Category Archives: Photographs: Urban/Street

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shadows, Ponte Dei Carmini

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Shadows, Ponte Dei Carmini
“Shadows, Ponte Dei Carmini” — Light and shadows on buildings at the Ponte Dei Carmini, Venice.

This photograph from Venice embodies many of the features that I expect to see in that part of the world. The Southern European light? Yes. Wrought iron work? Check. Earth tone colors on the buildings? Indeed. Narrow walkways? For sure. Of course, the venetian-style canals — not visible in this photo — are not quite so ubiquitous.

I’ll share a little technical note about this photograph. Cameras cannot really produce a native image that shows us details in both the very bright highlights (direct sunlight) and deep shadows. (Our eyes deal with this by quickly adapting to the brightness at the center of our attention.) So with digital photography our first priority is to protect those bright highlights — let them get out of control and you’ll lose highlight details completely. The subsequent post-processing task is then to brighten details in the shadows to restore what we think we saw when we looked at the scene. The trick is to do that in a manner that doesn’t give it away, one that doesn’t make the technique too obvious

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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.

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Morning, St. Mark’s Square

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Morning, St. Mark's Square
“Morning, St. Mark’s Square” — A few people and many pigeons, early morning at St. Mark’s Square, Venice

St. Mark’s Square can be one of the most crowded places in Venice. The square itself is one of the best known landmarks, and others (like the eponymous cathedral) are nearby, along with the famous columns and the waterfront. If you are looking to avoid the crowds, this is not one of the places you most likely go!

However, on this morning I was out on the streets very early with my camera. I began a bit before sunrise, actually. Not only were there far fewer people, but the early morning air was comfortably cool. It felt like a very different Venice as a few people walked past and flocks of pigeons collected in the square.

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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)

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Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)
“Rectangular Patterns (Vertical)” — Patterns formed by light, paint, shadows, and structure on an urban building.

This is the second in a series of three photographs that I made on a walk that took me through an area of urban renewal in my town. A large corporation committed to very extensive building plans, then backed off during the pandemic, and now seems to be trying to, in my view, make it look like something is happening when not much really is. They have painted buildings and put up interesting interpretive signs. To their credit, this is better than just letting the properties decay.

I’m very attracted to strong graphic forms and colors — which I suppose might surprise some who think of me as “just” a landscape photographer. But I don’t see any conflict, and I feel that the interest in such forms underlies quite a few of my landscape images, even though it is possible to look at them primarily as being “pictures of nature.”

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.

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

Evening Along the Canal

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Evening Along the Canal
“Evening Along the Canal” — Visitors to Venice sit along the banks of a canal near the Campo Santa Maria Formosa at night.

This photograph of people lazily passing an evening along a canal in Venice almost didn’t see the light of day. It is a “left behind” photograph that languished in my raw file archives for the past three years. Every so often I revisit the archives, and I almost always discover something that I missed. How do I miss these images? Sometimes I think I had a different idea in mind for the photograph that did not work, and returning with fresh eyes allows me to see it anew. Or, as in this case, another photograph that I made almost next door to this one did make the initial cut, so I think I dismissed this one at the time and moved on.

We were in Venice in August that year. Believe it or not, we had not been there before, and we really felt that it shouldn’t be missed. So we put up with the crowds and heat and incorporated it into a larger trip to Southern Europe. On this evening we had eaten and then gone out for an evening walk in the cooler air, diminished crowds, and beautiful evening light.

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.