Tag Archives: bicycle

Taking a Break

Taking a Break
Restaurant staff taking a break in a Florence alley

Taking a Break. Florence, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Restaurant staff taking a break in a Florence alley

The restaurant, just out of sight to the right of the edge of the frame, was nearly across the street from where we stayed for a couple of days in Florence, Italy, along a narrow street roughly between the Duomo and the Uffizi. A friend of ours who had been there before us mentioned it, and we thought about eating there — it looked interesting, but it also looked a bit like something we could see back home. But it continued to intrigue me, and I looked at it every time we walked past.

We were out for a walk on our last evening in Florence, and I was making a lot of night street photographs. The night utterly transforms the scenes — people behave differently, and the varied colors of light paint the walls of buildings. As we returned to the hotel we walked toward the restaurant and I saw a group of employees taking a break in the alley… and quickly photographed them before they returned to work.


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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Food Sing

Food Sing
Food Sing Chinese food take out and eat in, Brooklyn

Food Sing. Brooklyn, New York. December 22, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Food Sing Chinese food take out and eat in, Brooklyn

On our first full day in New York this past December we took the subway to this area of Brooklyn to meet up with one of our sons (and later his fiancé and eventually our other son and his fiancé) and wandered around the area a bit, ending up on the waterfront of the East River in an area that seems to be developing rapidly. (This Californian, being from the San Francisco Bay Area, certainly recognized the familiar signs of rapid expansion and wild real estate price inflation…)

Later we walked back up and away from the water looking for food — by the local clock is was lunch time, but by our jet-lagged internal clocks it seemed like a good opportunity for breakfast. As we walked I, of course, had my little street photography camera out and I photographed this and that subject as we moved along. This corner restaurant intrigued me for a bunch or reasons. Certainly the name, which no doubt has meaning that I can’t quite parse, is suggestive with its references to the practical (food) and the aesthetic (sing). But the colors and shapes of the building also intrigue me — the contrast between the hot yellow and red of the awning, the cool tones of blue, and the bits of drab urban street scene, photographed at a moment that was almost free of people.


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

East Madison Street

East Madison Street
East Madison Street

East Madison Street. Chicago, Illinois. August 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon light on East Madison Street, Chicago

We had been in roughly the Millennium Park area for a good part of this day, wandering around and looking at stuff and visiting a museum, and we were (if I recall correctly) heading back toward our hotel in the late afternoon, planning to perhaps take a break before figuring out where to go for Chicago style pizza. (One goal on this trip was to have both Chicago and New York pizza. After all, pizza research is a solemn duty.)

I’ve noted elsewhere that Chicago’s tendency to combine tall downtown buildings with more open space allows a lot of beautiful light to reach down to ground level and it sometimes permits clearer views up and down streets. As we walked past this intersection, marking the end of East Madison, the late light was coming straight up the street from the west, though slightly hazy and soft atmosphere, striking the sides of buildings and silhouetting people and vehicles on the street. This was light to stop for!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

Narrow Street, Cyclist

Narrow Street, Cyclist
Narrow Street, Cyclist

Narrow Street, Cyclist. Salzburg, Austria. July 15, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bicyclist disappears around a corner on narrow cobbled streets of Salzburg, Austria

During our July 2013 three-week travels to London and parts of Germany and Austria, we ended up in Salzburg on several occasions – despite the fact that we weren’t actually staying there. We spent a week near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, staying with a bunch of family members at a rambling old farmhouse. We spent most of the time there in Bavaria, but on a couple of occasions we ended up in nearby Salzburg, plus out train arrived at and departed from the Salzburg station.

The old part of Salzburg combines, as many places we visited also did, some beautiful old history and lots of very wonderful old places with a whole lot of touristy stuff! I wonder how Mozart might react to discover that fast food places are now a short distance from the place in which he was born! Several times we walked away from the main, popular area and walked through some narrow and twisty streets leading away from the tourist sites. As we walked down this narrow and curving street, a cyclist suddenly passed by, and I had just enough time to lift the camera and shoot as he leaned around the corner at the end of the street.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.