While out for a walk in Bath, England, I happened to look down and see this damaged green leaf sitting in a vortex of the weathered and eroded surface of the walkway. I’m not necessarily one to read overt messages into photographs, but if you enjoy searching for metaphors you may be able to come up with a few that seem relevant to this image.
Continue reading A Fallen Leaf
The Pena Palace sits on the top of a ridge above Sintra, Portugal, a short train ride from Lisbon. (You do have to get to the ridge from the train station, perhaps a story for another time.) It is a remarkable structure that appears like something from a fantasy, especially in the foggy and rainy conditions while we were there. The palace and its turrets and towers are painted in brilliant colors.
Continue reading Detail, Pena Palace
I have walked past this place scores of times — it is along one of my regular walks. I walk almost daily, often along one of a group of familiar routes. It had been weeks since I last did this one, so it was time again to visit it. As I walked along a creek and past some commercial buildings I “saw” something that I have certainly seen before, but not really noticed — a great wall of ivy roots stretched across concrete.
Continue reading Ivy Roots
Photographing desert canyon streambeds like this one in Zion National Park is rewarding in so many ways. They are little laboratories in composition, texture, alight, and color, with nearly infinite variations. Water, whether by the current flow or the aftereffects of its passage, produces all sorts of fascinating patterns. It rearranges, moves, and sometimes collects whatever is loose — in this case autumn leaves. The light can be magnificent, soft and colorful. In ideal conditions it reflects back and forth between red rock canyon walls before softly and warmly bathing the canyon depths.
Beyond all of that photographic stuff, canyons are just fascinating places to be. The walls cut off the outside world, and your horizons are measured in feet. It is usually very quiet, with the exception of a bit of breeze, the sounds of water, and sometimes a bird song. When I visit them I wander slowly, taking it all in.
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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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