Tag Archives: urban

Photographs: Netherlands, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Amsterdam Bike Lane

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Amsterdam Bike Lane
Cyclists on a bike lane on a cloudy day in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Bike Lane. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cyclists on a bike lane on a cloudy day in Amsterdam

This photograph is partly about bicycles and Amsterdam, partly about that interesting and dark sky, partly about Amsterdam architecture and buildings that lean, and partly about that guy in the foreground. This summer was our first visit to Amsterdam. We stayed just outside of the central city and walked a few blocks to get to the well-known areas each day. For many years I was a very active cyclist in the US, but this is an entirely different scene. Almost no lycra, dropped handlebars road bikes, few mountain bikes… and lots of people in street clothes riding very utilitarian bikes… and parking them everywhere. Somehow the intersecting types of traffic — foot, transit, canal, bicycle, car — seem to coexist here, though it can be quite confusing at times for a first-time visitor.

This day’s light was remarkable. There was thin sunlight, but there were also some lovely dark clouds in the sky. If memory serves, we were in light rain later that evening as we ate dinner outside. We ended up talking to a couple who live in Amsterdam about many things. I confessed that I had initially been mildly disappointed to find the cloudy weather when we arrived, expecting it to be sunny. They more or less laughed and pointed out that this was the more typical sort of conditions. (They claimed that I would not see blue sky. That turned out to be wrong… but only by a little bit!)

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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Pont Neuf, Twilight

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Pont Neuf, Twilight
The Pont Neuf Bridge over the Seine, twilight

Pont Neuf, Twilight. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Pont Neuf Bridge over the Seine, twilight

Near the end of this year’s European travels we were able to spend four nights in Paris before we left that city to meet up with family members in a nearby rural area. Three days and four nights isn’t a lot of time in Paris, but we used it to revisit some places we had been to in the past and to go to a few places we previously missed. We did “the usual” — ate a lot of food, sat in cafes, went to museums, walked a lot, attended a concert, made photographs.

The final evening before we departed ended up being special. It wasn’t that we went anywhere we hadn’t been before or did anything new. In fact, the places we went were all familiar to us. It was a conjunction of several things that made it magical. It was a weekend evening and there were huge crowds of people out walking everywhere. Along the Seine there were walkers, cyclists, people lounging, dancers, musicians, and more. We crossed the bridge at Pont Neuf right around sunset and continued along the banks of the river… and a few moments later I made this twilight photograph looking back toward the bridge.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Reflecting Pool, Structural Components, Skyline

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Reflecting Pool, Structural Components, Skyline
A pool and exterior components of Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

Reflecting Pool, Structural Components, Skyline. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pool and exterior components of Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

The Centre Pompidou in Paris is a fascinating place in many ways. To start with, there’s a lot going on in the surrounding neighborhoods, the large courtyard in “front” of the building, and inside. The art collection is quite wonderful. And, of course, the building itself is unusual and something of a marvel. It also provides plenty of opportunities for photography.

Many of the components of the building are on the exterior instead of being hidden behind a shell. Architectural structures, stairways, ventilation systems and more are right there for the observer to see. This photograph incorporates some of those structural elements, which form the main criss-crossing form in the image. It may not be immediately obvious, but the photograph was made outdoors and many floors above the ground level. Here a shallow pond reflects the structural elements and a bit of Paris sky, with the upper floors of surrounding buildings filling in the middle of the scene in the distance.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel

Stairs, Le Centre Pompidou

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Stairs, Le Centre Pompidou
Outside stairs at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

Stairs, Le Centre Pompidou. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Outside stairs at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

We had previously walked past the Pompidou Center museum but had not stopped, instead visiting other museums on our list. The structure is famous (or infamous, depending on your aesthetics) for its unusual architecture, which exposes lots of things that would usually be hidden beneath the skin of a more traditional building — ventilation ducts, stairs, escalators, structural reinforcements, and more. While the art inside the building was fascinating, the photographer in me was attracted to the structure itself.

I made this photograph from the ground level before we went inside. The simple “x” shape is superimposed on some of those exposed structural details, in this case a bunch of outside stairways. The color scheme of the building in this area is almost purely monochromatic — at first I thought I was looking at a black and white image, until I noticed a bit of yellow color along a margin. Since it was already monochromatic I decided to eliminate even that bit of color and go with a black and white rendition.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 |
Email

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