A Piaggio Ape utility vehicle parked against a wall in an alley, Orvieto.
We spent several days in the hill town of Orvieto Italy. We understand than most visitors come on day trips from Rome, but we were ready for a few days in a smaller, quieter place after visiting bigger cities like Milan and Florence. One of the fun things about staying overnight in the “day trip” cities is that they become much quieter in the evening and early morning! We were out on a random walk, exploring the fringes of the town, when I saw this scene.
Working on the photograph sent me off into a world I did not know about. I had scene these little three-wheeled utility vehicles elsewhere in Italy — they are great on these narrow streets — and I didn’t know what to call them. A quick search turned up the name “Piaggio Ape,” where “Ape” refers to “bee.” Further reading led to the history of the things. As I understand it they essentially began as Vespa scooters with three wheels, and were then adapted into small trucks and vans.
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.
Tags: piaggo ape utility vehicle three-wheeled pickup tiny sone wall cobbles street alley buildings clock tower black and white monochrome urban travel orvieto italy europe eu
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High desert mountain ridges sretch toward the horizon under morning clouds.
know I am repeating myself, but one of the most impressive things about Death Valley National Park is the sheer scale of the place — the distances are huge. Just about the only place I’ve experienced that impressed me the same was the near-arctic in Yukon Territories and Alaska. Here mountains go on, range after range, into the far distance. (As a friend of mine might point out, the haze here provides obvious “atmospheric recession.)
This photograph is also an example of why I’m a big fan of long focal lengths for landscape photography. Some will tell you that “landscape lenses” have short to normal focal lengths, and that wide-angle lenses should be your standard tools. But I beg to differ. The truth? While I own ultra-wide lenses, I use them sparingly… and my favorite landscape photographs lenses are often telephotos. Here I used a very long lens to compress the distance and to isolate a small, interesting section of much larger terrain.
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.
Tags: high desert arid rugged ridges mountains ranges horizon distant haze stretch morning clouds landscape nature death valley national park black and white monochrome california usa north america
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Tags: russia moscow documentary street life human monochrome reportage social public urban city photojournalism street photography people bw kid children dmitry ryzhkov black and white everyday candid stranger
Tags: russia moscow documentary street life human monochrome reportage social public urban city photojournalism street photography people bw dmitry ryzhkov black and white everyday candid stranger
Tags: russia moscow documentary street life human monochrome reportage social public urban city photojournalism street photography people bw sunlight sunshine walk walker pedestrian dmitry ryzhkov black and white everyday candid stranger