Tag Archives: History

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel

Torre Del Moro Stairs

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Torre Del Moro Stairs
Stairway ascending to the top of the Torre del Moro, Orieto, Italy.

Torre Del Moro Stairs. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Stairway ascending to the top of the Torre del Moro, Orieto, Italy.

Yes, I know that photographs of winding staircases are a bit of cliche… but I CLIMBED these stairs, so I earned this picture! This is the inside of the Torre del Moro in Orvieto, a beautiful old tower more or less in the center of the town. We were in the midway through our romance with towers (see the next paragraph) when we climbed this one. We briefly debated whether or not to do it, but the description said there was an elevator to get us past the first 170 steps. It wasn’t working. But the view from the top (along with the rather close-up sound of the bells!) was spectacular.

I photographed this scene as we descended. I suppose a smarter photographer would have taken advantage of the excuse to pause during the ascent… but then it might have been hard to hold the camera steady as the heart pounded! We climbed a fair number of these towers during our trip, especially during the first half. The first was along the coast of Spain — the “tower of Hercules.” After that we ascended them in a number of other places. But eventually… the lure of yet another tower began to diminish and we tended to enjoy new cities from street level.

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.

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Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Travel

Heiliggeistkirche, Heidelberg

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Heiliggeistkirche, Heidelberg
Interior of the Heiliggeistkirche, Heidelberg, Germany.

Heiliggeistkirche, Heidelberg. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Interior of the Heiliggeistkirche, Heidelberg, Germany.

Continuing my pandemic “virtual travels” via my old raw file archives, I’m now out of London and in Heidelberg, Germany. This town is a sort of home base for us when we travel to Europe, mainly because we have relatives who live there. We love visiting (and traveling beyond Heidelberg with) them, and on longer travels we have used Heidelberg as a place to decompress for a few days. In other words, we’re fond of the place! This photograph is the interior of the Heiliggeistkirche in the altstadt section of the town.

This photograph illustrates something I learned years ago when photographing another subject that also makes impressive use of soaring, vertical space — the redwood forests of California. My early instinct with those forests was to almost always shoot in vertical “portrait” mode to try to get everything in frame. Eventually I learned that the implication of absent height can speak as loudly as its inclusion, and I began to photograph the trees in horizontal “landscape” orientation, and sometimes even very wide panoramic views. I think that the same principle is at work here, and the fact that the vertical structures extend beyond the frame may invite the viewer to consider just how tall the space is.

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.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: People In Landscape

Abandoned

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Abandoned
Abandoned vehicles at a desert mining site.

Abandoned. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abandoned vehicles at a desert mining site.

When you travel even a bit in the desert landscape (at least the California version that I know) you will come across evidence that you are not the first visitor. The original residents left behind fragile, compelling, and sometimes beautiful evidence in the form of rock art. (Treat them with respect, leave them as you found them, and don’t share their locations.) Later immigrants left traces that seem less attuned to the nature of the place. But over time, as they weather and degrade, they start to almost seem to be part of the landscape, and they make us pause and imagine coming to such a place to live and work. (Surprisingly, perhaps, some of these sites are only decades old.)

A bit of exploration in Death Valley National Park reveals many examples. Some, like this one, are not hard to find, and they may feel like intrusions in the landscape. Others are more remote and sometimes not immediately obvious. One of the most powerful experiences I had in this landscape came on my first visit years ago, when I wandered up a large fan and sat on a rock to rest. I happened to look down and notice one stone among the others — one that had been shaped for a purpose many years ago. I picked it up, turned it over in my hands, and tried to imagine the life of the person whose hands had shaped it. I put it back where I found it and returned to camp.

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.

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History, Morning Musings, Site News

Over 6000 Posts!

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Golden Gate Bridge. July 3, 2005. © Copyright Dan Mitchell — the first photograph posted at the G Dan Mitchell website.

As I was setting up today’s photograph (it will appear shortly) I happened to notice that I just passed 6000 posts on this blog! I had been posting photographs for a while before that on other blogs (for example, the old “Dan’s Outside,” which focused on backcountry adventures, and my teaching websites which date to the mid-1990s), but back in 2005 I decided to start a blog dedicated to photography.

The first post here (the obligatory “It Worked!” post) was on July 10, 2005. It was followed by a post explaining the plan to start sharing photographs on the web in a more organized fashion. The first photographic post came on July 16 of that year — it was the black and white image of the Golden Gate Bridge in fog shown above.

At first the posts were a bit irregular. Sometimes I posted several in one day. Other times there were gaps of several days between new posts. On August 16, 2005 the first string of daily photographs appeared, though there were still breaks when I was in the field for a few days or longer. (Posting photographs remotely was not so simple back then!) But I’ve been continuously posting new photographs here since the end of that month in 2005! Believe it or not, that is approximately 5000 daily photographs posted at this blog!

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.