All posts by G Dan Mitchell

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.

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Salzburg Cafe

December 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People sit at an outdoor cafe on a sidewalk along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

This is sort of a photograph of nowhere in particular in Salzburg, Austria. A ways off from the busy downtown area around the touristy shops and other old buildings, things seem to quiet down a lot. There are few or no cars on many of this very narrow streets – barely wide enough for a single car anyway, and the tightly packed multistory buildings create a sort of canyon effect. There do not appear to be any gardens here, and every plant I recall seeing on most of these streets was growing in a pot. The buildings are not all the same color, but they do all seem to be pastel shades.

As we walked in this area we came to a t-intersection, with this little cafe occupying the middle of the upper bar of the “t.” I photographed it straight on from the other street on the intersection. I was fascinated by the almost complete lack of “branding” on this business – it was only by looking very closely at the photograph that I could make out a name for the place. The most obvious sign simply says “cafe & restaurant.” I was also interested to see that the seating, of which there must not be enough inside the building, not only spilled onto and across the narrow sidewalk, but extended right into the street, where its boundaries were defined by the large potted plants! A couple sits in the green chairs on the right with a very young child. They seem to perhaps be the grandparents – and grandpa is catching a smoke while grandma tends to the child. The colors in the seating area contrast with the pale, pastel colors of the buildings (and the matching umbrellas), and include a green that is brighter than that of the plants and lemon yellow back near where two men talk on the right.

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: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Windows and Stucco Walls

December 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall stucco buildings with almost uniform white-framed windows line a narrow Salzburg, Austria street

Yes, another photograph of windows and walls along narrow back-streets in Salzburg Austria… In the late afternoon, the sun had dropped low enough that no direct light was making its way down into the canyons of these narrow streets except where the streets were pointing directly toward the sun. These buildings were a long a section where the street curved – the streets here are apparently so old that they do not follow the geometric logic of more modern cities. Along the curve the fronts of building are, obviously, going to be at slight angles to one another. Here, that bit of non-linearity, plus the converging perspective lines from the upward-pointing camera position, seemed to create a sort of off-kilter effect.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Decaying Tree

December 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The decaying stump of an ancient sub-alpine Sierra Nevada tree

I came upon this jumble of the remains of a very old and large tree while walking about on our first full morning camped at the spot where we would remain for six nights in the Kings Canyon National Park high-country. From our camp at about the 11,000′ level I walked uphill, intending to investigate a dome on the ridge behind us and to see if I could find anything to photograph around a small lake that I could see on our maps.

As I walked up the hill I passed through small meadows and by dried-up tarns with their barren rocks and the branches of various fallen trees. As I approached the location of the lake I had to find a route between rocks and various small but thick groves of trees. As I passed one of these spots I noticed this old tree in the (long) process of disintegrating. The boundary between these ancient and rugged living thing and rock has sometimes seemed fuzzy to me. While I understand that the rocks are far, far older than any tree, these trees grow so slowly, are often so twisted and gnarled, wind so intimately among the rocks and boulders, and are of a color that looks more like rock than wood.

Photographs: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Happy Hour

December 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Happy Hour in London can apparently take place in the street.

This scene caught me just a bit by surprise – in a good way – as we walked out of a street market on the south side of the River Thames and emerged into the streets of the neighborhood. It was late in the afternoon – more like evening, actually – and crowds of people were building everywhere along these narrow streets.

I didn’t stop to investigate inside this pub, but it looked like business was so good that the party simply had to spill out on to the sidewalk, and then continue to spill right into the street! There aren’t too many places in the US where such a thing could happen – both the drinking in the street and the standing in the street, but this area seemed to not be at all car-centric, so pedestrians could more or less be wherever they wanted to be.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

All posts by G Dan Mitchell

Salzburg Cafe

Windows and Stucco Walls

Decaying Tree

Happy Hour

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.