Tag Archives: paint

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Shades of Blue

Image Leave a comment
“Shades of Blue” — Details of a blue wall with shutter, Equisheim, Alsace.

I think of these photographs as a sort of “found geometry” — patterns of color and texture and lines that can be viewed abstractly if you prefer. When I travel I’m usually on the lookout for these little vignettes, which are everywhere once you start looking for them. This one is simply a wall of a building in the little Alsatian town of Eguisheim.

Beyond their abstract qualities, these subjects can also hold a lot of history if you look closely. Eguisheim is a very old town, and very old towns contain a lot of, well, very old stuff. But they also are usually continuously updated, repaired, and spruced up. We can let new things go for a while without maintenance, but these old structures require a lot of attention. Here someone has obviously taken the time to paint the walls in multiple colors. But before long the old walls wear out and chip and crack.

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.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | BlueSky | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Frames

Image Leave a comment
Blue Frames
“Blue Frames” — An old stone building with blue frames around doors and windows, Stirling, Scotland.

The main focus of our visit to Scotland earlier this year was waking the Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness, but that hike only took up about a third of our visit. Before the walk we spent several nights adjusting to jet lag, including stays in Glasgow, Oban, and Fort William. After the walk we had a night in Inverness, and multiple nights in Stirling, Glasgow, and Edinburgh… before a bit more than a week in England. Stirling, where I made this photograph, was our first serious non-hiking destination after the walk.

Like so many old towns — and Stirling is very old — the construction materials often reflect what was available locally. Here many of the old buildings are stone — they have been updated for modern tenants, but their appearance is far from contemporary. I love interesting geometry and color, and this juxtaposition of old stone walls with the blue-painted frames around the doors and windows caught my attention. Looking more closely, you may also see the remnants of older openings that have been closed off.

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.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Leaf, Stone, Weathered Paint

Image Leave a comment
Leaf, Stone, Weathered Paint
“Leaf, Stone, Weathered Paint” — A leaf lies on a stone sidewalk marked with weathered paint, Hakone Gardens.

This photograph was most certainly not the thing I came here to photograph. We went to the Hakone Japanese Gardens this spring, timing our visit for the peak of the cherry blossom season, and arriving in the late afternoon so that we could photograph these and many other blossoms on into the evening. Photographing old and worn out steps and dead leaves was not the main goal!

As we walked some of the hillier paths the route followed a series of old stone steps. It appeared that at one time some of the steps may have been coated with paint — red in some spots and yellow in others. But that paint was apparently not renewed, and today there are just scattered bits of it here and there on the rocks.. The single dead leave seemed to evoke a feeling quite at odds with the spring theme we were there for.

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.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

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

Utility Box Art, Arezzo

Image Leave a comment
Utility Box Art, Arezzo
“Utility Box Art, Arezzo” — A take off on Magritte’s “The Man in the Bowler Hat” on a utily box in Arezzo, Italy.

This image was on, as best as I could tell, some kind of utility box near the entrance to a building in Arezzo, Italy. I recall first becoming aware of similar things in Florence a few years ago, where I saw (and also photographed) an image of composer Giuseppe Verdi. (Verdi wears goggles in that image, which is the signature of an artist known as “Blub.”) I like them quite a lot — for their combination of whimsy, references to great art in everyday circumstances, and how they disrupt what can be a somewhat plain visual environment.

This was not the only one we saw in the Arezzo. As we walked around the small central area o the town we saw others with a variety of different themes. (You can find many more images by the artist, Mauricio Rapiti, on social media and elsewhere.) In this case, it wasn’t just the image itself that caught my attention, but also the way it interacts with the lines of the wall on which it is placed.

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.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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