Tag Archives: wall

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Spain, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Outdoor Plumbing, Madrid

Image January 28, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Near the end of our visit to Madrid we went for a long walk, One goal was El Rastro, where there is a long-standing street market every Sunday. Our walk was pleasant, passing through interesting neighborhoods and past historical sites. But this particular sight caught me off guard. You might imagine this is a sign of a run down neighborhood, but that isn’t my recollection. But there was this one odd little corner featuring a small toilet/outhouse with the door wide open. So I had to photograph it, right?

I can imagine that at least a few of you who follow my landscape photography might wonder if I’ve lost the thread here. However, I think that just about anything has potential as a photograph, sometimes even things that aren’t exactly pretty. Sometimes a difficult image can be beautiful, though I’m necessarily making that claim here. Other times it can reveal something about a subject or even tell a story. And such a photograph might just leave you asking some questions — which isn’t a bad thing.

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.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Spain, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Checking The Phone

Image January 18, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

We were in Madrid this past December. Our previous visit was during the torrid month of August — and we vowed not to do that again! We alost expected that things would be calmer without crowds of summer tourists. But we discovered that Madrid goes crazy right before Christmas. Thousands of people crowd the streets, though this crowd has far fewer foreign tourists. And yet, I made this quiet photograph of a solitary person in a place that was directly adjacent to the hubbub.

We had been out on a walk and a visit to some interesting places to eat and drink earlier in the evening. If I recall correctly, we were now starting to loop back toward our hotel when we walked up this side street and I found this fascinating brick wall covered with posters and a tangle of wires. Perhaps the woman in the photograph had also sought refuge from the crowds on this quiet side street?

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Shades of Blue

Image January 14, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I think of these photographs as a sort of “found geometry” — patterns of color and texture and lines that can be viewed abstractly if you prefer. When I travel I’m usually on the lookout for these little vignettes, which are everywhere once you start looking for them. This one is simply a wall of a building in the little Alsatian town of Eguisheim.

Beyond their abstract qualities, these subjects can also hold a lot of history if you look closely. Eguisheim is a very old town, and very old towns contain a lot of, well, very old stuff. But they also are usually continuously updated, repaired, and spruced up. We can let new things go for a while without maintenance, but these old structures require a lot of attention. Here someone has obviously taken the time to paint the walls in multiple colors. But before long the old walls wear out and chip and crack.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Arezzo, Italy

Image December 14, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

We came to this scene during a long exploratory walk. Our lodgings were in the lower part of old Arezzo, and as we walked into the old business area the streets began to ascend. There were people about, but it was nothing like the crowds in tourist centers like Florence, from which we had just arrived. Eventually we arrived at Arezzo’s Grand Piazza, but we kept going, right up to the old wall at the crest of the hill. We followed this to the left, stopping to enter an old church. As we came out I saw this little scene, which seems so characteristically Italian.

The building was on a small square near the entrance to the church. It had the features that are common here, including the stonework and the stucco walls, in one of the typical colors in these towns. (They tend toward earth tones of one sort or another.) As uncrowded as the lower town had been, here at the upper end we were almost alone.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wall

Outdoor Plumbing, Madrid

Checking The Phone

Shades of Blue

Doorway, Arezzo, Italy

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.