Tag Archives: historic

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Salzburg Cathedral

September 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Salzburg Cathedral, in the city of Salzburg, Austria

While we stayed in the Schönau am Königssee area of Bavaria, we were very close to the AUstrian border and to the city of Salzburg. In fact, we ended up there on parts of at least four days during our week in Bavaria. Our train arrived at and departed from Salzburg, and on two other days we found ourselves in the area for various reasons. Of course, with our music backgrounds, neither Patty nor I could pass up the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Mozart – though we managed to resist the temptations of virtually all of the Mozart-focused tourist attractions, only taking time to walk past the building where he was supposedly born and then looking at but ultimately not purchasing any of the ubiquitous mozartkugeln, including the version that is supposedly “only available in Salzburg.” On the other hand, we were unable to resist the Salzburg “coffee culture,” which we enjoyed on more than one occasion!

The spectacular Salzburg Cathedral dominates, even in a city with many spectacular things. (If you look closely, you can spot a couple of the other church spires in this photograph.) The interior is, to my eye, astonishing, and I spent a good amount of time inside just standing and staring at the structure, the decoration, and the light. I made a few photographs there, too. It turned out that just the right viewpoint for this exterior view – in more than one way – was from a hillside terrace restaurant that we visited twice, sitting outdoors and overlooking Salzburg as we had late lunch.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria

Hohenwerfen Castle

September 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hohenwerfen Castle stands on a hill above Werfen, Austria, in the Salzach Valley with the alps as a backdrop.

This castle has an almost “fairytale” appearance, standing alone atop a tall hill in the middle of the Salzach river valley with tall mountains rising on almost all sides. It is not far from Salzburg, Austria. From what I have read, the actual story might be a bit more prosaic, and there is even a hint that the castle may be associated with some grim and somewhat awful stuff in its role as a place where various people were imprisoned.

We had come here to visit the popular Eisreisenwelt Ice Caves, high up in the mountains above the castle and the valley. The castle is an obvious central point of interest in the valley, but perhaps because we had been so high up in the mountains I had not really thought to photograph it. However, as we came back down on the road from Eisriesenwelt to the valley, we came to a hairpin turn closer to the valley where we suddenly had an unobstructed view of the castle with the town behind and successive mountain valleys rising beyond. Although it looks clear in the photo, it was raining lightly from a passing thunderstorm and this made the light a bit more dramatic.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Urban/Street

Heidelberg Hauptstrasse

August 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking down the Haupstrasse of Heidelberg, Germany from the Heidelberger Schloss

The “Altstadt” (old town) of Heidelberg is packed together in all of the interesting ways that seem so very different from what we typically find in the USA, where many towns, especially in the west where I live, mostly evolved in the post-automobile era. Heidelberg is, to say the least, considerably older than that! Very narrow streets (what Americans might call “alleys”) twist and turn and the buildings are packed closely together and right up to the edge of the street. Where the “road” portion of the streets is (barely) wide enough to let a vehicle pass, the sidewalks have been reduced to little more than a foot or two wide.

I made this photograph from the hill above the town where the famous Heidelberg Castle sits. We had walked up there for the obligatory tour of the castle – and an impressive thing it is! – and afterwards we walked along the hillside beyond the castle to where there is a park and some clear overlooks of the town and the Neckar River. For this photograph I put a long lens on the camera and focused on the hauptstrasse (main street) that runs the length of the old town, here running from near the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit) and on towards the newer portion of the street.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Column, Wall, and Dying Tree

August 20, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

The brown branches of a dying tree stand against a stone wall and column, Pittock Mansion, Portland, Oregon

This might be about as unrepresentative a photograph of the Pittock Mansion as one could make. ;-) Pittock Mansion is a historic location in the hills above Portland, Oregon. If I recall the story correctly, it was built by an early leading citizen of the area who ran the newspaper (The Oregonian?) and may have had interested in the lumber business. The expansive mansion was built on a hillside above the city, with views of three of the major volcanos of northern Oregon, and on grounds that included beautiful and lush gardens. The mansion itself is large and luxurious and was, for its day, very modern.

So I went and photographed a dead tree against a stone wall. What can I say? This section of wall combines a blocky section of the wall with a cylindrical column. Not surprisingly for the Pacific Northwest, moss grows on the rock, giving it the slight green tint. I think the tree is dying – at least it looks that way – and its odd color caught my attention.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: historic

Salzburg Cathedral

Hohenwerfen Castle

Heidelberg Hauptstrasse

Column, Wall, and Dying Tree

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