After my post last Friday of the Balancing Upside Down Elephant, I decided to end this week with an unusual image. The Transamerica Building is an iconic part of the San Francisco skyline. There are thousands of images of the famous pyramid shaped building from every angle (okay, I admit to taking some of those more common shots). I also wanted to take an uncommon shot of the building and this is it. I have a little history with The Transamerica building. In the 1980's I visited San Francisco for the first time for some business meetings that were held there. It was then that I fell in love with the city. When I first looked at the image, my first thought was the perspective Spiderman would see if he tried to climb the building. I'm not sure why that popped into my head but it is probably because as a kid, I loved to collect and read comic books (baseball cards were a close second). I don't know what happened to the comic books of my youth but I still have a fondness for them today.
Sailing the Icy Strait
My recent trip to Alaska was a combined land and sea adventure. As I have probably mentioned before, one of my bucket list items is to visit and photograph as many US National Parks as I can. On this trip, I was going to get to visit two of them: Denali National Park and Glacier Bay National Park. After spending time on mainland Alaska and in Denali, we boarded a cruise ship to see the inside passage including Glacier Bay National Park. Sailing down from Hubbard Glacier the day before, we entered into the Icy Strait early the next morning. The Icy Strait is in the Alexander Archipelago and can be entered from the Alaskan mainland from the north. Continuing into the strait reaches the entrance to Glacier Bay en-route to Juneau to the south. To say that the scenery was breathtaking is an understatement.
This is one of the numerous images I shot from the deck of our ship. The wind was whipping around and I was dressed in layers with gloves on. The interesting thing about it was even though it was cold, I hardly seemed to notice. The light was good, the clouds added great interest to the snow-capped mountains. These mountains are actually part of the national park, namely Glacier Bay Park and Wilderness.
Peaceful, Easy Feeling
After our exhilarating flight to the summit of Mt McKinley the previous day, I was ready to have a more relaxing morning by walking around Byers Lake in Denali State Park. While the adjacent national park is world famous, I discovered that Denali State Park was no slouch. The lake was about 20 minutes away from our lodge and is accessible from the Parks Highway that connects Anchorage and Fairbanks. The park is undeveloped wilderness with the exception of the two day-use areas, three campgrounds, and two trailheads, one of which leads to Byers Lake. The lake was very tranquil and relaxing. About a quarter of the way around, we came upon this secluded small dock. While there were a few people around, the lake was essentially empty. The clouds were outstanding and perfectly reflected in the calm lake waters. While sitting there looking at the scenery, the Eagles song, "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" came to mind.
Soaring the Alaskan Range
After our overnight stay in Anchorage, we hopped on a bus for 3 hours to Mt McKinley Lodge. I was really looking forward to getting to the lodge because it looked like a nice day where we might have a chance to actually see Mt McKinley (the mountain is only visible 30% of the time). Even more exciting was that we had signed up for a Mt. McKinley Summit Flight that afternoon. We got to the lodge (yes, McKinley was visible), had lunch and hopped on a 45 minute bus ride to Talkeetna Airport (the lodge is pretty remote). On the way, my wife Carol muttered "I don't know why I agreed to do this" (she is not the best of flyers). When we got to the airport, we were assigned a small 10 seat airplane. She was assigned the co-pilot seat and was told not to touch anything (like she would have). I was alone in the second row and our friends were in the back row. To complicate things, it was raining and a fresh storm was approaching. Off we went anyway.
On the way to Mt McKinley, we soared above the Alaskan Range and this image was taken en-route to Mt McKinley. The majesty of this mountain range is something to see. It was pretty challenging to photograph from the plane. I kept getting the damn propeller in my shot and shooting through a small window at such high speed was a challenge. All-in-all, I do it again in a second but I'm pretty sure Carol won't.
