Tag Archives: architecture

Duomo di Siena

Duomo di Siena
“Duomo di Siena” — An overhead interior view of the Duomo di Siena.

Here is another photograph made from the upper levels of the Duomo di Siena, or Siena Cathedral. In this case we signed up for an early morning tour that took us way up to the roof of the building and listed a number of rooms and passageways that you wouldn’t know about by visiting the main floor. At times we had incredible views of the surrounding city and countryside, and at other points we got unusual and striking views inside the church itself. I made this photograph through a narrow opening as we crossed between the two sides of the duomo.

As with all such cathedrals, it is worth pondering how their architecture and interior additions must have seemed almost incomprehensible to people when they were constructed. Today we put up much large buildings in a year or a few, but then it took decades or even centuries. Even more remarkable, at one point at even larger cathedral was planned and initial construction begun — and it that version the space in this photograph would have been merely the width of the church, not its length.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | PostEmail

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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

Desert Church, Cloud-Filled Sky

Desert Church, Cloud-Filled Sky
“Desert Church, Cloud-Filled Sky” — Cloud-filled skies above the St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Roman Catholic Church in Trona, California

This is not the first time I have photographed this striking desert church, and isn’t even the only photograph of the subject from my visit to this area earlier this year. Trona is a small, hard-scrabble town in the desert between Ridgecrest and Death Valley. It is build around extraction industries, primarily based on “mining” the mineral deposits left behind when water evaporates from nearly Searles Lake. It is a tough place, full of abandoned buildings, and terribly hot at times.

The church has caught my attention for years as I’ve passed through on my way to Death Valley. It is one of the most unusual Catholic churches I have seen. Its construction seems entirely utilitarian, and its shape is notable blocky and square. There’s nothing colorful or soaring about its structure. This all seems fitting in this harsh environment. On this visit I paused to photograph it again, this time with an impressive cloud-filled sky from a departing late-winter storm.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | PostEmail

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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

Wall And Barred Window

Wall And Barred Window
“Wall And Barred Window” — A barred window and weahtered wall in Italian summer sun, Siena.

This photograph of a small section of an otherwise nondescript wall along a Siena, Italy street was triggered, I suppose, by my fascination with patterns, textures, and forms — and by how they come together. You might not know it from the photograph, but the sun was very bright a the time. When I looked at the result later on, I first realized that color played virtually no role in the photograph and that I had more control over that light with a monochrome rendition.

As is often typical of me, I did not even note what the building was. (I might be able to figure it out from some other photographs, but it may not be important.) Part of what I like about the subject is the the perfect symmetry and form of the lines on the wall and the square window is dissonant with the weathered and peeling wall surface and the slightly bent grate over the mysterious window.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | PostEmail

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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

Interior, Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site

Interior, Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site
“Interior, Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site” — An interior space on the grounds of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i San Pau.

As I continue working on photographs from our summer 2023 visit to Barcelona, here is another from the Saint Pau Art Nouveau Site, originally the Hospital de la Santa Creu i San Pau. The immense grounds of the “hospital” were vacated when the hospital relocated to a newer facility. Eventually those who did not want to lose this remarkable example of modern art nouveau architecture managed to begin the work of restoring and maintaining it.

Some buildings, such as the large main entrance facing the street, are fully and gloriously restored. Others, like this old hospital ward building, await restoration. For now the latter have been cleared out and stabilized, but the interiors are quite bare. (A large photograph at the far end of this room shows what it might have looked like when it was still a working hospital.)


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | PostEmail

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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