Tag Archives: lights

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

Night Street, Florence

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Night Street, Florence
An empty, curving street at night, Florence, Italy

Night Street, Florence. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An empty, curving street at night, Florence, Italy

Three years ago we visited Florence, Italy near the end of more than a month of European travel. We were in Italy for almost the last two weeks of our trip, with most of the time spent with extended family in the hills of the Chianti region. From there we went to Florence for a few days of sightseeing, eating, museum visiting, and photography before we caught our flight back home.

In the summer, central Florence is a pretty busy place, filled with tourists during most of the daytime hours. I like photographing people, but it can be overwhelming. However, there were two times of the day when I could walk and photograph in relatively crowd-free conditions: early in the morning and late enough in the evening that the crowds had thinned. By the time I walked past this street, in a place where there would have been a good number of people earlier in the day, it was essentially deserted.

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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Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Shipyard Crane Structure, Night

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Shipyard Crane Structure, Night
The base of a gigantic rolling crane structure, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

Shipyard Crane Structure, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The base of a gigantic rolling crane structure, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I did my first real night photography at this location, the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, fifteen years ago. I more or less randomly saw an announcement for a free introduction to night photography at the Flyway Festival at Mare Island, and without giving it much thought I signed up. The session was organized by Tim Baskerville, a guiding-light (guiding dark?) of the San Francisco Bay Area night photography scene and the leader of a group called “The Nocturnes.” (Studio Nocturne SF, the night photography collective I work with today, is a direct descendent.) I had almost no idea what I was doing on that first night photography adventure, but I was taken by the genre (and by this location) and I’ve been photographing at night ever since.

This week a group of us met for a “Nocturnes Alumni Event” at Mare Island, and after sharing and pizza we headed out into the dark to make photographs. It is a bit of a strange experience for me by now. I am very familiar with many of the features of the place, but there have been many changes, too. Back in 2003 the site was almost entirely abandoned, and it was not clear what would become of it. Today portions are being redeveloped, for better or worse — mostly better, I think. So some of the old subjects are gone, others that were off-limits back then are now accessible, and new things have appeared. On this evening I was able to get up close to some of these remarkable and gigantic old shipyard cranes. In a Silicon Valley world of virtual industries, it is quite striking to stand beneath these very solid and very real machines — gigantic things that were used to move the components for building ships.

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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.

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Evening Stroll, Montmartre

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Evening Stroll, Montmartre
People walking in the evening along narrow streets of Montmartre, Paris

Evening Stroll, Montmartre. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People walking in the evening along narrow streets of Montmartre, Paris

This is another photograph from our 2016 European trip, on which we spent about a week in Paris. It was, I’m almost embarrassed to admit, our very first visit to the city. (It is a long story. But at least we did finally go. And we’ll go back again!) We loved everything about our stay there. When we travel to such places we spend a lot of time walking — to and from locations we want to visit, wandering around once we get there, and exploring neighborhoods near our accommodations or which happen to catch our attention.

I made this photograph “in the neighborhood” near our hotel in Montmartre. My recollection is that we had headed out looking for a place to eat dinner — something of a daily adventure — and were walking around during the sunset and evening hours. This is a great time for street photography, since the lights of businesses have come on, yet the ambient light from fading daylight is still bright enough to illuminate the scene.

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.

Photographs: France, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

La Pierrade, Evening

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La Pierrade, Evening
The sidewalk and street in front of La Pierrade, Montmartre, Paris.

La Pierrade, Evening. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The sidewalk and street in front of La Pierrade, Montmartre, Paris.

I made this photograph on, literally, our first night in France ever. (Yes, we are late-bloomers when it comes to international travel. That’s a long story involving finances, bringing up a family, strong interest in visiting other places, and more.) We had been in London for over a week — not our first visit there — and had arrived in Paris by train in the afternoon, finding out way to our hotel in Montmartre, unpacking, and then deciding it was time to head out and explore. (Here I could tell another funny story on us, involving our discovery that you can get an espresso just about anywhere in this part of Paris, but I’ll save that one for another time, too.)

When we went out we had several goals. One was testing our ability to navigate in a city whose language we do not speak. (It was fine.) Another was to start to get a fix on the surrounding neighborhood. A third, and may be most important, was to find something to eat! That’s hardly a problem in Montmartre, though deciding which place to patronize was challenging. At the intersection where I made this photograph we finally picked one and enjoyed a simple meal outdoors. Whether this is visible in this small online photograph or not is a question, but there are some interesting interactions going on among the people in this nighttime sidewalk scene.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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