Tag Archives: wall

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

Unfun

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Unfun
Weathered wall with graffiti, Amsterdam

Unfun. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Weathered wall with graffiti, Amsterdam

For the most part I don’t photograph graffiti, and on the rare occasions when I do in the US I may alter the painted “tags” in post in order to avoid giving publicity to folks who, it may be argued, are basically vandalizing the property of others. I’m also sometimes a bit uneasy, when the marks transcend mere graffiti and become street art, about simply capturing an image of someone else’s art and presenting it as my own.

But sometimes I can’t help myself. In fact, on our 2018 European travels we encountered so much graffiti that it would almost be dishonest to pretend that it isn’t part of the urban landscape. (Especially in Berlin. Very much especially in Berlin…) This little example comes from Amsterdam, and I appreciated several things about it. I was intrigued to see that it was mostly constrained to the blocks or rectangular material on the right side of the frame and mostly not on the bricks — almost as if these were somewhat well-mannered graffiti artists. The juxtaposition of shapes and colors interested me in its own right. And then there is that enigmatic “UNFUN” inscription in a somewhat neat sans-serif font, contrasting with the other colorful scrawls on this wall.

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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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fractured Rock

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Fractured Rock
Detail of a fractured rock wall in the John Muir Wilderness

Fractured Rock. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a fractured rock wall in the John Muir Wilderness

There are quite a few “photographer jokes” that you’ll hear if you hang out long enough with these folks. (I should make a list sometime!) Some of them come up in answer to the common question, “What did you photograph?” (A variation on, “What are you photographing?” and not totally unrelated to, “Did you get anything good?”) In a lot of cases, when asked the “what did you photograph?” question, you have choices: given a long answer (often the truest response) and make your questioner wish they hadn’t brought it up, give a very short superficial answer, or make a joke. One joke answer among some folks I know and sometimes photograph with is a cheery, “Rocks, water, and trees!”

If you have been watching recent photographs from this location in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, you may be forgiven for noting that in some cases I seem to have been reducing the subjects from “rocks, water, and trees” down to the minimal, “rocks…” This is — obviously! — one such example. It is the sort of thing that most folks would probably not see, since it wasn’t in an obvious place and is in a location where you could easily walk past while looking at other, larger things. But I wasn’t looking for the obvious, at least not only for the obvious, so I stopped here and poked around a bit, discovering a small section on a larger rock fact where the remnants of an old layer of pink rock were gradually breaking away from the underlying gray material. One more thing — when I make a photograph like this one, focusing on some compositional aspect of some small and non-iconic thing, I often think of the photographs of Mike Osborne, one of the original “First Light” photographers and a person with a unique and wonderful way of “seeing” the Sierra Nevada landscape.

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: France, Photographs: People, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Couple With Roller Bags

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Couple With Roller Bags
A couple of tourists pulling roller bags on a Paris sidewalk

Couple With Roller Bags. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A couple of tourists pulling roller bags on a Paris sidewalk

I photographed this couple in Le Marais, Paris, not far from where we stayed for a few days near the end of August. If I recall correctly it was Friday evening, and I suspect that these folks were just arriving for the weekend. (I could be wrong — perhaps they live here and were returning from travels.) Their appearance in this scene was fortuitous. I had noticed the monumental weathered wall in the background. I was intrigued, but it hardly seemed like a photograph by itself. But with people in the frame such a surface can add interest.

Being a relatively light travel — at least when traveling by air — I can also identify a bit with these folks. This European trip was nearly six weeks long, yet we managed to restrict ourselves to carry-on luggage — one backpack-style bag plus a smaller “camera” bag that fit under airline seats. (We cheated a bit, too. We did ship some more formal clothes ahead of time for one special event that we attended in Germany.) Even with our relatively light loads, sometimes at the end of a day of travel those bags just… weigh you down. These folks look like they just might be having a similar moment…

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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: Architecture, Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Hostel 36

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Hostel 36
Window and entrance to Hostel 36, Heidelberg

Hostel 36. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Window and entrance to Hostel 36, Heidelberg

By now we have visited Heidelberg several times, spending a total of perhaps a couple of weeks there. We have relatives (Patty’s brother and sister-in-law) who live there, so we almost always include a visit when we are in that part of the world. By now we’ve wandered a bit around the city, especially the Altstadt area and its surroundings, but also on the other side of the hill that runs along the opposite of the Neckar.

The Altstadt is, of course, a bit of a tourist destination. It is an older area of the city, many of the streets are narrow enough that there is little or no vehicle traffic, it is filled with restaurants, hotels, and other things that attract visitors, with historic churches, a university, and a large castle in the hills above. I recall that the first visit took us right up one of those streets filled with shops and restaurants. We still go there, but we also wander away from the “main drag” and into some of the back streets. It was on one such walk that I spotted this scene, a hostel with an unusual color exterior color scheme.

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 | Facebook | Email

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