Tag Archives: motor

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel

Rio Dei Greci, Venice

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Rio Dei Greci, Venice
“Rio Dei Greci, Venice” — Motor boats on the Rio dei Greci canal, and the Campanile Bell Tower of San Gregorio dei Greci, Venice.

If memory serves (and if I’m interpreting the order of images in my files correctly) I made this photograph after we returned from a short visit to Murano, the Venice island famous for its glass work. I would have been standing on a bridge ( Ponte San Lorenzo) and looking along the canal toward the open water and Murano. The tower is the Campanile Bell Tower of San Gregorio dei Greci. (Hint: The famous one in Pisa is not Italy’s only leaning tower!)

This is another photograph from a recent return to the photo archives from our 2022 visit to Venice and other places in Southern Europe. Going back over these older files is partly fun — it rekindles a lot of memories. But it is also practical. I inevitably “discover” photographs that I left behind when I reviewed them immediately following the trip.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Vespa

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Blue Vespa
Blue Vespa in front of. a blue wall, Porto, Portugal.

Blue Vespa. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Blue Vespa in front of. a blue wall, Porto, Portugal.

These scooters are, of course, ubiquitous in Europe, especially in the warmer climates. On these extremely narrow streets, which lack much of any parking facilities, they are extremely practical. But to American visitors, at least up to a point, they also seem fun and romantic. (My guess is that the fun/romantic part impresses their owners less.)

All of this is by way of saying that I could not resist photographing a few of them, particularly when they came in striking colors or related to their surroundings in interesting ways. This blue Vespa was parked against a very weathered blue wall in the sunshine, with just a bit of Porto graffiti in the background.

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: Urban/Street

Orange F250

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A very orange Ford F250 pickup truck

Orange F250. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A very orange Ford F250 pickup truck.

This photograph is another from the little “orange exercise” that I and a few of my photographer friends engaged in around Halloween. The objects was to… photograph orange things. It turns out that this was a trickier task than I imagined. Because it was Halloween time, a lot of the potential orange subjects seemed a bit obvious. (Not that this entirely kept me from photographing pumpkins…) The surprise to me was that once I started looking for orange… the exact boundaries between orange and various other colors started to become fuzzy. I’d look at something that seemed orange, only to realize that in a different context it might be regarded as yellow or red or brown. There are objective facts about color, but our perception of it is highly subjective!

Having said that, there is no question in my mind that this truck is orange! I used to occasionally see cars painted in colors like this, but today mostly we see some pretty drab colors — generic white, black, gray, silver and similar. Even blue and green are less common than they once were. So this very orange truck caught my attention while I was out walking in the neighborhood. One more thing: perhaps, like me, if you stare at the shape of this vehicle long enough it may start to look really strange…

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: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Parked Scooter

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Parked Scooter
“Parked Scooter” — A scooter parked along a Paris street

I saw this scooter parked along a street in Paris — in the Le Marais area, if I recall correctly. In many urban European areas, at least that I’ve seen, such things are ubiquitous, along with the many urban bicycles. Here there is really little or no room for a car, but it is possible to squeeze in a bike or a scooter. The retro styling of these things is a lot of fun — they have an appearance that seems like it might have felt hyper-modern… about 40-50 years ago.

The scooter also reminds me of something that I rediscover to varying degrees when I travel, namely how much of what we do and expect is conditioned by familiarity with places and their customs. At one point on this trip we rented a car to drive from Paris (CDG airport) to a location southwest of the city where we would stay for a week. The area was semi-rural, but with towns and villages here and there. Driving in such places would be second-nature to me in the USA, but in France it was anything but! I had to actually try to understand and interpret traffic signs and graphics, something that takes considerably longer when the signs are unfamiliar and one is not a speaker of the local language. Even something as simple as knowing, for example, that it is apparently OK to park a scooter in a place like this would be an utter mystery.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.