Tag Archives: europe

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

Building And Shadow, Tuscany

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Building And Shadow, Tuscany
A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

Building And Shadow, Tuscany. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

If you follow my posts you may have noticed quite a few post from Italy recently, and you might be wondering why. Have you been to Italy? ;-) OK, there are more objective reasons I can share. I make a habit of reviewing older work a year or more after I make the photographs. I see the images differently with a bit more subjective distance from the actual experience. There’s another reason, too, and it ties the place I live (California) to Italy it ways that have only recently made more sense to me. This spring and summer as I’ve walked trails in California’s grass and oak lands on warm days, it has hit me just how similar the experiences can be. And a visit to an area winery on such a day reinforced that feeling. So I suppose I’ve been enjoying both the pleasant memories of the 2016 visit from which this photograph comes and the realization that I live in a place that shares some Italy’s pleasant features.

This is one of a pair of related photographs I made at an Italian vineyard and winery we visited — both focus on the stone buildings and midday shadows. (The related image will show up here in a later post.) The vineyard centers on a very old hamlet consisting of stone buildings surrounded by vineyard. We were there in the middle of the day, and the unique Italian light was wonderful. I’m not quite sure how to describe it in words, but it has some remarkable combination of the intensity of southern light along with the softness of the Italian atmosphere.

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

NO FOTO, NO FILM

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NO FOTO, NO FILM
People passing along a narrow street in Siena, Italy

NO FOTO, NO FILM. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People passing along a narrow street in Siena, Italy.

This photograph comes from our brief, one-day visit to Siena, Italy in 2016, made during a week-and-a-half stay in Tuscany, mostly in the hills between Siena and Florence. We were in Siena only long enough for a single foray into this fascinating city, and I would certainly like to return.

There are several ways to “see” this photograph, I think. It started with the little “pizzicheria” shop across the narrow street, and its catchy little “NO FOTO NO FILM” sign, likely posted to let tourists known that the owners don’t want folks going inside to make photographs. It is also a record of the sorts of crowds you will find here on a summer, tourist season day — many of the narrow streets are absolutely filled with visitors. Finally, if you look a bit closer you might find a few other interesting features — some of the individuals in the scene, some interactions among them, and some shapes and forms that their figures create. I’ll leave it to viewers to have fun with those things.

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

Pizzicheria

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Pizzicheria
A man emerges from a shop in Siena, Italy

Pizzicheria. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man emerges from a shop in Siena, Italy.

Perhaps the first question is, “What is a Pizzicheria?” I don’t speak Italian (at least not beyond a few words of “opera Italian” picked up from my music background), so I went looking for a definition. They seem to be somewhat varied, ranging from a “grocery” (though perhaps a small one and not a modern big store?) through more or less a delicatessen to a place that sells meats of various sorts.

I did not go into this place, but judging by some of the things appearing on the store front, I’m going with the meat-oriented business. There is that actual pig’s head hanging from the wall, for starters, and a few other clues. It did appear to be a place with a bit of local character, or perhaps just plain “character.” For example, they are apparently not very interested in visits by photographers. A hand-written sign hung inside that curtain proclaim “NO FOTO NOFILM!”

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.

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

Street Light, Siena

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Streetlight, Siena
A wall-mounted streetlight bearring the colors of a Siena contrada.

Street Light, Siena. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wall-mounted streetlight bearring the colors of a Siena contrada.

A few years back during a weeks-long trip through portions of Europe, we stayed in Tuscany for about a week and a half. We drove down from Germany (where Patty’s brother lives), stopped briefly in Bologna, continued on to Florence, and then to a place in this hills between there and Siena where we stayed for about a week. (We concluded this visit with a few days in Florence before flying home.) One one of those days in the hills we drove to Siena and spent a good part of the day there.

Our visit to Siena was too short… but at least we had time to do a brief exploration and realize that it would be worth a return trip. The old section of the city is a wonderful maze of narrow, twisting streets that eventually lead to the famous central square. The city is divided into 22 districts, each of which is identified by an animal and, as I understand it, a color scheme. The colors appear everywhere, but I thought they were especially notable on the novel street lights like this one.

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.