Category Archives: Photographs: Urban/Street

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

Trattoria Alfredo

February 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

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

February 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

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

Photographs: People, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pizza Shop

February 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Customers wait for pizza at a Pasadena pizza shop

Once again I interrupt the sequence of nature photographs, wildlife, and landscapes to bring you… a photograph inside pizza restaurant. I know that this range of subjects is a stretch for some viewers, but I hope it may be possible to see it all as part of my way of seeing the world. Early on the day I posted this it occurred that my background in music may offer at least a partial explanation. I’ve played (at least “played,” back when I was an active performer) in everything from bands performing in clubs, through jazz bands, to music theater, and on to symphony orchestras. I see no need to give up jazz because I may like Mahler, and I see no need to eschew photographing the city just because I also find beauty in the natural world.

So, back to our pizza restaurant. We were out walking about in Pasadena, really without any particular goal in mind — which is, I think, often a good way to make street photography. I photographed this scene through the restaurant window, and the tableaux just seemed to happen. I started out considering a piece of restaurant equipment visible in the window, but when I looked more closely I was this layout of pizza, the line-up of waiting customers, and what seems like idiosyncratic interior decoration.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Door, Steps, and Window

January 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The front of an urban Pasadena building at twilight

Here I’ll interject an “urban landscape” into the stream of mostly natural landscape photographs that I’ve recently posted. This photograph comes from a visit to Southern California, mostly in the Pasadena area, just after the New Year’s Day Holiday. We were there for a family event, but there were plenty of opportunities to do street and similar kinds of photography in the characteristic Southern California environment.

We had been out walking in the afternoon, and as evening came on it was that time that is so magical for handheld street photography, the time just after sunset when there is still ambient light as artificial lights start to come on and take over the landscape. We continued to wander, taking a big look back into central Pasadena and past some residential areas where I found this little vignette.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Urban/Street

Trattoria Alfredo

Restaurant Workers on Break

Pizza Shop

Door, Steps, and Window

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