Tag Archives: narrow

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman with Umbrella, Salzburg Street

May 21, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Salzburg, Austria street scene including a woman with an umbrella

This is one of those photographs that you could see in any number of ways, I think. It is a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria, not far from the main square and the Salzburg Cathedral and perhaps right in front of the building that is described as the birthplace of Mozart. (Somehow the juxtaposition of a shopping district with that place seems just a bit jarring.) You could regard it as an almost random scene from this street, though I think there is a bit more going on.

One of the things I like about street photography is working quickly and spontaneously, reacting quickly to people, events, and juxtapositions that may last only for a brief moment. If I recall correctly, I perhaps began simply by thinking “there is a shot here somewhere, with all these people on this narrow street.” Then things began to coalesce a bit when I noticed the bright backlight streaming almost directly down the street and stretching long shadows toward me. Then I saw the woman with the dark umbrella — and who can resist a photograph of umbrellas!? As she walked past I quickly made a brief series of photographs, trying to instantly place her and her shadow in some kind of compositional relationship with people and objects in the scene. From this series, this one has her standing slightly apart from others and with her shadow stretching toward the lower part of the frame, and a similar shadow from another woman almost parallels it. The people at front right were in shadow (yes, some work in post makes them more visible) but I felt like they provided some balance to the brightness on the left side of the frame and, to me at least, there is something a bit odd and interesting about their intense gaze at something behind me. Looking closer at the people in the scene — closer than I could consciously look when I pressed the shutter release — I find the dark figure on the right margin interesting, and as the people stretch into the distance several of them seem to have stories to tell, too.

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

Shop Windows

May 10, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shop windows and posters along a narrow street in Heidelberg, Germany

During our 2013 visit to Germany we spent a total of about a week in Heidelberg, a city that seems to combine modernity with the old. From what we saw, the main evidence of “the old” is, literally, the old town of Heidelberg. While it is a tourist area, it is also the site of a lot of very old buildings lining narrow streets. We stayed with relatives, and were close enough that a short walk took us over a hill and across the Neckar River to the old section of the town.

I’m not sure I can explain what attracted me to this little building, crowded among other shops along a very narrow street that is mostly used as a walkway. Perhaps there is some unusual combination (as least from the perspective of my American experience) combination of orderliness and a slight edginess, but in a building that is not particularly modern. I decided to crop the image of the front of the shop closely, eliminating much of any context aside from the bit of slightly mossy sidewalk at the bottom of the frame. Everything seems very square and geometrical, though slightly aged and a bit off kilter. Although the windows are filled with posters, perhaps suggesting something of this university town, I notice that the posters are very carefully squared and centered in the windows, and even the clutter inside the building seems organized somehow.

Photographs: Germany

Steingasse, Altstadt-Heidelberg

May 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The narrow, cobblestone Steingasse in the old town section of Heidelberg, Germany

As many tourists probably do, we entered the old section of Heidelberg after crossing the bridge to the old gate, passing though it, and walking up this narrow, cobblestone street, lined with restaurants. We probably actually managed to pass a few of the restaurants without stopping… before we finally gave in and sat down to eat.

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

Bridges, Narrow Street

April 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This is another photograph from nearly two years ago when we spent a week in London. We stayed a ways from the center of the city and each day traveled back and forth by way of the Underground, and then doing almost all of our wandering about on foot. We prefer this for the most part, and being on foot we can easily wander off into interesting areas or linger if we see something that deserves more time. (I often do something very similar when I head to nearby San Francisco to do street and urban photography.)

We had taken the tube in, gotten off, and walked across a bridge. Arriving on the far side of the River Thames we saw a narrow old side street and couldn’t resist wandering off that direction. The general landscape seemed to be a slightly dissonant one of what looked to be a narrow old cobblestone street, but with a number of more modern looking businesses and other structures. The street itself was quite interesting — and somewhere I have some photographs of it — but the most interesting thing to me was the dense, crisscrossing pattern of multiple levels of bridges high above the street.

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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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: narrow

Woman with Umbrella, Salzburg Street

Shop Windows

Steingasse, Altstadt-Heidelberg

Bridges, Narrow Street

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