Tag Archives: interior

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Travel

Salzburg Cathedral

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Salzburg Cathedral
The interior of the Salzburg Cathedral.

Salzburg Cathedral. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The interior of the Salzburg Cathedral.

This photograph comes from the same trip that produced the recent photograph of mountain landscape in Bavaria. It turns out that the latter location (in the Berchtesgaden area) is very close to the German/Austrian border, and Salzburg is just on the other side of that border… and Salzburg is where we arrived and departed by train. In the end, despite staying in Bavaria we ended up spending considerable time in Salzburg, the location of this famous and remarkable Baroque-style cathedral.

I’ll use this photograph as an excuse to share a bit about my approach to travel photography. Nearly a decade ago I stopped carrying large cameras and big lenses when I travel, instead using a smaller system with (mostly) relatively small prime lenses. We travel light, preferring to limit ourselves to carry-on luggage, and this approach helps achieve that goal. The smaller and lighter gear also, I think, improves my travel photography. I’m less weighed down by bags of heavy equipment, and I look less like “tourist photographer,” which may let me work without attracting as much attention. This photograph was made using a small 14mm prime lens on a APS-C camera, shooting handheld.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Skylight, Austrian Postal Savings Bank

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Skylight, Austrian Postal Savings Bank
Skylight above the main interior space of the Austrian Postal Savings Bank

Skylight, Austrian Postal Savings Bank. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Skylight above the main interior space of the Austrian Postal Savings Bank

The Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna is an astonishing bit of modernist architecture. There is a lot of see in Austria, and for various reasons this didn’t make it onto many of the lists we consulted. However, close to the end of our 2018 visit we got a recommendation to visit this place, which turned out to not be all that far from where we were staying.

The building, both historically and architecturally, is a fascinating place. My understanding is that the Austrian Postal Savings Bank was a sort of revolutionary extension of banking services to working people in Austria, to encourage them to develop savings habits even though the amounts they were likely to deposit paled next to what the wealthy had to work with . This particular building is also a beautiful example of modernist architecture of the early 20th century. The photograph looks straight up from the floor of the main room in the building, a large open space surrounded by service windows/desks. This skylight is simple but very big, and it produces absolutely lovely interior light.

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