Tag Archives: europe

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

Blue Mania

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Blue Mania
Person walking in front of a Paris shop

Blue Mania. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.Blue Mania. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Person walking in front of a Paris shop

I think this photograph is mostly about blue, but also about the motion along a curved path of the two figures, and perhaps the odd poster near the right side of the frame. I didn’t check to see what “Micromania” is, at least in the context of this shop, though my assumption was and is that it has something to do with some kind of technology — phones, computers, etc.

Although the location of this scene is in a pretty interesting part of Paris, along the edge of Le Marais, the area right around this shop is a bit… gritty. Perhaps this is because it is more or less some sort of shopping district, and because there is an underground station right there.

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: Austria, Photographs: Travel

Art

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Art
A wall covered with art postcards in a museum gift shop, Vienna

Art. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wall covered with art postcards in a museum gift shop, Vienna

This summer marked our first visit to Vienna, a place that we thought we knew a lot about — largely from our background in music — but which surprised us in many ways. We arrived by train, and on the taxi ride to our hotel I was stunned by the monumental architecture of many of the buildings and the layout of the city. During our stay we got to know parts of the city much better, mostly by walking from place to place.

And, of course, we visited museums. I made this photograph in one of them, as we passed through a gift shop. Something about this “rack of great art,” reduced to postcard size and juxtaposing a wild array of work, caught my attention. I think you can enjoy it simply as a wildly colorful thing, or as a place to look for unintentional connections and relationships. You could also test yourself by seeing how much work you can identify. You could also muse about the way that great work is transformed into postcards and what it all means!

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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: Netherlands, Photographs: Travel

Canal, Cloudy Sky

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Canal, Cloudy Sky
The sun shines through cloudy skies to light up an Amsterdam canal and nearby buildings

Canal, Cloudy Sky. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The sun shines through cloudy skies to light up an Amsterdam canal and nearby buildings

I don’t think the sky was ever entirely clear during our four days in Amsterdam, but I was told by locals that this is pretty typical. In fact, based on what I was told, we were perhaps lucky to have as much blue sky as we did get! It rained the day we arrived, it was cloudy on most days, and that first day wasn’t the only rainy one.

I’ve observed that sunlight is often even more beautiful in places where it can’t be take for granted. I first understood this some years ago on a visit to Seattle, a place that is frequently also cloudy, wet, and gray. On the visit in question there was a period of beautiful, eighty-degree days of sunshine… and it seemed like every person in Seattle was suddenly outside. This day in Amsterdam wasn’t quite that extraordinary, but the filtered sunlight on the row of buildings along this canal seemed quite attractive.

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

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

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

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Heidelberg

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Doorway, Heidelberg
A graffiti-covered doorway on a narrow Heidelberg street

Doorway, Heidelberg. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A graffiti-covered doorway on a narrow Heidelberg street

To the extent that a photograph can be “about” things — I tend to think that a photograph “is” a thing — this one is perhaps about my obsession with geometries, about light, and about the door, with its graffiti, and what that might tell us about the door and how people here treat this “street art.” And by “about” I don’t necessarily mean that it tells us about these things — more that it may be about questions raised by such things.

The doorway is on a back street in the old part of Heidelberg, where we wandered on an August day earlier this year. These colors and this sort of paint and decoration seem fairly characteristic of this area. As we walked, the left side of the street was in shadow and the right was struck obliquely by sunlight that was somewhat softened by hazy cloudiness. Without that filtering the light would likely have been almost to stark for the photograph. Here I notice, as I did with an earlier photograph from Amsterdam, that there seem to be some “rules” constraining the application of the graffiti. It is on the door but not, for the most part, on the walls. Oddly, it all seems to be in black or other very dark colors. (I actually wonder if it was created by the people who live/work in this building.)

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

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

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