This is another photograph from the Alfama district of Lisbon. The neighborhood is the original center of historic Lisbon, though it later became home to lower income people. It escaped the destruction from the 18th-century earthquake that leveled large portions of the city, so it retains the narrow lanes, steep hills, and older buildings of an earlier era.
Continue reading Travessa de Sâo Miguel
Certain architectural features seem to characterize various cities. In Europe, from what I’ve seen, these include the materials available locally for construction, the types of roofs, and the color scheme. This view of the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon is a case in point — with mostly white-walled buildings and red-tiled roofs.
Continue reading Alfama Rooftops
We walk a lot when we visit cities, and on this Lisbon day we had walked to and then through portions of Alfama. This neighborhood is full of very old streets and buildings. It is built on a hill rising above the water, so many of those lanes are quite steep. Overall it was a slow and mostly quiet walk… until we emerged on this busy street!
Continue reading Trolleys and Tuk Tuk
My recollection is that I made this photograph on the last long day of our May walk in Portugal’s Douro Valley region. We walked out of the town of Alijo on a gray and damp day and into the surrounding vineyard-filled countryside. This door is on the side of an old stone building in one of those vineyards, and I assume that its purpose is related to wine growing in some way.
Looking back at my raw files of this subject, I realized that they embodied a basic rule of photography — try to get closer! My first photograph was of the whole building and the surrounding landscape. Then I moved in and tried to frame the full building by itself. Finally I walked even closer and found a couple of compositions featuring this weathered blue door.
An addendum: It turns out that Patricia Emerson Mitchell (https://patriciaemersonmitchell.com) photographed me as I positioned myself to make this photo!
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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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