Pedestrians along a walkway leading toward Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London
St. Paul’s Cathedral is an obvious landmark at any time, but at night it is even more so, especially if you approach it from across the River Thames by way of the Millennium Bridge. We visited the bank opposite the cathedral on several evenings, so I can no longer remember precisely what we had been there for on this evening — The Old Globe Theater, meeting up with relatives for dinner, a visit to the Tate Modern? I’m not certain.
In any case, we ended up crossing the river in this direction after dark on a warm summer evening when many people were out strolling around. This was one of the first times when I realized that my little mirrorless camera was good enough in low light that I could actually do handheld night photography.
The Salzburg Cathedral and surrounding area, Salzburg, Austria
On this trip to Europe in the summer of 2013 we did not actually stay in Salzburg, Austria — but we did end up in this town several times. In the middle of our visit, which started in London and then included Heidelberg, we took a weeklong trip to Bavaria where we stayed in a big old farmhouse near Berchtesgaden and Königsee, with views of the Alps. Our train from Heidelberg ended up in nearby Salzburg, we ended up visiting Salzburg again while we were “just up the road” in Bavaria, and then we went back to Salzburg again to catch the return train to Heidelberg.
This spectacular cathedral is a famous icon of Salzburg, and here it is seen from a slightly elevated location just outside of this central square. Since I shoot digital, the original photograph is color, but it seemed to me that the bit of dramatic cloudiness would be more effective in monochrome, and the brighter light on the close walls of the structure seem “right” in black and white, too.
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 | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
A ramp at the end of the Millennium Bridge, London
The Millennium Bridge is a new and popular footbridge across the River Thames, between the area of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern Museum. We passed over it more than once, including on this evening when, if I remember correctly, we managed to squeeze a short visit to the Tate before doing other things.
I think this photograph indulges my obsession with shape and form. There is a kind of symmetry to the scene, but things are quite complicated and there is perhaps a lot more in the scene than a quick glance would suggest. At this end of the bridge it divide into two branches as it descends toward the land, and then the two branches reconvene for the short section in the center of the photograph, where there are several people (including a woman who appears to veer off course, distracted by her phone) and a photo-bombing pigeon. Almost symmetrically placed, there are individuals on either side on the two branches of the bridge. Beyond the bridge leads toward St. Paul’s and the short arches suspending the bridge appear to either side. There are other little oddities in the scene including reflections in the material on either side of the walkways.
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 | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Sunset light on glacial erratics, domes, and the Cathedral Range
The first time I ascended this system of granite slabs to its high point was in the morning, and my goal was to shoot the opposite direction from the scene shown here, so that I could capture the backlight on trees ascending from the ridge toward a higher valley to the east. While up here it became apparent that this spot had potential beyond just that of trees in morning light, and I made several more visits during out stay here.
On this evening I thought I would find out what late-day light possibilities might exist. My initial idea was to arrive soon enough to shoot down the slabs into an open forest of lodgepole pines that seemed like it might catch evening backlight in interesting ways. I arrived at a spot from which I thought such a shot was possible, but it seemed a bit too early for ideal light, and I continued on up the granite rib to a higher point. The atmosphere and light were a bit tricky. At this time of year it is very common to see a bit of wildfire smoke in the air, and that was the case on this evening. In addition, there were some high clouds far to the west and seemed likely to mute the last light. In fact, just as I initially set up this shot the light quickly faded, as if someone had turned down the dimmer switch on a lighting system! At first I was disappointed, but when I looked to the west to see the clouds that blocked the light I could see that there was a gap below the clouds through which the sun would likely shine once more before sunset. So I waited. Perhaps five or ten minutes later the light began to change silently (somehow it always seems a bit odd that only the light changes at those moments) and I managed to shoot through the transition from dark to full light and make one exposure when the light had come back on both the near features and the distant ridge.
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 | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
