Category Archives: Photographs: Travel

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

SEC Armadillo

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SEC Armadillo
“SEC Armadillo” — The SEC Armadillo auditorium, Glasgow, Scotland

It was due to a series of more or less random circumstances that we ended up passing this fascinating building during our visit to Glasgow, Scotland. We started walking from our downtown hotel, heading generally toward the University of Glasgow, a nearby museum, and then towards an area known for, among other things, its street art. Then it was time to start back, and we spontaneously decided to follow the waterfront, and that look us past the “Armadillo” building.

At the start of the waterfront section we ran into a helpful local who spent several minutes filling us in on the history of this area, part of which was once filled with shipping facilities. He said that many public buildings in Glasgow end up with names like the one applied to this building. In fact, once you hear it called the Armadillo, that image sticks in your mind!

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Old Trees, Stone Fence

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Old Trees, Stone Fence
“Old Trees, Stone Fence” — Old trees grow against a moss-covered stone wall in the forest along the Great Glen Way, Scotland.

From years of hiking in California and backpacking in the Sierra Nevada, I’m familiar with hiking in wilderness terrain. In those places the signs of human visitors are mostly subtle: a cleared area where people have camped, trails, blaze marks on trees, and occasional rustic dam raising a lake’s water level by a few feet. The experience is very different along Scotland’s Great Glen Way, the 80 mile trail between Fort William and Inverness. Here the marks of human presence are almost constantly visible. It isn’t all bad — each evening we stayed in nice lodging and ate great meals!

I made the photograph on the final day of our weeklong walk. We had assumed that it would be an easy day, since it would bring us to our final destination, it didn’t cross any high mountains, and it seemed (in a somewhat misleading way) to be short. We started in pasture-land and then entered forest… as the rain began. It continued for hours, all the way into Inverness. Here the route skirted a private forest (see the barbed wire!) lined with a very old, moss-covered rock wall.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

New Town, Edinburgh

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New Town, Edinburgh
“New Town, Edinburgh” — The New Town area of Edinburgh, viewed from the Edinburgh Castle.

This photograph overlooks the section of Edinburgh, Scotland known as “New Town.” To an American visitor, who might think a town is “old” if it has been around for a couple of centuries, it might be surprising to find out that New Town arose (next to the much older Old Town) roughly 250 years ago. In places with such deep history, 250 years is not that long! New Town features a lot of fascinating Neo-Classical and Georgian architecture and, in fact, it does seem a lot newer than the “Old Town” near Edinburgh Castle.

Speaking of the Castle, that is my camera position for this photograph — the foreground structures are part of it. The castle is on the top of an imposing ridge and its summit provides expansive views. Here we look across New Town to the shores of the Firth of Forth and then to more distant areas of Scotland across the water.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Four Mailboxes

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Four Mailboxes
“Four Mailboxes” — Four old metal mailboxes on a weathered wall in Orvieto, Italy.

When we travel we do seek out some of the famous, must-see places and things — castles, cathedrals, geological features, markets, and all the rest. But we also like to engage in a certain amount of random wandering when we can. In some ways this gives me a better sense of the character of a place than I would get by checking off all of the Big Important Things. (Don’t get me wrong. Many of those are important with good reason and are well worth visiting.) I made this photograph on one of these wandering days.

We often start out with a very general goal or idea in mind, but what we do along the way is often fairly unplanned. That was the case on this day in Orvieto, a lovely Italian hill town. Being constrained by its location on the relatively flat top of a hill, the place isn’t huge, and you can cover most of it easily on foot. So we were out walking, poking our heads into narrow alleys, looking for interesting buildings, and photographing any little bits of local character we found.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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