Tag Archives: nature

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Travel

Mosque, Valbone River Valley, Albania

Image September 4, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A mosque in sunlight under cloudy skies in the Valbone River Valley, Albania.

We stayed in Kosovo (with the family of a member of our “European family”) for a few days this summer during our extended travels in Southern Europe. After visiting the more typical destinations for American tourists, this was more of a cultural “stretch” for us, and a very rewarding one it was. There is much to say about the experience that I will share elsewhere at some point, but on this day we went into the nearby mountains of Albania, driving to a point where the road ended along the Valbone River — a spectacular area that easily rivals my Sierra Nevada landscapes.

Along the way to this destination I saw this rural mosque sitting in this beautiful valley as we passed by, and I made a mental note to try to stop and photograph it on the way back down later in the afternoon. I managed to persuade the rest of our party to stop and give me some time to explore and photograph here, and I was not disappointed.

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Acanthus Leaves and Stem

Image August 20, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Macro photograph of leaves and stem.

These plants were abundant in a public garden we visited back at the end of spring. Remember spring? Back when California was still green, and before our summer golden brown arrived? That aside, in this San Francisco Peninsula garden something is always green no matter what the season.

Most of my photography on this visit focused on flowers, but here it is more about the plant itself — sturdy stem with thick leaves growing upwards and with thorn-like appendages along their edges. The faint purple coloration at the edges of the leaves sets of the bright green.