Tag Archives: roofs

Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Oban, Scotland

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Oban, Scotland
“Oban, Scotland” — An elevated view of central Oban, Scotland, from near McCaig’s Tower.

Judging from our brief 2-night stay in this Scottish town, Oban is a charming place. It sits right on the waterfront and, from what I could see, mostly lines the shoreline and nearby hills. My impression is that the town is largely connected to three things: tourism, water-related industry (ferries, tours, and fishing), and whisky. (The well-known and highly-regarded Oban Distillery is right in town). Because we were there before the prime summer season the impact of tourists was perhaps less than it might be late.

We had two nights in Oban, and we walked around a lot on our full day in town. We had seen McCaig’s Tower, the old circular structure on top of the nearby hill, so we decided to do the steep but short walk up there. This photograph comes from that walk, and it looks out over the town from that hillside, with a view towards more distant hills and islands.

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

Torre del Mangia, Siena

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Torre del Mangia, Siena
“Torre del Mangia, Siena” — Overview of a portion of historic central Siena with the Torre del Mangia.

This might be one of the more traditional “travel photographs” that I’ve shared, but I think it is a pretty interesting one for what it illustrates about the old, central part of Siena, Italy. The dominant feature is the tower, the Torre del Mangia, located next to the Campo, or central square of the city, famous for its horse races.

But beyond that singular feature, there are a lot of other details in the scene. I photographed from a slightly elevated position just at the edge of the old part of the town, and the rising hill reveals just how densely packed the buildings are — and how much the town’s layout comes from an era when people got around by walking rather than driving.

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

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Travel

Overlooking The Duoro

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Overlooking The Duoro
The Duoro River winding through Porto, Portugal on a hazy afternoon.

You would be wrong if you thought that I had shared all of the photographs from our 2023 Europe travels! I came back with more than 5000 image files. I’ve traversed the full set a few times, and there are a lot more photographs there for me to finalize. This one comes from our stay in Porto, Portugal, on a warm late afternoon when a random walk took us past this viewpoint above the Duoro River, at a park where the locals were hanging out.

We wander quite a bit when we travel. In fact, just plain walking around and discovering things is probably our favorite activity. This has some downsides — sometimes our approach means that we miss important things. But there are benefits: we see things that folks on the usual tourist itinerary may miss, sometimes we end up talking to people, and we have an experience that is closer to discovering (rather than being led to) things.

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.

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

Orvieto Rooftops

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Orvieto Rooftops
Stone and tile buildings of Orvieto, Italy.

Orvieto Rooftops. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Stone and tile buildings of Orvieto, Italy.

Our 2023 European travels took us mostly (with only a few day’s worth of exceptions) to the southern part of the continent. We spent a lot of time in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Croatia… and also visited Kosovo and briefly passed through places including Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and Montenegro. Along the way we did visit some of the very popular places, those that are predictably crowded during the summer tourist season. But we also managed to spend time in some slightly less-visited places, among them a couple of smaller towns in Italy.

One of these was the “hilltop town” of Orvieto in Umbria. It would not be accurate to suggest that this is a place without tourists. In fact, it is a very popular destination for daytime visits from other nearby locations. But we stayed there for a couple of nights and saw a different aspect of the place. In the mornings and after day-trippers depart in the late afternoon it is much quieter and far less crowded. In fact, it turned out to be one of our favorite places of the entire trip.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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