Tag Archives: lamps

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrians, Mosco Street

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Pedestrians, Mosco Street
Pedestrians walk up Mosco Street on a raining Christmas Eve

Pedestrians, Mosco Street. Manhattan. December 24, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians walk up Mosco Street on a rainy Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve in Manhattan, and we ended up in Chinatown at restaurant where we’ve eaten on this night in the past — but we discovered that it has apparently become popular since the last time we visited. The wait for a table (for our rather large group) was going to be at least 90 minutes, so we decided to look elsewhere. After figuring out that everything nearby was just about as crowded, we headed down the short length of Mosco Street to find a place with some open tables nearby.

This photograph illustrates one of the things that fascinates me about urban night photography, namely the wildly diverse light sources. Stop and consider the range of intense colors in this scene — the bright yellow light of the old street lamps along the right side of the street, the more neutral light on the left side from more modern lights, the spots of intense red and blue from store signs. Because it had rained, the streets were reflective, and they also picked up the wash of colors. A couple of people walk toward the camera on the left, casting shadows, and a solitary figure is in the yellow light along the brick wall on the right.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Urban Life, Manhattan

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Urban Life, Manhattan
Urban Life, Manhattan

Urban Life, Manhattan. New York City. August 7, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman sits in the sun on a stone bench against the wall of an urban building and beneath the shadows of lights and a security camera

I often wonder at the urban environment and how some places seem completely disconnected from the natural world that is how home. (No, I’m not an anti-urban or anti-city person, and I really love visiting New York. But still…) The almost entirely constructed environment is, in many ways, a marvel. The noise, the people, the constant motion can all be energizing. But eventually, at least for me, I reach my limit and I need a quiet time out to recover. And from time to time I need to completely escape from places like this.

I was just below Central Park one morning, where I had gone with a plan in mind of walking the perimeter of the park and photographing. (I almost completed this goal before the day ended, but ran out of time just a bit short of where I had started, when I realized that I was to meet up with some other people.) Before starting up the east side of the park I first went south a bit looking for breakfast and coffee, and I found this small courtyard near when I ate. I saw several things here that drew me to make a photograph — the solitary figure on the bench looking out of the frame, how small the position of her body and her position within the frame makes here appear, the cold and lifeless nature of the space in which she sits, the slightly ominous lights and their shadows above, and the even more ominous small security camera at upper right, probably watching and recording everything… including me as I made my photograph.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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: Architecture, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Imaginary Landscape with Lamps #2

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Imaginary Landscape with Lamps #2
Imaginary Landscape with Lamps #2

Imaginary Landscape with Lamps #2. March 9, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Imaginary landscape with lamps #2.

As with the previous image in this series, I don’t think there is a lot to say about it. (Or, as I wrote on the other one, there is a lot that could be said, but I’ll refrain.)

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: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Yellow Trestle and Night Sky

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Yellow Trestle and Night Sky
Yellow Trestle and Night Sky

Yellow Trestle and Night Sky. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. February 12, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yellow trestle and night sky above historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California.

This trestle is one half of a pair of the structures that were apparently used for moving large parts of ships, perhaps including engines, from nearby work areas to the waterfront where ships were under construction at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard. This area is no long in use (with the possible exception of some ship dismantling work) and the tall structures that tower over the area are gradually rusting and weathering.

The gaudy light comes from a combination of the yellow paint on the steel structures and the intensely colored sodium vapor lamps used to light the area. The glow in the sky comes from the town of Vallejo, just across the water from Mare Island. For this photograph I put the camera as I high as I could on the tripod so as to shoot over the top of a rather tall fence. (Yet another use for live view – I was able to compose and focus the image even though the camera was perhaps a foot above me.) I aimed the camera up to try to exclude a lot of the buildings and other structures that are found below these towers, since I wanted the simply diagonal of the trestle to be largely unobstructed. The star trails in the sky are the result of three minute exposure.

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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.