Tag Archives: firenze

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Via dei Girolami

February 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An arch along the Via dei Girolami, Florence

During our too-short visit to Florence last summer — about three days at the very end of five weeks of travel — we spent a lot of time wandering the very narrow street “canyon” of the city. I fell in love with the place, especially its architecture and its photographic potential. I photographed from early morning on into the night almost the entire time we were there. Can I go back yet?

In a city of narrow streets, the Via dei Girolami stands out. There are narrower passageways, but whole sections of this street pass beneath buildings, supported by arching structures. As with so many things during our visit, especially since I prefer to not research too much ahead of time, we “discovered” this street by taking an unintended detour. The first time we began near the Ponte Vecchio, but the second — when I made this photograph — we walked through from the other direction.

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

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fishing Lab, Night

February 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Employees take a break outside and customers enter the Fishing Lab, Florence

If you have noticed an abundance of night photography in my posts this week, there is a reason. Today is the opening for the “Nocturnes & Noir” exhibit at the Harvey Milk Photo Center in San Francisco, a juried exhibit of night photography that includes a few of my photographs. If you are in The City, come and join us at the opening reception at 5:30-8:00PM at the Center, 50 Scott Street, in San Francisco.

I made this photograph in Florence, Italy on a lovely evening last summer, our final one in that city. We passed this restaurant while walking back to our hotel, which was very close to this spot, and the scene caught my attention on a number of levels. It is full of contrasts: between the patrons in the brightly lit doorway and the employees taking a break in the alley lit by streetlights, between the brown-pink tones of the front wall of the restaurant on the right and the green tones on the left. There’s more, but I’ll leave it to you to ponder! By the way, even though the restaurant intrigued me and even though we were staying right up the street, we never stopped to eat there. If I recall, someone suggested that it might have been a bit too familiar of an experience from Americans used to eating in big American cities, and we were more interested in trying to experience something more Italian. This morning I took a look at their website and read a bit more… and now it sounds kind of interesting!

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

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Hotel, Narrow Street

February 10, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A hotel sign above a narrow Florence street at night

Out for an afternoon walk on our last full day in Florence, Italy last summer, we kept walking as night arrived. We only had a few days here at the very end of a long trip, so we were trying to make the most of a short stay. Our hotel was in the old section of the Florence, so we could walk out the front door onto one of the very narrow old streets and head off in any direction and find interesting things.

At this point, nearly a half-year later, I can’t remember precisely where I made this photograph, though it may have been roughly in the neighborhood between our hotel and Duomo. There were a lot of people out walking on this warm evening, and many other photographs of this street included pedestrians and cyclists, but I think I ended up liking this deserted view with the street winding past the backwards “hotel” sign and then curving out of view.

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Trattoria Alfredo

February 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trattoria Alfredo and Florence streets at night

In many parts of the old, central portion of Florence, with its narrow streets, there is a near absence of colorful commercial signs of the sort that are so common in most American cities. (There is an area of more modern shops that feels more familiar, perhaps, to American visitors.) Along many of the streets there is little to indicate commercial establishments aside from small signs and open windows or doors. While this trattoria isn’t the only place that looks like this, it seems a bit unusual by comparison.

This photograph illustrates one of the things I like about night photography, and in particular about night photography in urban environments, namely the wildly diverse light sources. Here the interior of the little restaurant glows with light that could come from tungsten bulbs and which spills out onto the street, while the street lights down the way to the right have more of the character of daylight. But above the store is wildly saturated light from brilliantly colorful red and blue bulbs, so intense that it overwhelms most of the other light sources.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: firenze

Via dei Girolami

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Fishing Lab, Night

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Hotel, Narrow Street

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Trattoria Alfredo

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.