Monthly Archives: December 2008

Annual Favorites

2008 Favorites

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(Updated on 1/14/09 to add comments to some of the photographs.)

Since it is the last day of 2008 I guess it is “now or never” if I’m to put together the obligatory “best of the year” list. I thought of doing a “Best 10” or “Best of Each Month” or similar, but I finally gave up and just tossed a whole bunch of links in here, undoubtedly forgetting to include a few other favorites. (A few have 2007 dates – they were published here for the first time in 2008.) Despite the fact that there might seem to be a slight hint of grumbling in that first paragraph – just my sense of humor at work – I look forward to this end-of-the-year ritual every year. It is really great fun going back and reminding myself of what I’ve seen and photographed, and I frequently rediscover an image that I had somehow forgotten or overlooked.

By the way, if this is the first time you have visited my my blog…

Anyway, on to the photographs…

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Community, Site News

Welcome to Visitors from 1001 Noisy Cameras

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Hello and welcome to visitors who arrived here by way of the link in the Discover News Sites and Blogs post at 1001 Noisy Cameras today. (Yes, I did notice the spike in traffic!)

Since many of you are here for the first time, I’ll offer a few words about this blog. It began some years ago as an exercise in in “photographic practice.” With a background in music, I appreciate the importance of and need for regular practice when it comes to developing and maintaining my skills – in photography this includes the ability to see beyond the superficial along with the skills of post processing and much more. So the initial goal of the site was that I would post a new photograph every day. I’ve been doing that for a long time now, so if you return here you’ll continue to see new daily photographs. (An RSS feed is available for this site for those who want to keep up with new post automatically.)

From time to time I also post on a variety of photographic subjects: favorite photographers, shooting locations, my experience with equipment and techniques I use, links to articles and posts by others, and so forth.

Site members can comment on the posts, and I invite you to join the site if you would like to participate in this dialog about photographic issues – there is a site registration link near the top of the page.

Thanks for visiting, and have a great 2009!

Dan

(If you come back later today, I should have my “best of 2008” post on line.)

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Storefronts and Tree, First Street

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Storefronts and Tree, First Street

Storefronts and Tree, First Street. San Jose, California. December 26, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dilapidated storefront and a tree along First Street in San Jose, California.

This is another in a series of photographs that may be a bit troubling for those of you who follow my landscape and nature photography. Try to think of it as “urban landscape” – that’s what I do! :-)

I have my oldest son, Brandon, to thank for this photo and others in this series. He is a big fan of what I call “urban hiking” – long walks in central city urban areas, often industrial in nature. We finally had the opportunity to do a three hour urban hike in the downtown San Jose area just after Christmas, and we both brought our cameras along. Several things caught my eye about this scene: the wild colors of the paint and some of the window decorations on the lower floor, the shape for the tree in front of the building, the wash of light from across the street and behind my position as I shot this, and the regular horizontal patterns of road, curb, sidewalk, windows, moulding, and more windows.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: store, shop, building, windows, doors, reflections, pipe, merchandise, tree, trunk, branch, leaves, street, lane, sidewalk, curb, bricks, tile, store, downtown, urban, street, first, san jose, california, usa, stock