidewalk, San Francisco.

Street photographs come about in all sorts of ways. Quite often my approach is to locate an “urban landscape” composition and then wait for people to populate it. Sometimes I photograph without people in the scene at all. On other occasions the person may be the triggering subject, and instead of finding a person to fill the landscape I try to find a landscape to build around the person. In other photographs the primary objects may by colors or geometry. And often it all happens so quickly that there is almost no time to contemplate before making the photograph — do it now or it is gone.

This photograph brings a few of these threads together. It was most certainly one of those “no time to contemplate” photographs. As I walked down this street I realized that the sidewalk held both reflecting water and the angles of shadows. (Every time I see something like this I remember a particular winter photograph I made in New York City a few years back.) Both I and the subject were in motion, walking along this sidewalk in the direction of the Caltrain station, so almost without breaking step I raised the camera and managed to get one frame.

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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Photographs: Netherlands, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Rainy Evening, Amsterdam

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Rainy Evening, Amsterdam
Pedestrians walk along a narrow Amsterdam brick street on a rainy evening

Rainy Evening, Amsterdam. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians walk along a narrow Amsterdam brick street on a rainy evening

This was our first day in Amsterdam, on our first visit to this city. We arrived by train from London, got there in the afternoon, went to our hotel to get settled in, and then it was time to begin our explorations and to get something to eat. Our hotel was just outside of the very busy central area of Amsterdam, so we had to walk a few blocks first before we entered the familiar narrow and curving streets… and for the first time saw the busy crowds, scores of bicycles, and more.

It was a slightly wet evening — no hard rain, but enough to dampen the pavement and create reflections. The darkened, cloudy skies and the late hour limited the light, which always has the nice effect of making illuminated signs a bit more visible, but without blowing them out as can happen at night. Our first impression on entering this area was that we could just walk up the center of the street. That turned out to be sort of true, but there’s more to it than that in Amsterdam. Lots of different types of traffic share these streets — the ubiquitous bicycles, pedestrians, occasional scooters and cars — and it turns out that there are some rules and expectations about who goes where. If you haven’t been there before, I’ll just say, “Watch out for bicycles!”

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Commentary, Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Rain, Fallen Leaves, Reflections

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Rain, Fallen Leaves, Reflections
A pedestrian walks post a small garden in the rain near the Tate Modern, London

Rain, Fallen Leaves, Reflections. London, England. August 2, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pedestrian walks post a small garden in the rain near the Tate Modern, London

It may be a bit hard to see in this small version of the photograph, but the walkway, made dark and reflective by light rain, is covered by a universe of small leaves that have fallen from the row of trees that stretches to the right and out of the frame. I was also attracted by the complementary red and green colors of reflections and leaves.

The location is not far from the end of London’s Millennium Bridge and at the entrance to the Tate Modern, where we went to see a wonderful exhibit of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings. (And, yes, it did seem slightly strange to be visiting the exhibit of this American painter in a British museum.)

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