Tag Archives: vineyard

Street, Buildings, Shadows

Street, Buildings, Shadows
Afternoon shadows fall across buildings and a narrow street in Tuscany

Street, Buildings, Shadows. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon shadows fall across buildings and a narrow street in Tuscany.

This photograph is the second half of a pair similar photographs I made during this visit to a vineyard in Tuscany a few years back. The location (Castello de Ama) features a small central area of stone buildings, amounting to a very small village, surrounded by vineyards. As you can guess, that it was pretty much “typical Tuscany,” which is a very good thing.

Arriving towards the middle of the day, the light was intense during our entire visit, aside from a very few passing clouds. To this Californian there is something both familiar and different about Tuscan light. The intensity is similar, especially at midday during the summer, and stark contrasts between light and shadow are common. But the Italian light seems to me to be softer, or perhaps more accurately the atmosphere seems softer, perhaps as a result of humidity. This photograph and the one I posted earlier both feature stone buildings, a bit of a narrow street, and dark midday shadows.


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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Building And Shadow, Tuscany

Building And Shadow, Tuscany
A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

Building And Shadow, Tuscany. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

If you follow my posts you may have noticed quite a few post from Italy recently, and you might be wondering why. Have you been to Italy? ;-) OK, there are more objective reasons I can share. I make a habit of reviewing older work a year or more after I make the photographs. I see the images differently with a bit more subjective distance from the actual experience. There’s another reason, too, and it ties the place I live (California) to Italy it ways that have only recently made more sense to me. This spring and summer as I’ve walked trails in California’s grass and oak lands on warm days, it has hit me just how similar the experiences can be. And a visit to an area winery on such a day reinforced that feeling. So I suppose I’ve been enjoying both the pleasant memories of the 2016 visit from which this photograph comes and the realization that I live in a place that shares some Italy’s pleasant features.

This is one of a pair of related photographs I made at an Italian vineyard and winery we visited — both focus on the stone buildings and midday shadows. (The related image will show up here in a later post.) The vineyard centers on a very old hamlet consisting of stone buildings surrounded by vineyard. We were there in the middle of the day, and the unique Italian light was wonderful. I’m not quite sure how to describe it in words, but it has some remarkable combination of the intensity of southern light along with the softness of the Italian atmosphere.


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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Tables and Stools, Tuscany

Talbles and Stools, Tuscany
Stools and stone tables in the cellar at a Tuscan vineyard

Tables and Stools, Tuscany. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Stools and stone tables in the cellar at a Tuscan vineyard.

For serendipitous reasons I’m posting this photograph from Tuscany today. We were shopping and we wandered into a wine section, and while somewhat aimlessly looking over some of the selections we recognized that name of a winery we visited: Castello di Ama. We did not buy any wine while we were there, so it was fortuitous to discover a source locally.

While we were there we took a tour. I’m not an authoritative tour guide, but my recollection is that the place was essentially a very tine village at one time, and still has a small collection of buildings and cobbled roads. During a visit to the cellars we passed through this small space. I’m afraid I no longer recall precisely what its purpose is, but I find it visually intriguing in several ways.


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


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

Badia di Passignano

Badia di Passignano
Vineyards near the Badia di Passignano abbey

Badia di Passignano. Chianti Region, Italy. August 25, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Vineyards near the Badia di Passignano abbey

A few days ago we briefly left the mountainous country where we’ve been staying in the Chianti region of Italy and we made the drive down to Siena. (Siena is a marvelous place, and I hope to post photographs and some text about that visit later on.) We went there on paved country roads that passed through lots of rural areas, but we decided to head back north by way for the “freeway.” That being a bit too California-like, we left the main road and headed east into the hills.

Eventually the route arrived at open terrain and narrowed — the road passed between old stone walls here — and approached this remarkably-situationed old abbey, sitting along on a shallow ridge and surrounded by vineyards. The late afternoon sun and atmosphere produced a bit of haze as I photographed across the vineyards and back toward the structure.


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.