Just a few days after sharing a post in which I mentioned that I photograph a lot of subjects that are not icons… here is a photograph of an icon! This scene in the town of Portree, Isle of Skye is definitely in that category. I’m pretty sure that this scene will show up if you search (or as I hear I should now say, “search up”) “Portree.” It is an attractive row of colorful buildings, and their reflection in the water adds to the effect.
Continue reading Colorful Buildings, Portree, Scotland
This might have been the actual moment when we truly entered vacation mode — which is a different thing than travel mode. Travel mode had brought us to Oban, Scotland, where we paused for a couple of days between arriving in the UK and starting our walk on the Great Glen Way. Travel mode meant almost a full day in international transit, a quick overnight a the Glasgow airport, a shuttle ride to the train station, arrival and check-in in Oban, and then a search for dinner. We finished dinner, left the restaurant for our walk back to our accommodations, and were greeted with the lovely, peaceful scene of smooth water and the dusk glow in the sky.
Oban is a fine little town, located right on the water and a center for fishing, water adventures, ferries, and more. We enjoyed out short stay there — and our visit to the Oban distillery and a bit of whisky tasting probably enhanced things — as we devoted a couple of days to just slowing down and starting to overcoming jet lag.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email
Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.
Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
South Beach Harbor, Morning. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
Sailboats docked at San Francisco’s South Beach Harbor on a foggy summer morning.
On occasion I gloat about how fortunate we are to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. (It isn’t perfect, but still…) One of the pluses is proximity to San Francisco, itself. By the “baby bullet train” or by car I can be there in about an hour, at least outside of rush hour. I’ve long enjoyed taking the train up there and then wandering through the city and photographing. I vary my walking routes, but I almost always begin by heading toward the waterfront and past this harbor, where boats lie quietly at anchor in the morning.
Summer in San Francisco (as many tourists discover too late) is not generally a warm and sunny time. Fog is common, especially in the morning, and being surrounded on three sides by water the place can be windy and cool. But all of this produces special atmosphere and light. Here I’m looking past the boats and toward the other side of the Bay, where morning sunlight begins to thin the fog.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email
Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.
Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
South Beach Harbor, Morning. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Morning light on South Beach Harbor and buildings of downtown San Francisco
On this late-January morning I was up — you know the drill… “hours before dawn” — to catch a train up the Peninsula to San Francisco for a morning of street photographer and a visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where an extensive show of Walker Evans photography was nearing the end of its run. (At some point I should write a bit about my response to the show. A quick summary: great show, some brilliant work, some work I identify with personally, some work that makes me wonder why it is on the wall.) For these trips I’m usually up around 4:00 AM, giving me a half hour for coffee and a quick breakfast before I walk to catch a bus to the train station, where I catch one of the “baby bullet” express trains that has me in San Francisco an hour later.
The weather was in flux, and when by the time I arrived it was clear that a dome of solid high clouds was over San Francisco. However, as I left the train just before sunrise I was able to see some light on the underside of the clouds that was apparently coming from a gap in the cloud cover across the Bay to the east. I quickly headed over to the nearest shoreline location and ended up at the South Beach Harbor. I found some unusual light here as the sun rise. The light was coming through a narrow gap between the western edge of the cloud shield and the low, East Bay hills. Meanwhile, the clouds over and to the north of San Francisco kept the sky there somewhat dark. As the light hit the shoreline area where I had gone, the foreground boats and buildings and so forth were lit by this lovely filtered light and set off against that darker sky. The conditions did not last long — soon the sun rose above that cloud gap and the light soon became gray and flat.
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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.