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

Evening Stroll, Montmartre

June 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

People walking in the evening along narrow streets of Montmartre, Paris

This is another photograph from our 2016 European trip, on which we spent about a week in Paris. It was, I’m almost embarrassed to admit, our very first visit to the city. (It is a long story. But at least we did finally go. And we’ll go back again!) We loved everything about our stay there. When we travel to such places we spend a lot of time walking — to and from locations we want to visit, wandering around once we get there, and exploring neighborhoods near our accommodations or which happen to catch our attention.

I made this photograph “in the neighborhood” near our hotel in Montmartre. My recollection is that we had headed out looking for a place to eat dinner — something of a daily adventure — and were walking around during the sunset and evening hours. This is a great time for street photography, since the lights of businesses have come on, yet the ambient light from fading daylight is still bright enough to illuminate the scene.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape

Hiker, Desert Canyon, Natural Bridge

June 2, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A hiker passes under a natural bridge in a Death Valley National Park canyon

Timing seems to matter a lot when photographing and hiking in Death Valley. A whole range of factors come into play: distances between locations, times of day with best light, concerns about temperature, and so on. Over the years I have come up with the rough outlines of a daily schedule — which I frequently violate! — to adapt to the general patterns. I usually start the day with a pre-dawn and sunrise location, and then move to a second early to mid morning place. In many cases I take a midday break — when camping I use this to lounge around camp, eat, nap, or else to drive to more distant spots — Then there is often an afternoon location, followed by a sunset and early evening spot. The dawn and sunset angle is probably obvious to most readers, but what about the mid-morning and afternoon spots? These are often in canyons, which can be a bit too dark at the edges of the day, but which often get nice light a bit after sunrise and before sunset. Bonus benefit: they produce shade during hot parts of the day.

On this day we were using this plan, so we took a mid-morning hike up this narrow canyon, enjoying the opportunities to escape the direct sun and the beautiful light in the bottom of the canyon, as it bounced down from above and between the canyon walls. Here a hiker (my wife Patty) went ahead of me beneath this big natural bridge and headed on towards the mouth of the canyon not far beyond.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dunes, Blowing Sand

June 1, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dunes with blowing sand in afternoon light, Death Valley National Park

For this photograph I returned to my file on as-yet-unfinished images from this year’s end-of-March visit to Death Valley. We were there for the better part of a week, visiting various areas of the park ranging from some quite popular spots (such as the dunes in this scene) to some that were a bit more off the beaten track and which required some effort to get to. The latter included some abandoned backcountry habitations and some dead-end roads into various canyons.

This scene is a fairly accessible one, though we came at it from a slightly different direction. We also arrived here in conditions that were a bit less than ideal, at least for walking into sand dunes, namely a lot of strong wind and blowing sand. I made the photograph when the sun was a bit lower in the sky, and its back-lit the dust-filled atmosphere and the little ribbons of blowing sand along the top ridges of the dunes.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

Photographs: France, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

La Pierrade, Evening

May 31, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The sidewalk and street in front of La Pierrade, Montmartre, Paris.

I made this photograph on, literally, our first night in France ever. (Yes, we are late-bloomers when it comes to international travel. That’s a long story involving finances, bringing up a family, strong interest in visiting other places, and more.) We had been in London for over a week — not our first visit there — and had arrived in Paris by train in the afternoon, finding out way to our hotel in Montmartre, unpacking, and then deciding it was time to head out and explore. (Here I could tell another funny story on us, involving our discovery that you can get an espresso just about anywhere in this part of Paris, but I’ll save that one for another time, too.)

When we went out we had several goals. One was testing our ability to navigate in a city whose language we do not speak. (It was fine.) Another was to start to get a fix on the surrounding neighborhood. A third, and may be most important, was to find something to eat! That’s hardly a problem in Montmartre, though deciding which place to patronize was challenging. At the intersection where I made this photograph we finally picked one and enjoyed a simple meal outdoors. Whether this is visible in this small online photograph or not is a question, but there are some interesting interactions going on among the people in this nighttime sidewalk scene.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Evening Stroll, Montmartre

Hiker, Desert Canyon, Natural Bridge

Dunes, Blowing Sand

La Pierrade, Evening

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