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Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

La Nuit Bohème

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La Nuit Bohème
A doorway with a poster and grafitti in Heidelberg, Germany

La Nuit Bohème. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A doorway with a poster and graffiti in Heidelberg, Germany

Deciding what to write about this photograph is proving to be a bit of a challenge. From my perspective it sort of “is what it is.” But that doesn’t make for a very informative post, so I’ll try! I made the photograph while walking down a narrow street in the old part of Heidelberg, Germany, on a street that is distinctly not the Hauptstrasse.

Several things intrigued me about the simple scene. First, the poster for “La Nuit Boheme” makes this opera fan thing of, well, you know. I also am fascinated by the angles and surfaces of very old buildings. (In one city full of them I finally realized that the exteriors of such places — unlike in urban America — are not the “beautiful places” most of the time, and the beauty is where passers-by cannot see it; perhaps it is inside or in a small yard. The disconnected feeling of the spaces marked off by different colors of walls, the door, and the pavement seem seem to signify things that were not meant to connect but simply found themselves in conjunction.

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: Germany, Photographs: Travel

Bavarian Door

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Bavarian Door
Inscriptions and hardware on the of a small building in a Bavarian forest.

Bavarian Door. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Inscriptions and hardware on the of a small building in a Bavarian forest.

Some years back when we visited Europe we managed to meet up with a big group of extended family members near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, where we rented a big farm house (or so it seemed to us) for a week. In addition to doing all the usual family stuff, we visited a number of nearby sights, from some in Bavaria to the not-too-distance city of Salzburg, Austria.

Königsee, part of the Berchtesgaden National Park was very close by, so we took that famous electric boats up the lake to the landing at Kirsche St. Bartholoma. It was a nice day so we decided to take a hike to the Eiskapelle, a place at the base of a gigantic ice chute coming from the upper reaches of Watzmann, the highest peak in the neighborhood. Along the way we passed this small building, which I think may be a chapel of some sort, and I was intrigued by the rustic metal fittings, the many carvings, and the color.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Industrial Building Windows

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Industrail Building Windows
Broken, graffiti-scarred windows and walls of an abandoned industrial building.

Industrial Building Windows. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Broken, graffiti-scarred windows and walls of an abandoned industrial building.

All around the San Francisco Bay Area — and, actually, up and down the west coasts — there are sites full of institutional buildings like this one. Some are on military bases, some are old public buildings, and this one is part of a historic ship yard on San Francisco Bay. I think I was sort of peripherally aware of this sort of architecture for decades, but it wasn’t until I started a long project photographing the old Mare Island Naval Ship Yard at night that I really began to notice.

Among these kinds of buildings, this is a young one. I don’t know the actual age, but it seems like a mid-Twentieth-Century building, perhaps from the World War II or post-war period? Now it is abandoned, in a mostly forgotten corner of a much larger facility. I was there to do night photography some years back, arriving early enough to photograph it in the last light before darkness came on.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Travel

Vault, Salzburg Cathedral

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Vault, Salzburg Cathedral
The view looking straight upwards at the vault of the Salzburg Cathedral.

Vault, Salzburg Cathedral. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The view looking straight upwards at the vault of the Salzburg Cathedral.

As an American — a citizen of a relatively young country — I still am amazed by what you can just sort of wander into in Europe, sometimes without even intending to go to such places. (I have stories, and they range from hilarious to marvelous.) In a way, our visit to the Salzburg Cathedral was a bit like this. We were staying in Bavaria with family for a week, and we arrived and departed by trains in Salzburg. And since we were just over the border, it was a short drive back there to spend some time wandering around.

And wander is more or less how we ended up in this cathedral. We parked and started walking toward the central area of the old city and passed by this Cathedral and, of course, walked in. (Speaking of casual amazements — you can still see where Mozart was baptized in this church.) The photograph looks straight up at the remarkable ceiling of this 400-hundred-year-old church.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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