Standing Tall
If you are anything like me, you are always looking for your next trip so that you can take photos of somewhere you've never been. But often times, there are wonderful subjects right around you that are just waiting to be photographed. This is one of those subjects. I live on a very small mountain (627 feet - not sure if it even qualifies as a mountain) and often walk around my neighborhood for a little exercise. I almost never carry a camera with me. This day, I decided to take my camera with me with my macro lens (Nikon 105mm Micro - highly recommended) and shot a couple of flowers in the community gardens. This is one of the better images of a flower with it's stamen standing tall with the pollen ready to be freed by a summer breeze. I think I will be carrying my camera a little more often on my neighborhood walks.
The Balancing, Upside Down Elephant
Barcelona is a wonderful city with fantastic architecture and unusual sights. We saw a lot of unique things during our visit. However, whenever you think you've that you have seen everything, there is always something around the corner that surprises you. As I stated in an earlier post, we usually tour a new city on a hop-on, hop-off bus. As we toured Barcelona's sights we drove past the CaixaForum Centre building and discovered this wacky sculpture (I guess it is art) of an elephant balancing upside down on its trunk on the sidewalk. The sculpture is a work of Miquel Barceló, a famous Spanish artist.
Anchorage Evening
I started to look at my Alaska photos today and realized why I don't look at them for a few weeks or months after a trip. I am usually overwhelmed by the sheer number of photos (many of them to be deleted) as well as they seem to pale in comparison to the actual scenery. After a few weeks or months, my perspective is much better and I find that I actually find some gems in there. That said, I decided to edit the very first photo I took in Alaska. If you asked me before I took the trip, I would have guessed my first image published would be of the beautiful Alaska landscape but instead it is a photo of Anchorage from my hotel room. The journey to the hotel was long and tiring. Up at 4 am to catch a flight out of Hartford, we didn't get into the room until almost 5 pm (9 pm Eastern Time). To our surprise, it was really hot in the room and it had no air conditioning (I guess we should have been happy that it was sunny out for the first time in weeks).
I opened the drapes and saw this scene. Unfortunately, the angle was bad which caused terrible reflections in the window pane. Because of the lack of air conditioning, the windows were able to be opened just enough to barely stick my D700 out the window. I fired off a burst of 5 shots and hoped that Photoshop's Auto-Align would work miracles (it did). A good start to the trip.
Moraine Lake Reflection
The Canadian Rockies are filled with spectacular lakes, mountains and scenery. Whenever I visit Banff National Park, I make sure I get to the "Valley of the Ten Peaks" to shoot at Moraine Lake. The lake is glacially fed and when it is full, reflects a blue shade. There are boats available at the lake and there are numerous hiking trails. Early in the day it is extremely serene and you can feel one with nature. This particular morning, the sun was hitting the opposite shore resulting in a wonderful reflection. While I like to have clouds in my images to add depth and interest, I think that the beauty of the lake and its surrounding mountains speak for itself.
Island Monastery
One of the most surprising places that I have visited was Kotor, Montenegro. Once a part of Yugoslavia, Montenegro became an independent nation as recently as 2006. Located between Croatia and Albania, its shoreline lies on the Adriatic Sea. It is a small country (about the size of Connecticut); is mostly rugged mountains and is home to only about 620,000 people. According to our guide, the most amazing fact is that it has 365 churches. I have already posted about our visit to the Lady of the Rocks (you can read it here) located in the middle of the Bay of Kotor. After our visit to the church, I wandered outside and noted the smaller island across the water. I learned that this was a monastery (Saint George Benedictine monastery or Ostrvo Sveti Đorđe).
I was intrigued by the sight of the majestic mountains behind the monastery. I took a single shot as it was mid-day with the light and shadows being harsh and didn't expect it to come out. Only recently did I pull it out of the archives to see what I could do with it. I am pretty happy with the results.
Colorful Chapel
Back from my awesome trip to Alaska and Vancouver where I shot tons and tons of photos. I haven't processed any yet but I am sure that you will be seeing some in the near future. In the meantime, a revisit to the Air Force Chapel in Colorado Springs (you can see my original post here). This time we head inside the chapel (there are actually three chapels) to check out the Protestant Chapel. The point of the roof is about 100 feet from the floor and the spires are separated by colored glass. The chapel seats 1,200 people.
