We walk a lot when we visit cities, and on this Lisbon day we had walked to and then through portions of Alfama. This neighborhood is full of very old streets and buildings. It is built on a hill rising above the water, so many of those lanes are quite steep. Overall it was a slow and mostly quiet walk… until we emerged on this busy street!
Continue reading Trolleys and Tuk Tuk
I know. Laundry hanging above urban homes in foreign cities is more than a bit of a cliche. I’ll try to minimize it, but sometimes I cannot resist. Here it is really more about the wild range of colors in the photograph, from that laundry to the colorful overhead streamers above the lane, and the contrast with the other less-colorful surroundings.
Continue reading Alfama Laundry
My recollection is that I made this photograph on the last long day of our May walk in Portugal’s Douro Valley region. We walked out of the town of Alijo on a gray and damp day and into the surrounding vineyard-filled countryside. This door is on the side of an old stone building in one of those vineyards, and I assume that its purpose is related to wine growing in some way.
Looking back at my raw files of this subject, I realized that they embodied a basic rule of photography — try to get closer! My first photograph was of the whole building and the surrounding landscape. Then I moved in and tried to frame the full building by itself. Finally I walked even closer and found a couple of compositions featuring this weathered blue door.
An addendum: It turns out that Patricia Emerson Mitchell (https://patriciaemersonmitchell.com) photographed me as I positioned myself to make this photo!
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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
The morning weather was not promising when we took the train from Lisbon, to visit the Pena Palace in the mountains above Sintra. By the time we arrived at the entrance to the palace grounds we we under cloudy skies and soon engulfed by low clouds and fog. I made this photograph as we walked through the forest near the palace.
At first I think we may have been a bit disappointed by this weather — and challenged to keep dry and warm! But as the day wore on my attitude changed. While a warm and sunny day might have felt pleasant, this challenging weather produced a lot more visual drama and mystery.
Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.