Tag Archives: window

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Lamp and Open Window

January 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street lamp and two windows on a building wall along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

I saw these interesting lamps on my first day walking around in Salzburg but didn’t think much more about them until later. They were attached to walls by what look like curved rods of iron, and were not like anything that I’m familiar with. Later, when visiting a location near but not in Salzburg, I saw the same lamps on other buildings. Now, seeing a pattern, I started looking for them, and they popped up in lots of different places in and around Salzburg.

This wall belongs to what I presume is a home or apartment along a narrow street not far from central Salzburg. In the afternoon we walked away from the busy old central city and headed toward a nearby area where we had parked, and as we did we passed through a number of these old, narrow streets. In places, the afternoon light was almost parallel to the streets, and here it glances across the rough surface of the wall, hitting one window and casting a shadow on the open upper window.

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Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Salzburg Cafe

December 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People sit at an outdoor cafe on a sidewalk along a narrow street in Salzburg, Austria

This is sort of a photograph of nowhere in particular in Salzburg, Austria. A ways off from the busy downtown area around the touristy shops and other old buildings, things seem to quiet down a lot. There are few or no cars on many of this very narrow streets – barely wide enough for a single car anyway, and the tightly packed multistory buildings create a sort of canyon effect. There do not appear to be any gardens here, and every plant I recall seeing on most of these streets was growing in a pot. The buildings are not all the same color, but they do all seem to be pastel shades.

As we walked in this area we came to a t-intersection, with this little cafe occupying the middle of the upper bar of the “t.” I photographed it straight on from the other street on the intersection. I was fascinated by the almost complete lack of “branding” on this business – it was only by looking very closely at the photograph that I could make out a name for the place. The most obvious sign simply says “cafe & restaurant.” I was also interested to see that the seating, of which there must not be enough inside the building, not only spilled onto and across the narrow sidewalk, but extended right into the street, where its boundaries were defined by the large potted plants! A couple sits in the green chairs on the right with a very young child. They seem to perhaps be the grandparents – and grandpa is catching a smoke while grandma tends to the child. The colors in the seating area contrast with the pale, pastel colors of the buildings (and the matching umbrellas), and include a green that is brighter than that of the plants and lemon yellow back near where two men talk on the right.

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fallen Leaves

September 15, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fallen leaves on a grate along a Seattle downtown sidewalk

August 14 was a day off during the Seattle Opera “Ring” cycle – a series of four Wagner operas performed over a six-day period. For those who may not know, attending a full production of the Ring is almost a full-time occupation for the better part of a week. This may sound unbelievable to those who cannot imagine such a thing, but the four operas range from as short as about 2 1/2 hours up to well beyond five hours for the last one, Götterdämmerung – and once you start to “get it” and buy into the whole story, the music, and everything that goes with a production of this thing, well you’ll understand. In any case, on this first of two free days we had during the performances we decided to keep it simple and just head to downtown Seattle to walk around and see what we could photograph.

We took a fairly free-form approach to the shoot, starting near Pike Place Market where we knew we could get some coffee and then photographing people and stuff in and around the Market. We finished there and headed south through downtown, with no particular goal in mind. Eventually we got as far as the Art Wolfe Gallery, where we looked around a bit before heading north again. These street shoots are a lot of fun. I often shoot quickly, using a small camera and almost always just a prime, and I forego the usual tripod and gobs of heavy equipment. Subjects can range from people to buildings to little bits and pieces of urban detritus, and they frequently appear and are gone quickly. Something about this conjunction of lines and textures caught my attention, along with the faintly mossy green tint and the bit of accidental nature in the form of the leaves that had fallen on the metal grate.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Urban/Street

Antiquariat

August 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Doorway of a bookstore in Heidelberg, Germany

Once we got off the “main drag” (aka, the “hauptstrasse”) in Heidelberg, the streets became even narrower, the crowds diminished, the number of (mostly) young people riding bicycles increased, and there were more small shops that seemed quite unique. I think that this shop sells used or old books from the looks of it, but I’m afraid that I did not go inside to check – I don’t speak more than a few words of German, so a German bookstore was going to be more than a bit of a challenge!

Visually the store was still interesting, though. I’m fascinated by the interesting colors of paint on the walls and by the rather distressed quality of that paint on these old buildings, along with the odd and perhaps misaligned angles – you can see them clearly here if you take a close look at the door and its frame. There were a few small items sitting outside on the steps, but they hardly constituted a display that was guaranteed to grab the attention of passers-by. Inside you can see the inviting ambience of almost any old bookstore, with the warm glow of a lamp sitting on a desk or table.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: window

Street Lamp and Open Window

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Salzburg Cafe

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Fallen Leaves

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Antiquariat

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

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