Tag Archives: lamp

Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Lamp, Window, Morning Light

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Lamp, Window, Morning Light
“Lamp, Window, Morning Light” A lamp on the ledge of a window in a Stirling, Scotland hotel.

This is an opportunistic photograph, made at a moment when photography is not typically my priority. We were staying in Stirling, Scotland for a few days after our Great Glen Way walk, and it turned out that breakfast was included with our room. So instead of heading out to hunt for coffee and breakfast, we just walked down that hallway, took the elevator down a floor, and walked into the dining room. And there on the window sill next to our table was this eye-catching lamp, posing against the window lit by morning light, with the blue sky beyond.

“So,” you may ask,” you say you weren’t thinking about photographing. But you had your camera with you? At breakfast?” Well, not exactly. This is an iPhone photograph. (I’ll bet that you didn’t realize that until now, right?) It turns out that sometimes the iPhone can be used to make things other than selfies. For the photographers out there, I did use the iPhone’s raw mode so that I’d have a bit more latitude in post — as you can imagine, the dynamic range in this scene was pretty large!

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: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Curving Street, Arezzo, Italy

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Curving Street, Arezzo, Italy
“Curving Street, Arezzo, Italy” — People walk past a souvenir shop along a narrow, curving street in Arezzo, Italy

We stopped in Arezzo for two nights, during our 2023 visit to Italy (and other places). We decided to stay in some smaller towns for a few days between visits to Florence and Siena. The idea was to see a bit of Italy that is less intensely devoted to tourism, and to have somef down time between the big cities. (Since we were on the road for ten weeks, that down time was welcomed!)

We understand that Arezzo is not on most people’s Italian tour map, but we enjoyed our visit. During walks in the city we visited a lovely park at the upper end of the town near their cathedral, from which we could view the beautiful surrounding countryside. We wandered the town’s narrow and curving streets, enjoying its slower pace and relative lack of crowds.

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Agriculture, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Looking In

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Looking In
Looking into an old mansion through a screen left ajar.

Looking In. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Looking into an old mansion through a screen left ajar.

We were at this location to photograph flowers, but I almost always keep an eye out for other subjects besides the one I came for. This large public garden is centered around a historic mansion, and at times I found the old building to be as interesting as the flowers that were my object. I noticed that the outer screen didn’t quite close all the way, and then I noticed that a warm lamp was barely visible inside the building. Looking in at the warmly lit interior scene, as vague as it is, evokes memories of such places in the winter.

This is one of those photographs that —once again! — proves the point that we often do not expose for some compromise, straight-out-of-camera shot. instead, I like to think about what exposure will give me the image data that I can use to in post to produce an image that is true to what I saw. Here I had to control the brightness of the exterior — which was fortunately muted a bit as the sun passed behind some clouds —while getting enough of an image in the dark and subtle interior that I could work with it in post.

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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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Light, Siena

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Streetlight, Siena
A wall-mounted streetlight bearring the colors of a Siena contrada.

Street Light, Siena. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wall-mounted streetlight bearring the colors of a Siena contrada.

A few years back during a weeks-long trip through portions of Europe, we stayed in Tuscany for about a week and a half. We drove down from Germany (where Patty’s brother lives), stopped briefly in Bologna, continued on to Florence, and then to a place in this hills between there and Siena where we stayed for about a week. (We concluded this visit with a few days in Florence before flying home.) One one of those days in the hills we drove to Siena and spent a good part of the day there.

Our visit to Siena was too short… but at least we had time to do a brief exploration and realize that it would be worth a return trip. The old section of the city is a wonderful maze of narrow, twisting streets that eventually lead to the famous central square. The city is divided into 22 districts, each of which is identified by an animal and, as I understand it, a color scheme. The colors appear everywhere, but I thought they were especially notable on the novel street lights like this one.

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.