Tag Archives: white

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Wildlife

Room in Abandoned Building, The Embarcadero

May 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The interior of an abandoned waterfront building on the Embarcadero, San Francisco.

This interior is a room in a building located on one of the piers along the Embarcadero on San Francisco’s waterfront. This one is located not far from the South Beach Harbor. It seems to be one of those old structures that was recently adapted for use by companies that had the “look” of being part of the tech boom in the city – perhaps design firms or similar. I have walked past it many times, occasionally photographing the exterior windows and other features, but otherwise not noticing it all that much.

On my last walk past this spot things had changed, to say the least. There were signs along entrances that declared that the pier had been closed, ostensibly for safety reasons, and that no trespassing was allowed. No one seemed to be inside the building, and most of the businesses appeared to have left or been abandoned. Though one set of windows I could see stacks of boxes labelled with intended mail recipients, but that mail wasn’t going anywhere! Near the north end of the building I could see into this sun-filled room, with its tall windows facing the bay and the morning sun. Almost everything was removed from the building, giving it almost the same abandoned feeling that I often experience when shooting at Mare Island. I managed to push my camera up against a window, block reflections from the street behind me with my hand, and make a few perhaps final photographs of this space.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Skeletal Tree and Sandstone Cliff

May 14, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The skeletal remains of a dead tree stand in front of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I don’t recall exactly where I made this photograph. I’m pretty certain that I made it near the start of a walk up the Virgin River in Zion National Park in the afternoon, near the feature known as the Temple of Sinawava. Actually, I’m certain of all of that with the exception of knowing precisely where in the Temple of Sinawava area I made it. I do recall paying special attention to these red rock walls and looking for various subjects that I might combine with them to make photographs.

Speaking of the sandstone walls… on this side of the canyon and at this mid-afternoon time of day, little to no direct light makes it down to the floor of the canyon. So the lower walls are almost entirely in shade. However, the sun most certainly is still striking the upper canyon walls, and the reflected light from the sun-lit areas works like a giant light panel, reflecting softly diffused light down into the canyons and gently warming the colors that would otherwise be quite cool. (In other words, blue.) The diffused light causes even the shaded areas, such as recesses in the rock, to retain some details. And because the light is reflected from and into red sandstone canyon walls, the color of the light only gets warmer, and down in the canyon the color can be quite beautiful.

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

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

May 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph at the very end of spring last year in the Yosemite Sierra Nevada. Last year was a year that began much differently that this year in California. While this is a drought year, the previous season was one of record precipitation, and the high country opened very late. Even when it did open – in this case the Tioga Pass Road opened on the mid-June weekend when I made this photograph – there was still a lot of snow and ice everywhere, and much of the backcountry was still largely inaccessible. This little bit of water cascading over a boulder is a scene that could have been found in any number of places, but this one was found in a seasonal stream that tumbled down a mountainside along the roadway.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph! The colors are, obviously, very subtle, but they are there and they are, I think, important. In fact, when I was working on the image I thought about producing it as a black and white image, tried it out, and was surprised by just how different it looked when the colors were removed. There are some subtle brown/tan tones in the upper part of the boulder, and the water contains a range of subtle but important tones of blue and green.

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

Manzanita Plants in Bloom

May 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.

The manzanita plant and its pink blossoms are ubiquitous in California – and, I imagine, in other places as well. I photographed these on a bit of granite slab in Yosemite National Park in mid-April, just as the (meager, this year) spring snows were melting away and spring growth was starting, at least in this exposed spot that is open to the western sun.

This might qualify as a bit of an “accidental photograph” – a photograph that came about as the result of some combination of finding myself somewhere for some reason, getting distracted by some other thing than what I came for, and then noticing yet another subject while photographing the first distraction! This particular photography day was one of those during which things were “difficult.” I had gone up the Yosemite area for single day, with some ideas about photographing California poppies and redbud in the Merced River Canyon outside the park boundaries. I arrived in that area in the early morning and photographed some blooming redbud plants, but poppies weren’t really an option because they don’t open until they get the brighter sunlight that comes to these parts of the canyon a bit later in the day. So, mid-morning arrived and I sort of felt like I was more or less done for the morning in the canyon, so I drove up into The Valley looking for whatever. I found a bit of “whatever” in the form of some dormant trees along a stretch of the Merced, but then the light went flat, I was tired, and I wasn’t “seeing it” – so I parked the car and took a nap! (This was perhaps necessary given my 3:55 a.m. wakeup time.) A bit later the light was still not inspiring me – hey, it happens. I killed a bit of time by visiting the Yosemite Renaissance show in the Valley, and then driving off to visit another potential subject… that turned out to not work in the light of that particular late afternoon. In case you are starting to think that this sounds like a pretty sad and disappointing story… I’ve learned to be philosophical about it when I run into “blah” conditions or otherwise am just “not seeing it.” I really do understand that the counterpoint to those moments when something astonishingly beautiful happens in the landscape are those other moments when less astonishing things are all that I can find. In any case, after my drive to this other unsuccessful subject, I turned back toward the Valley and as I descended toward Wawona Tunnel I decided to stop at a turn out before the tunnel that provides an impressive view of the Valley. I stopped. The view was impressive… but still not worthy of a photograph. But I looked across the road and saw a possibly interesting little rivulet of melt water running down a crack in a granite slab, so I hoisted my gear and wandered over there to see what I could do with this subject. While photographing this feature, some clouds obscured the sun and made for temporarily poor light so I looked around a bit while waiting for the light to return, spotted thick bunches of manzanita flowers nearby that I had overlooked before, and went over and photographed them in the soft, cloud-filtered light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: white

Room in Abandoned Building, The Embarcadero

Skeletal Tree and Sandstone Cliff

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

Manzanita Plants in Bloom

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