Tag Archives: worn

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Weathered Wall, Covered Window and Can, Fremont District

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Weathered Wall, Covered Window and Can, Fremont District - A can is stuck in the grate covering an alley window on a badly weathered and stained wall, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington
A can is stuck in the grate covering an alley window on a badly weathered and stained wall, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington

Weathered Wall, Covered Window and Can, Fremont District. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A can is stuck in the grate covering an alley window on a badly weathered and stained wall, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington.

This is also a photograph in the series I made during the hour that I had to shoot along with the Seattle Photowalk folks in early May, when they met up to photograph in the Fremont district of Seattle. I took a one-hour hour “mini-vacation” from the other business that had brought me to Seattle, grabbed a camera, and wandered about making photographs for sixty minutes.

Aside from some technical stuff (e.g. shooting handheld rather than with a tripod, perhaps shooting with just a prime or two rather than zooms, etc.), the secret is that I approach street photography in ways that are not all that different from how I approach nature or landscape photography. In both cases, I may photograph both the larger scene and smaller subjects contained within it. In both cases, I tend to “prowl” for images, even though I do begin with certain ideas of what I might look for and what I might find. Also in both, I think I begin by trying to find things that interest me first, and only then thinking about how to make photographs of them. Here I had seen a skinny little side alley. At first I didn’t see anything in it that was an obvious photographic subject, but for some reason I still wandered into in and just looked about. The first thing that I “saw” was the old wall with its odd patterns, perhaps the result of rain or of previous poorly-done paint jobs. The texture intrigued me, but I wasn’t seeing a photograph of that alone, so I kept looking. It didn’t take long to notice some things placed on or within the wall – some pipes (that’s another photograph) and this odd window, blocked with what looks like a piece of wood and with an old can jammed into the security grill. I made a few photographs and moved on.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Door Knob, Green Wall, and Grass

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Door Knob, Green Wall, and Grass - A worn green wall with doorknob, grass along the street, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington
A worn green wall with doorknob, grass along the street, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington

Door Knob, Green Wall, and Grass. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A worn green wall with doorknob, grass along the street, Fremont District, Seattle, Washington.

I made this photograph on my one-hour “Seattle PhotoWalk” in the Fremont District back in early May. A group of Seattle photographs was getting together to photograph between here and the Gas Works Park in the late afternoon and evening, and it turned out that I was in the Seattle area and able to pry open a bit of time in my schedule to meet up with them and explore the interesting photographic opportunities in the Fremont area.

We started in what I suppose must be “downtown Fremont,” right beneath the statue of Lenin. Yes, a statue of Lenin. It is a long story – but the short version, as I understand it, involves a post-Glasnost trip to the junk yard (in Poland) for the statue, its discover there by someone from Seattle who thought it had historical significance, its transport to the US, and then setting it up in Fremont for lack of a better place. Or something like that. (Google Fremont Lenin statue for more.) In any case, from the meet up at the statue we commenced our “photo walk,” and first explored the immediate surroundings. A lot of the buildings right there seem pretty old and a bit worn – though they have also been modified and updated in interesting and sometimes idiosyncratic ways. Take this bright green wall and door, for example! I was struck by the juxtaposition of the garish green paint and the natural green of the grasses that had sprung up at the base of the wall.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Industry Noir

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Industry Noir - A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.
A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Industry Noir. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Given some of the other iconic and impressive things that may be photographed at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, this is sort of a normal looking scene. However, as one who has photographed there quite a bit at night, somehow it seems to capture – for me, anyway – something about the way the place feels. Wandering about among very old, very abandoned, and very dilapidated old structures in the quiet of the night, sometimes things can feel just a bit strange, and a glow from inside a window on the second story of a building or the reflection of a soft interior light can sort of make you wonder just a bit.

To be honest, I’m rarely scared or nervous when shooting there. For the most part the experience is a very quiet, slow, and contemplative one. But I recall one night that was a bit different. I had arrived early – before the sun set – and had met up with a group of fellow night photographers. They had some plans to shoot in a particular area, but I really wanted to shoot something else at first. So I told them to go ahead and start and that I would find them a bit later after shooting my first subject. Finishing with that work a half hour or so later I headed off in the direction they had gone, stopping to make more photographs along the way. But I never saw them again. I continued shooting along, wandering along deserted old streets and up alleys behind abandoned buildings. Finally at one point I suddenly became aware of being very alone in a very dark place and, for the first and only time at MINSY, I became nervous – and quickly packed up, returned to my car, and left. This photograph reminds me of that just a bit…

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District

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Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District - Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington
Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington

Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District. Seattle, Washington. May 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington.

This was one of the first photographs I made on my early May visit to the Fremont district of Seattle with a group on a “Seattle Photowalk” between Fremont and the Gas Works Park. Although they were going to make an evening of it, I was only able to join them for about an hour – but it turned out to be a productive hour as I came back with nearly a dozen photographs that I like.

Once I got in the spirit of the place, I found the visual opportunities in Fremont to be quite interesting. There is a lot of the expected urban funkiness, with old buildings, small business crammed in odd corners, old structures, a waterfront, bridges overhead, and a few truly odd features such as the Lenin statue where the group met up. It is the sort of place I might initially look at and wonder what I’m going to shoot, only to discover ten minutes later that there almost more potential subjects than I know what to do with. This section of a brown wall was one of my first subjects. Initially the interesting pattern of crisscrossing conduit and pipes caught my attention, but when I looked closer I noticed the remnants of what might have been a small collection of paper figures glued to the wall.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.