Tag Archives: windows

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Mirror in Mirror

July 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflecting surfaces of Chicago architecture

This is another of my architectural detail photographs from our summer 2014 visit to Chicago. We decided to cross the continent the old-fashioned, slow way — we took the train from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York City. The first leg was on the venerable California Zephyr to Chicago, and we decided to take a few extra days in Chicago before boarding the Lakeshore Limited (also apparently known as the Late Shore Limited…) to Manhattan. We stayed right in downtown Chicago, just a few blocks from Millennium Park, so there was plenty to see and do. One morning we took the architectural tour up the river, something that I had not done before.

I enjoy Chicago. Part of it appeals to my long-ago midwestern roots, I think. But it is also a cosmopolitan big city with a quality all its own. While the buildings are as huge as those of any other big city, the urban center sprawls in a way that is quite different from, say, New York City or from our familiar San Francisco. It seems like views of the architecture are a bit more opened and varied, and much more light seems to get down to street level. I’ve long been fascinated by close-in photographs of building details, especially when they include windows like these. When I look at them initially I see a big, sturdy building. But looking more closely I see that most of what I’m looking at is not-the-building, but instead is a series of reflections and reflections of reflections in the windows, and the whole structure starts to take on a more insubstantial quality.

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Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Windows, Lamp, Shadow

May 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

In the summer of 2013 we spent three weeks visiting London, Heidelberg, and the Berchtesgaden area of Bavaria. Since we traveled there from Heidelberg by train, we arrived and departed at Salzburg — and since Salzburg was so close we managed to visit that city on other days during our stay. With our musical backgrounds, the first thing we think of when we think of Salzburg is Mozart, since this is his birthplace and the city is still something of a musical center. Of course, once we arrived we realized there is a lot more to the place. (Did someone say “coffee?”)

I love wandering around in virtually any city with a camera, and I did a bit of that sort of wandering here. It was only after photographing in different areas and on different days that I began to recognize these characteristic lamps showing up in many photographs of diverse subjects, at which point they became a bit of a subject for me.

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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: Germany, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shop Windows

May 10, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shop windows and posters along a narrow street in Heidelberg, Germany

During our 2013 visit to Germany we spent a total of about a week in Heidelberg, a city that seems to combine modernity with the old. From what we saw, the main evidence of “the old” is, literally, the old town of Heidelberg. While it is a tourist area, it is also the site of a lot of very old buildings lining narrow streets. We stayed with relatives, and were close enough that a short walk took us over a hill and across the Neckar River to the old section of the town.

I’m not sure I can explain what attracted me to this little building, crowded among other shops along a very narrow street that is mostly used as a walkway. Perhaps there is some unusual combination (as least from the perspective of my American experience) combination of orderliness and a slight edginess, but in a building that is not particularly modern. I decided to crop the image of the front of the shop closely, eliminating much of any context aside from the bit of slightly mossy sidewalk at the bottom of the frame. Everything seems very square and geometrical, though slightly aged and a bit off kilter. Although the windows are filled with posters, perhaps suggesting something of this university town, I notice that the posters are very carefully squared and centered in the windows, and even the clutter inside the building seems organized somehow.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California

Window Shades

April 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I visit the Getty Center (perhaps once or so each year) as much to photograph the architecture as to see the art. The overall effect of the space, on the large and small levels, is stunning. It sits on top of a ridge with long views over the Los Angeles basin and out to see near Santa Monica. The Center sprawls along the top of the ridge, with many levels to the buildings and with an unusual garden below. The details are also fascinating — among other things, rectangular forms are reflected in almost all aspects of the design, yet there are things that are set off at odd angles from this regularity.

I made this photograph in a small interior area, more or less a sort of hallway and stairway with a walkway crossing in front of a wall of windows that are covered by translucent shades. As I looked at it I thought of it as a sort of cubist subject, and I found the colors (the various transparencies and the strips of muted blue sky beyond) and varying decrees of opacity/transparency very interesting.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: windows

Mirror in Mirror

Windows, Lamp, Shadow

Shop Windows

Window Shades

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