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

Cobbled Street

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Cobbled Street, Montpellier, France
“Cobbled Street” — A man walks up the slope of a steep cobbled street, Montpellier.

After visiting Monpellier’s Arc de Triomphe and nearby Christmas Market, we headed back down the Rue Foch toward the old center of the city, but soon took a detour to the north. It eventually took us to the St. Pierre Cathedral and then the nearby Jardin des Plantes. To get there, we first traveled through some quieter, winding back streets, including this one where I photographed a man ascending a steep section.

The light in this location and others like it reminds me a lot of the light in slot canyons in the American Southwest. Because this “canyon” is also narrow and lined by tall “walls,” direct light rarely makes it to the street level. As a result, the light is often quite “cool,” or blue, since most of it is coming from the sky itself. But in places where the sunlight hits the walls, it reflects back and forth and sends a bit of warmer toned light into the “canyon,” as on the wall at the end of this street.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature

Tulip Bud and Leaves

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Tulip Bud and Leaves
“Tulip Bud and Leaves” — A spring tulip bud, just before blossoming.

This photograph is the result of something I rarely do — post the same photograph in monochrome and color versions. I shared a color version recently, but while I was working on the image in post I took a little detours and experiment with a black and white interpretation. I like both of them, though they do create different effects.

Black and white almost always has a more abstract quality to me. We know that the world is not monochromatic, so we begin to accept a wider range of interpretations as soon as we move to black and white. There’s less of the “it isn’t real!” concern with monochrome. (Not everyone realizes it, but monochrome images have historically often been the subject of extensive post-processing.) Here I think that the monochromatic version lets us focus more on the shapes and tones themselves, with less need to relate the image to something real.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman and Cathedral Columns

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Woman and Cathedral Columns
“Woman and Cathedral Columns” — A woman walks past immense columns at the St. Pierre Cathedral, Montpellier.

Montpellier’s huge St. Pierre Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier) is a historic Catholic Church in gothic style that was established almost 750 years ago. The south facade features a high exterior arch supported by these two gigantic round columns and topped with very pointed roof caps.

Such churches often seem to be found in the centers of historic districts cities like this, but in Montpellier it is a bit off to the side. When we visited there few people were walking near the cathedral, aside from a few passers-by and a couple of people entering the church. (We did not go inside since it wasn’t open for visits.) I photographed this woman walking past the base of one of the columns.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

2 responses to “Woman and Cathedral Columns”

  1. CRAIG W MYERS Avatar
    CRAIG W MYERS

    This is riveting, Dan. The difference in magnitude between the solitary figure against the column, the muted tones that still deliver depth, and the graduated vertical play of light combine to create an engaging and beautiful image.

    Reply
    1. G Dan Mitchell Avatar
      G Dan Mitchell

      Thanks, Craig. Those columns are absolutely massive, and I was happy when the woman walked past and introduced a sense of their real size.

      Dan

      Reply

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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: England, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Base of the Red Cliffs

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Base of the Red Cliffs. Death Valley
“Base of the Red Cliffs” — Gullies, folds, strata, and morning shadows at the base of the Red Cliffs.

The title says “Red Cliffs,” but you might be thinking, “They don’t look very red to me!” In more neutral light the formations in the upper part of the photograph, and even more so the formations above the margins of the photograph, do have the familiar red rock quality — though it would be fair to say that they are as much brown as red. But in this stark early morning light, just after sunrise, the colors are warmed so much that they are more yellow or orange.

In many ways the geology of Death Valley produces a blank canvas for photographers who want to work with varied light. For the most part, Death Valley’s colors are subtle. The lighter portions of the formations in this photograph are a sort of muted tan in midday light. But as with so many other subjects here, this muted, neutral quality allows them to pick up the colors of sunrise/sunset, twilight, colorful clouds, and reflections from nearby formations.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

2 responses to “Base of the Red Cliffs”

  1. Charlie Colladay Avatar
    Charlie Colladay

    Hi Dan,
    Here I am, wasting some time on a Sunday afternoon and I came back to this photo of yours. It has not lost any of the intrigue that originally caught my eye and led me to post a comment. Forgive me for diving deeper still into the details of the lighting, that for me, is the strength of this photo. Again, forgive me, but I have to take some issue with a comment of your’s re: the light falling on the foreground.

    You say…”The foreground light is coming from behind and above my camera position — a combination of more reflected light and light from the open sky.”
    I’ll accept that open sky is supplying some over all fill light, but it is much weaker than the main, semi-hard light coming from the left. The evidence of this can be seen in the delineation of the vertical striations on the rock face at the left side of the frame. Each individual striation has a highlight at its peak then a shadow in the depression to the right, in a repeating pattern. Whatever the source of illumination, the bulk of its directional quality can’t be coming from above and behind the camera position. That would produce a much flatter light than what is seen here. The result then would be the foreground rock’s striations being less textural, less visible, more boring without the contrast of the highlight/shadow repeating pattern.

    On that same foreground rock, the upper left and the lower right (the ankle and the toes of the “giant’s foot”) are both darker and flatter, the result of being lit only by the open sky, providing an omnidirectional, flatter and lower level of illumination.

    The overall, bottom line still exists…I love this shot! The above details are just an explanation of why it works so well for me. Thank you, Dan!

    Reply
    1. G Dan Mitchell Avatar
      G Dan Mitchell

      Charlie,

      Thanks for taking the time to write a long post on this photograph. But I must admit that I’m a bit confused by your comment.

      You wrote:

      ”You say…”The foreground light is coming from behind and above my camera position — a combination of more reflected light and light from the open sky.”

      But when I look at the text I wrote to accompany this photograph, in the post you replied to, I do not see that I wrote anything like that there. I wonder if you were looking at a different photograph than the one you commented on?

      In the photograph on this page — “Base of the Red Cliffs” — the sun is definitively behind and above my camera position. It is not straight behind me, but is coming from a slight angle over my right shoulder, which is why the shadows stretch towards the left.

      Let me know if you can figure out why your comment doesn’t seem align with this photograph or its descriptive text.

      Dan

      Reply

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