G Dan Mitchell, photographer and visual opportunist focusing on the Pacific coast, the Sierra Nevada, redwood forests, California oak/grasslands, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography and more. Posting daily photographs since 2005, along with articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
“Douro Vineyards” — Vineyard-covered hills of the Douro River Valley near Pinhão, Portugal.
A highlight of our recent trip to Europe was a weeklong walk in the vineyard country of Portugal’s Douro River Valley. We started and ended in Pinhão, spending our days walking the hilly paths and dirt roads of the surrounding beautiful area. The timing was perfect — it was generally cool (with a bit of rain) and the vineyards and hills were spectacularly green.
I made this photograph on our final hiking day, as we made the short descent to Pinhão from Casal de Loivos, with its stunning views of the Douro River. After a week of walking, it was quite something to finish with a short (less than four miles) downhill walk through the beautiful vineyards.
“Alone in the Wilderness” — Over a dozen morning photographers crowd one small section of sand dunes, Death Valley.
Yes, the photo title is obviously tongue-in-cheek. This is not really “wilderness,” nor is this a place where one is likely to be “alone.” But there is a lot to think about here. If you look closely — and you may need to click the image to get a larger view — you can count at least a dozen photographers spread out in this desert landscape that comprises a very small section of these dunes… and it is not at all the most crowded area.
You can diminish the number of people out there with you if you go in the off-season, avoid weekends, get up very early, and perhaps go there when the wind is howling. But most often you will not be anything like “alone” in this place. To be honest, one task for photographers here is figuring out to work around the crowds, assuming the crowds are not your intended subject.
”Porto Sunset” — The sun sets behond the Douro River, Porto.
We recently returned from a month and a half of travel, and it is time to start sharing photographs! We spent weeks in Portugal, including a 7-day walk in the hills of the Douro River Valley, then visited several new (to us) places in Spain before heading to Belgium. We concluded with a short stay in New York City on our way back to California. This photograph comes from Porto, Portugal.
We were in Porto twice on this trip. After starting in Lisbon and then visiting Coimbra, we arrived in Porto for a one-night stay before heading up the Douro River to Pinhão to start our walk. After the walk we spent another four nights in Porto. Sunsets here can be spectacular. The coastal location helps, as does the river winding through the city, and there are lots of elevated locations from which to catch the view. The La Ribeira waterfront area is in the foreground.
“A Trogir Street” — A person sits at outdoor tables along an empty street in Trogir, Croatia.
During the summer of 2023 we took a 10-week looping trip through parts of Europe. We concluded the trip with about a week and a half in Croatia. The first few days were spent in Dubrovnik, and then we moved on to the vicity of Trogir, not far from Split, where we joined a big group of extended family members. Being so close to historic Trogir, we spent a good amount of time there.
The old town of Trogir is picturesque enough that it is now very popular with tourists, for better or for worse. Much of the construction is of these very light colored stones — they are found in the buildings, the walls, and the streets and sidewalks. I photographed this scene while out on a little photo walk with my friend Franka M. Gabler who knows this area well.
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