Category Archives: Photographs: Textures

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures

Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain

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Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain
Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain

Window, Wall with Shadow and Stain. New York, New York. August 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Diffused light from a cloudy sky casts a soft shadow across a wall with a faint stain.

This is perhaps a subtle photograph. Originally it was in color, but the colors were so subdued – almost invisible, actually – that I decided to go with this black and white rendition. This wall is in a New York museum and is located next to a window. It was overcast, so the light coming through the window was particularly soft and diffused. It wasn’t until I looked at this photograph in post that I realized that there is a “flaw” in the scene – the slightly darker stained area on the upper wall.

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

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Parking Lot Near High Line Park

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Parking Lot Near High Line Park
Parking Lot Near High Line Park

Parking Lot Near High Line Park. New York, New York. August 14, 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening photograph of an urban parking lot near the High Line Elevated Park in the Chelsea area of New York City.

I photographed this parking facility from above as we started down the stairs at the north end of High Line Park. Since I was traveling light at this point I had no tripod – so I made this 1/8 second exposure hand-held. (Image stabilization can be your friend!) Lighting was, to say the least, tricky. Areas of the structure were in deep shadow, but there were also bright artificial light directly within the frame. By some miracle I managed to pretty much capture the full dynamic range in one shot.

These parking elevators are seen all over Manhattan, and they allow cars to be parked several deep on the vertical lift. This was the first time I had the opportunity to shoot one from a position that wasn’t on the ground, and the complicated mass of vertical beams filling the space and lit by artificial light sources seemed like an interesting subject. I haven’t seen the elevators in operation, so I still wonder how the lot operators manage to get the right cars at the top/bottom of each lift so that each person’s car will be at ground level at the right time.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Standard Hotel, Clouds, and Airplane

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Standard Hotel, Clouds, and Airplane
Standard Hotel, Clouds, and Airplane

Standard Hotel, Clouds, and Airplane. New York, New York. August 14, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An airplane crosses a cloud-filled New York City sky above the Standard Hotel at the High Line Park in Chelsea.

This hotel straddling the High Line Elevated Park in New York City presents a striking appearance, especially when the right clouds are reflected in its glass-window surface. We were in the area on a summer evening when the sky was filled with interesting clouds, and by the time we finished walking to and then along the elevated path of the High Line park we had seen it from quite a few angles.

This was my first visit to New York City in a decade, and I have to say that coming to terms with it as a photographic subject is a tall task for someone trying to take in the whole thing for (not quite) the first time. I do a lot of street and urban photography, but usually in places with which I’m familiar – San Francisco is a short train ride from where I live, so I photograph there a lot. For me, it takes some time to get beyond the overwhelming first impressions and settle down and achieve a level of comfort with the place. There were days in New York when, despite being in the midst of tremendous numbers of photographic opportunities, I found it almost impossible to figure out what to shoot. And there were also certain times when “the light came on” and I made a lot of photographs, including this evening.

I need to go back…

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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Commentary, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Standard Hotel and Clouds

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The Standard Hotel and Clouds
The Standard Hotel and Clouds

The Standard Hotel and Clouds. New York, New York. August 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The windows of the Standard Hotel reflect clouds and sky above the High Line Park.

We spent a week in New York City in mid-August – our first visit in a decade. I had forgotten a lot about the character of this city, but it all started coming back to me as we drove into Manhattan on a Friday evening and encountered people everywhere, out and about and doing all of the things that one does here. I have many images in my mind from the visit, but one is a sort of combination of massive, tall, and static structures surrounded by the constant motion of vehicles and people.

The next evening we made our way – with the help of our oldest son, who now lives there – down to the High Line Park area, arriving at the beginning of the “golden hour” light on an evening featuring wonderfully textured clouds. The Standard Hotel straddles the High Line – which, for those who may not know, is a narrow elevated park built on the structure of an old elevated railway. Here the cloud-filled sky is reflected in the windows of the hotel.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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.

(Basic EXIF data is available by “mousing over” large images in blog posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)