Tag Archives: narrow

Photographs: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club

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Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club
A few people stand outside the Colchester Billiards and Snooker Club along a narrow curving street

Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club. Colchester, England. August 4, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few people stand outside the Colchester Billiards and Snooker Club along a narrow curving street

During our lengthy travels (five weeks on the road!) this past summer we spent a bit more than a week in London. While most of our plans were in London, we decided to get out into the country at least once on this trip. So, more or less on a whim, we decided to take the train to the town of Colchester after reading a brief entry about it on some website or similar. (In some ways we are fans of injecting a bit of randomness into our trip planning — we often discover interesting things that way.)

Colchester is a smallish town at more or less the end of a spur railroad line. It obviously attracts a certain number of tourists, perhaps day trippers from London, since it has a number of shops and places to eat and so forth. It also has a few historic structures including a castle (of course!) and a very old church. On the other hand, it also features some mundane things — we saw a lot of hearing aid shops! Up this narrow, curving street I spotted an interesting spot of color in the green building, along with a few people populating the tables in front of the local Billiards and Snooker Club.

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: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Walking Man, Narrow Street

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Walking Man, Narrow Street
A man walks up a narrow street in Florence, Italy.

Walking Man, Narrow Street. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 29, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man walks up a narrow street in Florence, Italy.

This past summer we had the chance to do some extensive travel. The “main event” was a five-week trip that began in New York City and continued to London, Paris, Heidelberg, and various places in Italy. After a week in the wine and olive country of the Chianti region we returned to Florence for a few days before our return flight to the US. My only regret about this last phase of the journey was that we didn’t give ourselves nearly enough time in Florence!

Yes, Florence is now crowded with tourists, and in a place that isn’t that large to begin with the effect is hard to ignore. But putting that aside for a moment, Florence (at least to this observer) combines many things that seem typical of Italy with its own unique qualities. We stayed in the old part of Florence, between the Arno and the Duomo and not far from the Uffizi Museum. The streets here are strikingly narrow and lined with tall buildings, almost all in tones of brown to tan. The effect on the light reminds me in ways of being in the canyons of the American Southwest, though populated and perhaps more twisty, not by necessity following the effect of gravity on water. Unlike American cities, there are very few obvious signs in most places. And if you go out to the right places at the right times of day you can find nearly empty streets 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.
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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman In Polka Dot Dress

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Woman In Polka Dot Dress
“Woman In Polka Dot Dress” — A woman in a polka dot dress walks past a bicyclist on a Florence street

At the very end of our recent trip we ended up in Florence, Italy for a few days. We had been in the Chianti region just a bit south, and we were scheduled to begin our return flight at the Florence airport, so we figured that we should investigate this famous city a bit. (By the way, about that Florence airport… perhaps a story for another time.) This was our first visit to Florence, and it is a remarkable city in many ways — its very long history, its maze of narrow, curving streets, the architecture and museums, and more. I would like to go back.

It is also a pretty popular tourist destination, which seems to be the trend with so many such places. It seemed like most of the tourists were perhaps Italian, but the city was also crowded with people from all over the world. The press of visitors, of course, cannot help but have an effect on the city, and there is (as in so many popular cities) an uneasy balance between the qualities of the city that draw people there and those very people who come to visit. It seemed to me at times that perhaps 90% of the people I saw were either visitors or locals there to take care of the visitors. But every so often I would catch a glimpse of someone who did not fit into that pattern — a woman in a scarf ducking down and alley, someone going to work, perhaps the fellow with the bicycle, and this woman walking down one of the town’s narrow streets.

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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: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Alley, Approaching Car

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Alley, Approaching Car
A police car approaches in a narrow San Francisco alley

Alley, Approaching Car. San Francisco, California. July 25, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A police car approaches in a narrow San Francisco alley

This photograph is pretty much what it appears to be — a narrow San Francisco downtown alley between two major streets, a police car entering the alley (soon to followed by others), a stop sign painted on the ground, and an unusual combination of artificial light coloration and reflections.

This is one of the many street photographs that simply happens, and happens quickly. I was crossing the outlet of this alley, when I looked into it and saw the interesting lighting effects. At that moment the car turned into the alley, providing a focus of brightness at its far end. I raised the camera and photographed, barely having time to carefully compose, and a moment later a couple of police cars approached my end of the alley and i had to get out of the way.

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 | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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