Tag Archives: stairs

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel

Courtyard and Stairs

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Courtyard and Stairs
An arched passageway, a courtyard, and stairs — Orvieto, Italy.

Courtyard and Stairs. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

An arched passageway, a courtyard, and stairs — Orvieto, Italy.

Because we were on such a long trip (ten weeks!), we scheduled some time in quieter, slower places between our visits to the “big name” destinations. After Florence we visited two places that are a bit less overrun, Arezzo and Orvieto. Neither is quite immune to tourism, but the difference is striking — especially in Orvieto, which seems to be visited by a lot of day-trippers. While certain areas are pretty busy in the middle of the day, in the morning and evening the place is quiet.

This photograph comes from Orvieto, a really lovely place. It is a “hill town,” built on the top of a mountain above the surrounding land and surrounded by old walls. While there is more modern stuff outside the walls and on the lower surroundings, the town itself is almost entirely old structures, including a really beautiful duomo. Walking around Orvieto we found little vignette like this at every turn.

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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Up The Stairs

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Up The Stairs
A woman pauses at the bottom of a staircase, San Francisco.

Up The Stairs. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A woman pauses at the bottom of a staircase, San Francisco.

This was one of those unexpected opportunities that make me operate on pure instinct, with almost no time to carefully think about what I’m doing. I saw the staircase in this fascinating light because we were at this concert hall in the daytime instead of at nighttime. I quickly whipped out the iPhone and framed a shot of the stairs. The masked woman — whose presence makes this a very different photograph than it might have been — was completely serendipitous.

We sometimes dismiss iPhone photography as not being serious. Well, some people do — but more and more folks recognize that it has its place. I wouldn’t normally carry a “real camera” to a symphony concert, but I do almost always have the phone. In this situation I was able to deploy it quickly, make a few adjustments, and capture a raw image that otherwise would have escaped.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Upper West Side

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Upper West Side
Steps leading to residences on the Upper West Side, Manhattan

Upper West Side. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Steps leading to residences on the Upper West Side, Manhattan

Recently I’ve been sharing a steady stream of landscape photographs, most of which came from trips to photograph fall color on the east and west coasts. We were in the East twice in recent months, and both times took us to somewhat more rural areas of New England — southern Vermont in August and New Hampshire (and a bit more Vermont) in October. But both times we include some time in New York City. That lengthy introduction is all by way of warning you that there’s some Manhattan urban and street photography coming up!

I start gently with this photograph, one that you might even think of as a sort of “urban landscape.” We often stay at a place on the Upper West Side, a bit west of the Natural History Museum, since it is outside of the busiest parts of Manhattan, provides good subway access, and is closer to some folks in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx. We walk a lot while we’re there, and I photographed these steps in the neighborhood on one of those walks. The line-up of the steps intrigues me, but I also like the unusual palette of colors.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stairway, San Francisco

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Stairway, San Francisco
A steep stairway ascends through a residential area of San Francisco.

Stairway, San Francisco. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A steep stairway ascends through a residential area of San Francisco.

The terrain underlying the city of San Francisco is in many places quite complex. Before settlement it was a place of hills cut by streams, flatlands, and shallows that were later filled in to expand the available land area. I made this photograph in an area along a ridge where the “sidewalks” are sometimes more vertical than horizontal and mostly consist of stairways.

There’s something a bit mysterious about this bending stairway as it winds upwards and twists out of sight. The mixture of angles and textures here is also fascinating — wood and concrete, horizontal and vertical, rigidly aligned to the horizon and angled in odd directions.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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