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

Urban Geometry

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Urban Geometry
A woman walks past a building with a display under construction.

Urban Geometry. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman walks past a building with a display under construction.

One element of the urban/street world that fascinates me is the juxtaposition of “perfect” structures — geometric patterns, shiny metal, highly designed forms — with the imperfect and always-deteriorating nature of this world — peeling paint, dirty sidewalks, constant construction and reconstruction, accumulated dirt, and so forth. Long ago the fact that urban structures fell short of the theoretical perfection offered in architectural drawings bothered me, but now I find it fascinating.

This is an example of one of those little scenes that always seem to catch my eye. The facade fo this building is, from one perspective, quite boring, even though its patterned wall and metal lights depart from typical (and often rather plain) urban surfaces. But notice some interesting things about it. For example, because the sidewalk and street are inclined, the designer was faced with a question: align the metal form beneath the windows with the sidewalk or align them with one another? And if you align with the sidewalk — as is done here — what do you do about the size of the windows and about their alignment? (The sizes were kept the same, leaving the lower bank out of alignment… but they are “corrected” in the second level!) Beyond that, the contrast with the op-art nature of the under-construction window dressing is fascinating. I waited for a passer-by to enter the scene before making the exposure.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Last Light, Moraine, Trees

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Last Light, Moraine, Trees
The last evening light touches clouds and a rugged ridge above an old moraine and trees growing on a rocky hill

Last Light, Moraine, Trees. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last evening light touches clouds and a rugged ridge above an old moraine and trees growing on a rocky hill.

When the first seasonal California rains arrive in fall — and snow comes to the Sierra Nevada once again — I’m often still working my way through the archive of photographs from the previous season. As I look back at these (mostly) summer photographs on a day like today, with wind and rain here in Northern California — I often pause to consider how different places like this one are now. When you stop to think of it, what those of us who visit the high peaks in the summer think of as “normal” — those sunny, warm, snow-free days — is actually the exception in a range where it is more likely to be cold and snowy during the majority of the year.


I made this photograph on one of those sunny days around the beginning of September — a fascinating time up there, when it is still the warm season, but when the signs that winter is coming are unmistakeable. After a week of almost universally clear skies, on this evening we had glorious clouds, and everyone was out admiring and photographing the sky and the evening light on peaks. That light is obvious here, but other elements of this scene seemed important to me, too. Those trees on the rocky rise are examples of what we find in this high country — small trees often living in little more than cracks in the rock. And beyond the trees but below the sunlit ridge is a gigantic terminal glacial moraine, one of the biggest I’ve seen in this range.

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.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

On The Phone

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On The Phone
A man leans against concrete wall to talk on his phone.

On The Phone. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man leans against concrete wall to talk on his phone.

This area of San Francisco is a favorite of mine when doing street photography. There’s nothing remarkable about the street that would attract most viewers, but several things can give it photographic potential. Oddly, one feature is that there isn’t a lot there, at least not during the daytime, so people are either moving through quickly or else they are sort of hanging out like this fellow. There are also quite a few relatively plane and/or geometric surfaces here, plus the light is mostly soft and indirect.

The photograph is an example of how transient subjects and compositions can be in street photography. I spotted this guy talking on his phone from across the street. It was fairly easy to line up a composition that included him, but various things kept intruding on the scene. Passing cars momentarily blocked part of it, and other people walked through the scene. But after a few seconds of waiting — and a few other frames that intentionally included other passers-by — the stage was empty and I was able to make a photograph when he was the only person in the 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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Central Valley Silo, Detail

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Central Valley Silo, Detail
Close-up view of a California Central Valley silo

Central Valley Silo, Detail. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Close-up view of a California Central Valley silo.

My acquaintance with this location goes back to an important day a number of years ago — the first time I went out to seriously photograph California migratory birds. Earlier that week I had a chance encounter with a colleague in the coffee cart line at my college, and she happened to mention a California Central Valley location where sandhill cranes congregate. It really hadn’t crossed my mind to photograph birds — I was most definitely not the birder type — but based on nothing more than her mention of this place I headed out a few days later… and was entranced by what I found. (My ignorance of birds was impressive at that point. For example, only later did I realize that I had photographed a beautiful flock of tundra swans overhead. I probably thought that they were just more geese!)

On that visit I did something that has become a standard part of my bird photography forays — I photographed other subjects! Heading down a narrow country road through agricultural country I came upon flooded rice (I think!) fields next to a group of silos, and I made a few photographs of the two subjects juxtaposed. This close-up photograph features the same silos I photographed on that first visit to “bird country.”

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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.