Tag Archives: light

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Lamp and Open Window

January 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street lamp and two windows on a building wall along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

I saw these interesting lamps on my first day walking around in Salzburg but didn’t think much more about them until later. They were attached to walls by what look like curved rods of iron, and were not like anything that I’m familiar with. Later, when visiting a location near but not in Salzburg, I saw the same lamps on other buildings. Now, seeing a pattern, I started looking for them, and they popped up in lots of different places in and around Salzburg.

This wall belongs to what I presume is a home or apartment along a narrow street not far from central Salzburg. In the afternoon we walked away from the busy old central city and headed toward a nearby area where we had parked, and as we did we passed through a number of these old, narrow streets. In places, the afternoon light was almost parallel to the streets, and here it glances across the rough surface of the wall, hitting one window and casting a shadow on the open upper window.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Levee Road and Trees

January 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pond reflects trees in foggy morning light along a twisting San Joaquin Valley levee road

This photograph is from my New Year’s Day visit to the San Joaquin Valley, where I went to greet the dawn in the company of thousands of migratory birds and a couple of good friends. After arriving home from the east coast the previous night at about 11:00 and getting to bed after midnight, I arose before 4:00 AM and headed off to the valley. Despite the sleep deprivation, it helped a bit to remind myself that it was already 7:00 AM back in New York, where I had spent the previous week – but only a bit. I arrived before dawn to meet my friends Dave and Charlotte, and we quickly went to work photographing the birds and the early and misty environment of this marshland area.

Shortly after the sun rose I headed out along this road that follows the contours of the levees separating the various ponds. Mostly they travel in relatively straight lines, but here the track takes a winding course among stands of cottonwood trees. When I stopped to look around a bit I glanced back and saw this pattern, with the early light on the vegetation and the slight fog causing colors and contrast to fade into the distance.

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

Yellow Wall, Hellbrunn Palace

January 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yellow walls, green shutters, and the ubiquitous metal street lamps, Hellbrunn Palace near Salzburg, Austria

Hellbrunn is the site of the famous water garden, including a variety of “trick” fountains. I had never heard of the place, but our family guides thought it would be a good place to visit, so there we went. It was a palace for a member of Austrian nobility at one point (there’s more to the story than that…), and the story goes that he enjoyed playing tricks on guests. As a result, the grounds feature not only the usual huge lawns, statues, manicured gardens and so forth, but also a lot of water, some used to create all sorts of tricks and oddities.

There are benches from which water may spray on the person sitting there, doorways to small buildings that can suddenly spray the visitor, water that sprays up from sidewalks, and animated scene powered by water, a water powered organ, and more. The buildings, which are quite extensive, also include more staid living quarters, places to entertain guests, and art collections. As we walked around, I noticed the same street lamps attached to the exterior walls that I had seen elsewhere in Salzburg, so I included an example in this photograph of the corner of a brightly painted building.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great

January 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Main interior space of the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, London, England

Photographing this old church and surrounding facilities might serve as an example of what can happen if you don’t follow the crowds to the usual places when visiting a famous city such as London. Or, more accurately, it might be about what can happen if you do follow the crowds to those (deservedly famous and popular) places and then just wander off a bit aimlessly to see what else you might find.

We had initially been, if memory serves, sort of in the area of Trafalgar Square. At some point we ended up walking some blocks away from here to an area that we much less busy, since it was a real work area and this was a weekend. We were hungry, so we looked around for a pub and had some lunch. Leaving the pub we looked up the street and saw some interesting looking older buildings, so we just headed over that direction to see what we might find, and soon we saw the grounds of and entrance to the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew. At least on this day, this was not exactly a place swarming with tourists. In fact, there were hardly any. We decided to pay the small fee and spend a bit of time wandering around inside this very old church that is, in many places, filled with wonderful light. I made several photographs inside that I like, and in each one of them this light is a central feature. On a slight technical note, this is one of those photographs I made on this trip with the little Fujifilm X-E1 camera, here using the 14mm prime lens and shot handheld.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Street Lamp and Open Window

Levee Road and Trees

Yellow Wall, Hellbrunn Palace

Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great

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