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

Market, Panzano in Chianti

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Market, Panzano in Chianti
Shoppers at a produce stand at the market in Panzano in Chianti

Market, Panzano in Chianti. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shoppers at a produce stand at the market in Panzano in Chianti.

This is one of will be several basic travel photographs — photographs that simply capture a place, including its qualities and perhaps its people, though my eyes as I visited. I made this photograph at a market in the Italian town of Panzano in Chianti, where we just happened to pass through on market day.

There are lots of wonderful things about traveling outside of the USA. (I just wish I had started earlier!) While you do become aware of differences — and partly by that means perhaps better understand your own culture and its place in the world — there are so many things that are largely the same in places that seem widely separated. Certainly this market shares a lot in common with those in my own state of California. (After working on this photograph I was out for a rural walk around here earlier this week… and it struck my just how much this area I was walking through evoked the memories of Tuscany.)

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wildflower-filled Meadow

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Wildflower-filled Meadow
A wildflower-filled meadow in San Luis Obispo County, California

Wildflower-filled Meadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

wildflower-filled meadow in San Luis Obispo County, California.

This photograph has been sitting on my desktop for several months now, almost since the time we came back from a spectacular visit to California spring wildflowers, followed by several days spend photographing in Death Valley National Park. I share it perhaps less as a brilliant photographic object, and more as a witness to the excellent and extensive spring bloom we had this year, brought on by above-average rainfall in February.

This location is in the south-central California inland hills between the coast and the Central Valley. During much of the year this country of grassland and oak woodlands is quite dry, and portions of it would impress you as being nearly a desert. But in these wet years the place comes alive for a few months in California fashion. Sometime in winter, when much of the rest of the country is freezing and perhaps under snow, the rains come and new grasses and other plants sprout. Yes, we’re brown in summer here… but we can be “impossibly green” in winter. Over the next few month, typically up until the first part of April, there is a crescendo of green, climaxed by sometimes-astonishing wildflowers… like this bed of yellow flowers spreading across a meadow.

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 and Amazon.

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

Morning, Florence

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Morning, Florence
People walk the narrow streets of Florence, Italy on a summer morning.

Morning, Florence. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People walk the narrow streets of Florence, Italy on a summer morning.

I made this photograph at a sort of “in-between time” in Florence. From midday on into the evening the place can be quite crowded — such a stupendous place draws just as large of a crowd of tourists as you might imagine. On a summer day, especially in the squares, along the river, and near any of the most famous attractions the number of people can be overwhelming — but most often in an energizing way.

To find somewhat quieter moments I went out early and sometimes stayed out late. As the evening wears on there are fewer and fewer people in some of the crowded areas, though the summer heat of Italy does tend to keep people out in the squares and restaurants longer than you might expect. But even better, in some ways, are the early morning hours when it at least seems like most of the sparse foot traffic belongs to locals. I made this photograph a bit later, after those early hours but before the main crush of crowds had arrived.

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Young Trees, Dark Forest

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Young Trees, Dark Forest Young Trees, Dark Forest
Small, young trees growing at the end of a dark and dense forest

Young Trees, Dark Forest. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Small, young trees growing at the end of a dark and dense forest.

After decades of hiking, camping, backpacking, photographing, skiing, (and in an earlier life occasionally climbing) all over the Sierra, there are odd little unexpected places that have some personal significance to me. In a few cases they are associated with a specific, memorable — there are several, for example, for each of my “kids.” (The “kids” are now all grown, but i remember!) Others connect to travels with backcountry friends or to events that occur there. In some cases, the development of a connection seems to be almost random, and there is nothing at all that points to them in any particularly objective way.

This is one of those latter spots. It isn’t far from a road, and I’ve always been attracted to the views for a mile or two on either side of the spot. But this place? There’s barely a turnout along the road. There is a narrow strip of meadow that runs quickly into thick, high-elevation forest, and it usually has a dark and impenetrable appearance. Logically I know what is beyond it, but it never quite feels like I do. And every year, more than once, I stop again and look at it and perhaps make a few photographs.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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