Tag Archives: wall

Welcome to Oz

Welcome to Oz
“Welcome to Oz” — Street scene near Il Mago di Oz, and eccentric shop in the Italian town of Orvieto.

We’re back (figuratively) in the Italian hill town of Orvieto again for this photograph. The title comes from the sigh behind the white metal bench, and it refers to a nearby shop that I’ve shared in a previous photograph. The shop (“Il Mago di Oz”) is a strange and fantastical collection of, well, just about anything its proprietor thinks fits the theme.

Besides its connection to Land of Oz, the photograph includes features that are common on backstreets in Italian towns like this one. The building is weathered in an attractive way, it sits directly on the edge of the narrow street paved with stones, there are plants, and the light is softened in the shadows of buildings along the passageway.


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 Tree, Brick Wall

Autumn Tree, Brick Wall
Brick wall and an autumn tree, The High Line, Manhattan.

Autumn Tree, Brick Wall. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Brick wall and an autumn tree, The High Line, Manhattan.

Merry Christmas 2023! This is another photograph in the recent series from Manhattan’s High Line Park, where the subject of partially bare autumn trees juxtaposed with brick walls held my attention. We took a long walk on the High Line on a breezy November day, and we were impressed by the amount of fall color. In truth, there was almost as much as I find in some of the natural areas where I photograph.

One source of interest in these subjects for me is the contrast between the natural and less-than-linear structures of the trees and the backdrop of linear and regular patterns in the brick walls. In each of them I also worked with side-light that highlights the structure of the walls, and I selected trees with just a few remaining autumn leaves.


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 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.

Autumn Leaves, Brick Wall #2

Autumn Leaves, Brick Wall #2
A nearly bare tree with autumn leaves and a brick wall, High Line Park, Manhattan.

Autumn Leaves, Brick Wall #2. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A nearly bare tree with autumn leaves and a brick wall, High Line Park, Manhattan.

This photograph is another on the theme of end-of-autumn trees and brick walls — of course, in Manhattan. The previous photograph in this series featured a much starker contrast between the dark wall and three white tree trunks. This one is more subtle, with darker and thinner branches that don’t stand out as clearly. This tree has only a few remaining colorful leaves, and I suspect that they, too, were gone soon after I made the photograph.

We tend to think of Manhattan as a purely urban place — and that impression isn’t far off the mark in many ways. But there are bits of the natural world here and there, and sometimes I think that their scarcity and the contrast with the surrounding engineered world makes them more poignant. This photograph comes from our November walk along the High Line Park.


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 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.

Three Autumn Trees, Brick Wall

Three Autumn Trees, Brick Wall
Three white-trunk autumn trees in front of a brick wall at High Line Park, Manhattan.

Three Autumn Trees, Brick Wall. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three white-trunk autumn trees in front of a brick wall at High Line Park, Manhattan.

On one of the days of our recent New York City trip we took a very long walk. We started at our hotel west of Central Park, roughly around the Natural History Museum, and headed south. Our first goal was the Hudson Yards complex, which we had not visited since it was under construction. Full of energy after a lunch stop there, we decided to keep going. We picked up the High Line Park walkway here and eventually ended up all the way down at the Whitney Museum.

The High Line Park is always fascinating. It is built on the right-of-way of the elevated railway that once ran along this side of Manhattan. I’m not aware of any park quite like it. In places it might be as narrow as a dozen feet wide, but its length makes up for what it lacks in width. Its elevated path takes you between buildings, across busy streets, underneath one hotel, and more. Along the walk there is plentiful vegetation – grasses, flowers, trees. The contrast between the regular form of the dark brick wall and the bright, fluid forms of these autumn tree trunks caught my eye.


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 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.