Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Roofs of Heidelberg

July 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

As seen from the tower of the Heiliggeistkirche, the rooftops of the Heidelberg Altstadt extend into the distance

Heidelberg is a city with a very long history, and a lot of this history seems to be maintained in the altstadt or “old town” section of the city, where most buildings are quite old and some date back many centuries, where streets are pre-automobile narrow, and where you can find a combination of small shops, old churches, university buildings, places to eat, and – of course – tourist attractions.

I made this photograph from the tower of the Holy Ghost Church (Heiliggeistkirche), a structure that dominates the view of the old town area and which is located across the street from the historic Ritter Hotel. The interior of the church is also impressive, and I’ll have some photographs of that a bit later. We paid the 1 euro donation to climb the many twisting steps to the walkway far up the church’s tower, from which a spectacular 360 degree view of the city, the Neckar River, and the surrounding hills is seen. I spent quite a long time up there, watching for good moments in the soft light, and making photographs of the city from this high vantage point. This view looks across the altstadt along the path of the Neckar as is leaves this valley and heads towards the valley of the Rhein.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Evening

July 28, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Millennium Bridge spans the Thames River and leads toward the Saint Paul Cathedral, London

The first week of our July 2013 overseas trip was spent in London. As you can imagine, we did a lot of walking! London is no place for this American driver to even attempt to drive, for all the reasons you can imagine – driving on the “wrong” side of the road, narrow and convoluted street layout, parking, and all the rest. So, as many do, we got around by underground, bus, and a lot of walking. Fortunately, once you get where you are going, this is a very walkable city.

On a few occasions we crossed to the south side of the Thames river – to see a play at the New Globe Theater, to visit the Tate Museum, to meet people for dinner, and to generally wander around in interesting looking places. Each time we found ourselves there in the evening we walked back across on the Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian-only bridge located near St. Paul’s Cathedral. On this evening we started across at sunset and managed to stretch out the trip long enough to arrive on the other side in near darkness. Although I had no tripod, I did manage to do a series of low light and almost-night photographs of the river and the surrounding city, including this photograph that looks across the river from the south bank along the bridge toward the iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Nature

Eisriesenwelt Trail, Alps

July 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Hikers descend the trail from the ice caves of Eisriesenwelt above the town of Werfen, Austria

Over a period of three weeks, our July 2013 visit to Europe took us to parts of Germany and Austria, and to London before that. The London portion of the trip was almost wholly and urban experience, but the time in Germany (with side trips into Austria) was quite a bit more varied. One significant difference is that while we hit our share of tourist areas, that’s not all we did since a) we were visiting relatives who are long-time residents of Germany and b) we traveled, as we often do, without a specific advance plan about what we would visit – at least beyond our fixed plan to stay in certain places on certain dates. Perhaps for this reason, and because I travel as a photographer as much as a tourist, the photographs from this trip may seem a bit eclectic and will cover a wide range of subjects.

This photograph was made at a popular tourist attraction not far from Salzburg and above town of Werfen, the Eisriesenwelt, also known as the Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave. There is a lot to say about this place – too much for this post – but I’ll give a bit of background. The cave is located far up the mountainside – more of a cliff, actually – above the town. The popular tour visits amazing underground ice formations near the mouth of the cave, though I understand that the cave system goes much farther back into the mountains. After driving up from Werfen, you walk uphill a short distance to a ski-lift style cable car system that takes you up the steep face almost to the cave… but you still have an additional uphill walk from there to the cave itself. (This being Europe, though, you can stop at the parking lot, the lower end of the tram, the upper end of the tram, and the same places going back down to sit, have a bite to eat, and drink a beer!) The trail between the upper tram station and the entrance to the cave is quite something. It traverses terrain that would scare the life out of people not used to very high and very exposed places – though a very civilized path has been built along the edge of the void, covered in some places for protection from rockfall. In this photograph, a section of the trail winds around a promontory with the deep Salzach Valley and Alpine ridges beyond.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White-Faced Ibis

July 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A white-faced ibis about to land in a San Joaquin Valley marsh.

A month or two earlier I had come across a large number of white-faced ibises in this precise spot along the perimeter road around this marshland where many, many migratory birds are found this time of year. The group of them was on the ground, apparently feeding in a wet grassy area, and they were quite shy about my presence, moving back from me as I came up alongside the on the road. On the day when I made this photograph, I had not noticed any of these birds at all. In fact, I had stopped here to photograph some ducks when I happened to look up and see this single bird angling in for a landing. I swung my camera around and tracked it to its landing.

I have a few random-sounding observations about the white-faced ibis. First, unless I’m missing something, they really don’t seem to have white faces! The beak is lighter than the bird, but that’s about as close to a white face as I can can find on these birds. Second, their coloration makes them difficult to photograph effectively. They are quite dark-colored birds, though their features can have a slightly colored iridescence that seems sort of reddish to me. Because of this, if I try to enhance the shadowed areas of the very dark birds in post, this coloration can quickly start to look fake. (In fact, I’ve seen a number of photographs of these birds that attempt to make them look lighter than they are, but which instead just end up looking odd.) They do make a fine photograph in silhouette, especially when a flock of them flies overhead early or late in the day.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Roofs of Heidelberg

Like this:

Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Evening

Like this:

Eisriesenwelt Trail, Alps

Like this:

White-Faced Ibis

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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