Tag Archives: town

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Urban/Street

Altdeutsche Weinstube

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Altdeutsche Weinstube
A small child on the sidewalk passes in front of Altdeutsche Weinstube

Altdeutsche Weinstube. Heidelberg, Germany. August 15, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small child on the sidewalk passes in front of Altdeutsche Weinstube

I must have made this photograph while walking up one of the back streets of the altstadt, a few blocks over from the popular main street. I simply grabbed the photograph and moved on, so I don’t know much of anything about the building aside from what I can see in the photograph. (A check of Google Maps suggests that whatever business was in there may now be closed.)

The building itself was fascinating to me, with its badly weathered brightly colored pain and the old script painted signs (partially painted over) on the wall. The small child walking by at that moment — and alone! — was a bonus in many ways. Among them is the strange sense of scale that he provides. Either he is a very tiny child or, more likely, the scale of the building is a bit larger than we might think.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Ghost Towns, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Abandoned Stamp Mill

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Abandoned Stamp Mill
“Abandoned Stamp Mill” — An abandoned water-powered stamp mill high in the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park

It seems that every national park or monument has both a natural and a human hisstory, or perhaps a story about the relationship between the two. While the power of natural forces (heat, water, geology, and more) is abundantly obvious in the huge, austere landscape of Death Valley National Park, the human history of the place is rarely far from view. It begins with the evidence of people who lived here long before European-origin settlers came, evidence that can be seen in rock art scattered throughout the park, in the recognition that many settlements (current and now-abandoned) have a very much longer history than we may think, and in the native people who still occupy and identify with this landscape.

Perhaps more obvious is the more recent history of those who came to look for mining success. (There are places in the park where extraction still takes place.) Some examples are obvious to the casual visitor, but the more time you spend in the back-country of the park the more you understand that this particular history is everywhere — though not usually as obvious as this example. This stamp mill, built to crush gold ore, is amazing in multiple ways. Perched at the end of high ridge in very remote location, it was powered in the most unlikely manner… by water piped in from a spring over twenty miles away. The location is stupendous, and it is easy to think that practical issues may not have been the only considerations in choosing the site. From here one can look down thousands of feet to broad alluvial slopes leading towards Death Valley, but one can also look further into the distance and see the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Local People, Radda

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Local People, Rodda
Local people form an impromptu tableau in the town of Radda, Italy

Local People, Radda. Radda, Italy. August 27, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Local people form an impromptu tableau in the town of Radda, Italy

It was our last day in the hills of the Chianti region of Italy, and for reasons I cannot recall at the moment we made one final visit to the small, hilltop village of Radda, situated in the wine and olive growing region between Florence and Siena.

We arrived early — which makes sense, in retrospect, because later we had to drive to Florence, where we would stay for the next few days before flying back to the US. The town, which can be quite busy at times, was rather quiet, and some of the small streets were almost deserted. The sun was low enough still that the narrow streets were still in shade. I walked up steps to the front of the town church, looked down, and made this photograph of an interesting collection of people standing near some steps.

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

Photographs: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club

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Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club
A few people stand outside the Colchester Billiards and Snooker Club along a narrow curving street

Colchester Billiards & Snooker Club. Colchester, England. August 4, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few people stand outside the Colchester Billiards and Snooker Club along a narrow curving street

During our lengthy travels (five weeks on the road!) this past summer we spent a bit more than a week in London. While most of our plans were in London, we decided to get out into the country at least once on this trip. So, more or less on a whim, we decided to take the train to the town of Colchester after reading a brief entry about it on some website or similar. (In some ways we are fans of injecting a bit of randomness into our trip planning — we often discover interesting things that way.)

Colchester is a smallish town at more or less the end of a spur railroad line. It obviously attracts a certain number of tourists, perhaps day trippers from London, since it has a number of shops and places to eat and so forth. It also has a few historic structures including a castle (of course!) and a very old church. On the other hand, it also features some mundane things — we saw a lot of hearing aid shops! Up this narrow, curving street I spotted an interesting spot of color in the green building, along with a few people populating the tables in front of the local Billiards and Snooker Club.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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