Category Archives: Photographs: Italy

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fishing Lab, Night

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Fishing Lab, Night
Employees take a break outside and customers enter the Fishing Lab, Florence

Fishing Lab, Night. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Employees take a break outside and customers enter the Fishing Lab, Florence

If you have noticed an abundance of night photography in my posts this week, there is a reason. Today is the opening for the “Nocturnes & Noir” exhibit at the Harvey Milk Photo Center in San Francisco, a juried exhibit of night photography that includes a few of my photographs. If you are in The City, come and join us at the opening reception at 5:30-8:00PM at the Center, 50 Scott Street, in San Francisco.

I made this photograph in Florence, Italy on a lovely evening last summer, our final one in that city. We passed this restaurant while walking back to our hotel, which was very close to this spot, and the scene caught my attention on a number of levels. It is full of contrasts: between the patrons in the brightly lit doorway and the employees taking a break in the alley lit by streetlights, between the brown-pink tones of the front wall of the restaurant on the right and the green tones on the left. There’s more, but I’ll leave it to you to ponder! By the way, even though the restaurant intrigued me and even though we were staying right up the street, we never stopped to eat there. If I recall, someone suggested that it might have been a bit too familiar of an experience from Americans used to eating in big American cities, and we were more interested in trying to experience something more Italian. This morning I took a look at their website and read a bit more… and now it sounds kind of interesting!

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: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Trattoria Alfredo

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Trattoria Alfredo
Trattoria Alfredo and Florence streets at night

Trattoria Alfredo. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trattoria Alfredo and Florence streets at night

In many parts of the old, central portion of Florence, with its narrow streets, there is a near absence of colorful commercial signs of the sort that are so common in most American cities. (There is an area of more modern shops that feels more familiar, perhaps, to American visitors.) Along many of the streets there is little to indicate commercial establishments aside from small signs and open windows or doors. While this trattoria isn’t the only place that looks like this, it seems a bit unusual by comparison.

This photograph illustrates one of the things I like about night photography, and in particular about night photography in urban environments, namely the wildly diverse light sources. Here the interior of the little restaurant glows with light that could come from tungsten bulbs and which spills out onto the street, while the street lights down the way to the right have more of the character of daylight. But above the store is wildly saturated light from brilliantly colorful red and blue bulbs, so intense that it overwhelms most of the other light sources.

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

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Restaurant Workers on Break

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Restaurant Workers on Break
Restaurant workers take a break in an alley under streetlights

Restaurant Workers on Break. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Restaurant workers take a break in an alley under streetlights

Last summer we spent five weeks on the road — starting in New York, then going to London, Paris, Heidelberg, and finally Italy where we spent a week in the hills between Florence and Siena and then concluded our trip in Florence. If I have a regret, it is that we spent too little time in Florence. Our final stop there was almost an afterthought — we knew we would fly out of its airport, and we decided we might as well add a couple of days there. Anyone who has visited knows that a “couple of days” is not remotely enough for this city.

I loved walking around this city and photographing, especially in the mornings and again at night. On this last evening we decided we wanted to find a place for dinner, but we didn’t have a plan so we just wandered. We found a place — it isn’t hard here! — and then wandered some more, right on into the evening. At the very end of the evening, just yards from our hotel, we passed this street corner where employees were taking a break outside of a restaurant.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Florence Building

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Florence Building
A gritty looking Florence building

Florence Building. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gritty looking Florence building

It was almost the end of our five weeks of American, British, and European travel this past August — from New York City in late July to the UK at the start of August, and then through Paris, Heidelberg, and several areas in Italy. The trip was winding down. Truth be told, we were at the point where we would have been happy to continue traveling, but it was time to return to the US and get back to the so-called real world.

We went out for a morning walk in Florence, heading away from the busiest areas in the opposite direction from our hotel. We wandered up narrow streets to a large, open square, and then simply “random walked” our way back. For an American, particularly a west coast American perhaps, central Florence is a remarkably different looking place. This is not just because of the very old streets and buildings but secondarily because of the state of their exteriors. In many places things are very similar colors, in a range between brown and tan, and most buildings don’t look all that fancy from the outside. There is a striking lack of advertising signs — a shop might typically have one sign and it probably isn’t lit much if at all. This building had a practical look about it, with pipes, wires, and conduit on the outside. The light was remarkable — an unusual combination of brilliance combined with a certain softness that the Italian atmosphere provided almost the entire time we were there.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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