“Cemetery Gate” — Cemetery, gate and stairs, Kirk of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen.
Often when I make a photograph I remember a lot of specific details about the subject, how it looked, and why I chose to photograph it. But I’m not always good about recalling specific locations. (In many cases the “what” seems more important to me than the “where.”) I’m pretty certain that this is an entrance to the cemetery around the Kirk of St. Nicholas in Aberdeen, Scotland. But while I recall the general layout of the place and the subjects I saw, I’m not precisely sure about the location beyond that general description.
“Window with Wrought Iron” — Wroght iron casts a shadow below a window in Casals de Loivos, Portugal.
I photographed this window on the morning we departed Casals de Loivos on the final day of our one-week walk in the hills and vineyards of Portugal’s Douro Valley region. We took a brief walk thought this small village before walking the steep trail downhill to Pinhão, where this segment of our trip would end.
Our arrival in Casals de Loivos was a spectacular conclusion to the walk. We stayed at an inn with a terrace overlooking the Douro Valley and the winding Douro River far below. This window, with its wrought iron grate and fascinating shadows seems to me to capture one of the kinds of light we saw here — bright, brilliant, high angle light that somehow manages to not be harsh despite being intense.
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“Detail, Wrought Iron” — Details of wrought iron work at the Chateau d’Eau, Montpellier, France.
During our December visit to Montpellier, France we visited the Promenade du Peyrou, a large public square on a hilltop. The plaza was filled with a Christmas market, of course. Montpellier’s very own Arc de Triomphe stands at one end of the plaza, and the Chateau d’Eau (water tower) at the other end. This detail is part of the latter monument.
The water tower (of which I have shared photographs previously) sits at the end point of an ancient Roman aqueduct. It features the columns you see on the left, but look more closely and there is some wonderful wrought iron work – with a combination of very sharp pointed shapes and soft, gentle curves.
“Street Scene, Calle el Temple” — Blocked-off ground-level units and weathered walls at Calle el Temple, Zaragoza.
I am always a bit of a sucker for old buildings that show the effects of time, especially if they are on narrow, car-free European streets, and perhaps more so when they are a bit messy around the edges. This building puzzled me. The ground floor seemed abandoned, with doorways sealed of its bricks. But the second story and above seemed well-maintained.
We stayed in the old part of Zaragoza, Spain. This location is mere footsteps from our hotel, and we walked past it a number of times. ON this morning we were just starting a walk that would take us the Central Market, then to some historical buildings, followed by a walk along the river back to the center of this part of town.
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” from Heyday Books, is available directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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