Tag Archives: urban

Pausing At The Foto Automatica

This photograph of people pausing at the Foto Automatica in Florence took me back to a previous visit to this city. On that earlier trip we were barely there, stopping only briefly between time in Chianti and our flight home. We stayed in a hotel a few steps from this old-school photo booth, and I was surprised at its popularity. Even in an age of hand-held selfie cameras there seems to be something special about crowding into this little old-school booth.

I photographed it on that first visit, and I photographed it again when we spent a longer time in Florence, this time long enough to explore the place more extensively. We did not stay in the same hotel, but we walked past one day — and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Foto Automatica was still there, in its odd little corner along the narrow street. As I watched a (family?) group paused to make pictures.


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 | PostEmail

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

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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

Curving Street, Lisbon

This photograph comes from our longish walk across Lisbon to climb up toward the St. George Castle. If you walk in Lisbon, get used to hills! We walked down a pretty good one from our lodgings, and before long we climbed the large hill topped by the castle. We didn’t go into the castle grounds, since we had some other ideas in mind, so we were soon ascending and descending the steep hills again.

I loved this little narrow street. Just about every thing about it is charming, The route gently curves, and you walk along pavement embedded with interesting patterns and colors. The buildings themselves are painted in striking colors, too. And, of course, it is so narrow that it isn’t really suited to vehicles larger than scooters.


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 | PostEmail

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

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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

Autumn Chairs, Whitney Museum

As each season passes, the sensations of the previous season fade. But only a short time ago it was about colorful leaves falling from trees, crunching underfoot, and blowing along sidewalks and trails. I made this photograph as we passed the Whitney Museum at the end of a very long Manhattan walk in late November on one of those beautiful autumn days.

Sometimes the question arises: What is this photograph about? It is hard to be too specific about that. But here the colors are pretty important — the bright yellow of the chairs, the warm orange of the leaves, and the overall cool blue tones of the light. I think it is also “about” the juxtaposition of the constructed urban world and the organic forms of the natural world.


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 | PostEmail

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

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


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

2023: Favorite Photos

It is that time again — time to share favorite photographs from the past year. I am sharing “2023: Favorite Photos,” including a dozen representative images. I think it is a diverse set, and I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Below is a single image of the full set of twelve. Subjects include the Sierra Nevada (of course!), Death Valley (also of course!), the California coast, birds in California’s Central Valley, a macro photograph, an urban landscape from Manhattan, and several photographs from our 10-week visit to (mostly) Southern Europe.

It is a group of 12 images chosen from among my 2023 favorites — not necessarily my “12 Best Photographs” of the year. (See the difference?) The process of winnowing the set down to a dozen left out other favorites. I like all of those photographs, but I chose these because they represent a variety of work and cover some of the main experiences, places, and subjects of 2023.

I’ll post each photo separately below, too, adding a bit of narration to each image. I hope you enjoy them!

The individual photographs follow, in no particular order, accompanied by brief descriptions. Click the photographs to display them larger. Click their titles to see and read the original posts, which include more descriptive text. You may leave comments and questions at the end of this article.

Our long visit (ten weeks!) to Europe last summer was wonderful, but I missed almost the whole summer in “my Sierra Nevada.” (I haven’t yet figured out how to be in two places at once.) But once we returned to the USA I turned my attention to the mountains and made my first visit of the (tail end of) summer in mid-September. I was on the East Side on this stormy evening when the sky and clouds above Mono Lake lit up, providing a dramatic and spectacular light show.


Continue reading 2023: Favorite Photos