Category Archives: Photographs: Architecture

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Consonance and Dissonance

Image Leave a comment
Consonance and Dissonance
Structural elements at the High Line Park, Manhattan

Consonance and Dissonance. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Structural elements at the High Line Park, Manhattan

Taking a cue from the music-related title of this photograph, I suspect you may have noticed that my photographs cover a wide range of subjects. When people ask me “what I photograph,” probably expecting a short answer like “landscapes” or “portraits” or “street,” there can be an awkward moment while I consider how to answer. I don’t photograph just one thing… any more than a composer would choose to write only, say, minuets. There is more than one thing to express, so more than one approach is necessary. If anything, my photographs are about… how I see the world photographically.

I won’t try to explain the entire “consonance and dissonance” connection here, except to point out that these terms have multiple meanings. One basic idea is that something is consonant in music if it “sounds nice” and “dissonant” if it doesn’t. But a more interesting idea relates to something that seems static and “settled” (consonance) versus something that seems restless and striving (dissonance). Taken one step further, the tension created by dissonance often propels us toward consonance… and consonance can resolve that tension.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel

Columns and Shadows

Image Leave a comment
Columns and Shadows
Soft light on columns near Ingreja Da Graca, Lisbon.

Columns and Shadows. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Soft light on columns near Ingreja Da Graca, Lisbon.

This is perhaps not quite a typical Lisbon photograph, and it came about as a result of one of our semi-random walks — something that characterizes our travel. We, wandered downhill to a central square, crossed and began ascending, and eventually turned toward the hill topped by the St. George Castle. We climbed up to it, but decided not to join the tourist throng inside, preferring to wander around the periphery… and that led us to this nearby convent and church. (The full name is longer than what I’ve used here, by the way.)

After wandering through the beautiful church, we walked around the grounds of the convent, a quiet and not-very-busy place that contrasted with what we had experienced earlier in the day. These columns, in lovely soft light, lined a walkway around an inner courtyard.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Hudson Yards Towers

Image Leave a comment
Hudson Yards Towers
A cluster of tall urban towers at the Hudson Yards complex, Manhattan.

Hudson Yards Towers. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A cluster of tall urban towers at the Hudson Yards complex, Manhattan.

There is a phenomenal range of photographic subjects in New York City: the natural scenes in Central Park, street life, and architecture old and new. For reasons relating to the season, our location in Manhattan, and more I ended up making quite a few “natural landscape” images in Central Park. But we did spend time elsewhere, too, including on a long walk that took us through the Hudson Yards development. My feelings about the place are complicated, for reasons I won’t go into here, but it does present some interesting architectural forms, including these buildings with reflecting glass surfaces.

I went with black and white in this rendition since I was more interested in the shapes and lines than in presenting of the supposed reality of the place. (The underlying image is full of blue tones and has much less contrast.) I’ve long been fascinated by how malleable monochrome images are in post — we can push and pull them in all sorts of ways that would be far too extreme in most cases with color.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Narrow Street and Steps, Porto

Image Leave a comment
Narrow Street and Steps, Porto
A woman stands below steps ascending a narrow street in Porto, Portugal

Narrow Street and Steps, Porto. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A woman stands below steps ascending a narrow street in Porto, Portugal

On our first walk in Porto we headed straight for the historic Ribeira district. This neighborhood rises steeply from the banks of the Duoro River and is filled with extremely narrow and twisty streets on the impressively inclined hillside. Yes, it is a popular tourist destination, but with good reason. In places the streets are so narrow that I was reminded of wandering Utah slot canyons, with soft light filtering down from above.

Later on our visit we branched out a bit more — though to be honest we barely scratched the surface of the place during our stay. We love to walk when we visit cities, and there were plenty of opportunities for that in Porto. On this day we took a long and semi-random looping walk that took us past busy downtown areas, to hilltop views of the Duoro, and through more neighborhoods — like this one where we stopped to photograph the steep and narrow walkways near the end of the day.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.