That's it for today while I recover a bit (I need a vacation from my vacation).
Gone Fishing
Well not exactly. I will be off the grid for a couple of weeks with limited internet access. Before I go, I want to thank all of you who have viewed and commented on my blog. I really didn't get going with it until mid-May and wasn't sure how long I would do it. My initial plans were to post a couple of images a week. The number of people that have left me comments has motivated me to post 5 days a week. Better yet, I have discovered the blogs of many other talented photographers whose wonderful images inspire me.
This image was taken early in the morning on the Grand Canal in Venice. As I was headed back to the hotel for breakfast after the morning of shooting, I spotted this old man fishing off the side of the canal. He seemed oblivious to the passing boats, while enjoying the beautiful early morning. I was a little surprised to see anyone fishing as I don't think I would be willing to eat a fish from the canal with all the thousands of boats that travel through it daily. Maybe he is a sports fisherman who does it for the solitude and fun of it. It wasn't until I began processing the photo that I noticed the face drawn in the wooden support. So much for my observational powers!
Hope to see everyone in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for your support.
Leaving Port
Most serious photographers like to plan out their shots by controlling where their subject is positioned with respect to the light. When shooting landscapes, the timing of the day is another key factor in making great images. When on land, the photographer can easily control these two things and the main variable then becomes the weather. But what do you do when you are on a cruise ship with little control over all three things? You do what I do: pray a lot and take advantage of the opportunities when they come. Don't get me wrong. Traveling on a cruise is a wonderful experience and allows you to visit many different places that you might not have ever visited. There have been many locations that wouldn't have been on my top ten to visit but, after visiting, become a favorite memory. One of those places for me was Malta. After docking, we took a full day jeep ride over the island and visited some of the most beautiful parts of the Mediterranean. We ended in up in Valletta, the capital of Malta where we wandered the streets.
I was hoping to catch a shot of Valletta during the sunset hours and was disappointed that our ship was leaving at 6:00 pm. After leaving port, the ship moved past the city and as we started to move to the sea, we passed this lighthouse. Built of old stone, the textures of the lighthouse bathed in warm light contrasted well with the blue of the sea. The sailboat in the background was icing on the cake.
My advice for photographers that are taking a cruise is not to get frustrated but rather be ready when the right time comes.
Shadows and Light
I try to visit the American Southwest as often as I can as the scenery is second to none. One area, the Grand Circle, boasts the largest concentration of national parks and monuments in the US. Located in the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah, the Grand Circle is home to 12 national parks. Many of the parks are recognizable to everyone (Grand Canyon, Zion to name a couple) but there are a few that most people never heard of. One of those is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. In fact, it only became a national park in 1999. The park is about 2 hours north of Durango, Colorado just outside of Montrose. To quote the National Park Service, "No other canyon in North America combines the narrow opening, sheer walls, and startling depths offered by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison." It is an extremely rugged landscape with the Gunnison River flowing at its depths. It is also a favorite destination of rock climbers.
We had driven about four and a half hours from Manitou Springs on our way to Montrose and reached the park pretty late in the day. The visitors center had just closed so we were left to ourselves to explore the 12 miles of scenic road in the park. The sun was beginning to set and the landscape was painted with shadows and light. It was a wonderful ending to a great day.
Click to learn more about the Grand Circle and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Windy Day on the Bay
One of the most recognized towns in New England is Salem, Massachusetts. Founded in 1626, it is one of the oldest settlements in North America. Originally populated by Puritans, Salem gained it's notoriety for it's infamous witchcraft trials. Salem later became one of the most significant seaports in early America. Located north of Boston on Cape Ann, it's economy is now built on tourism. Attractions include the Peabody Essex Museum, Pioneer Village, numerous historic homes, a tall ship and, of course, a Haunted Passport program that leverages its witchcraft history. Spending some time in Boston, we decided to visit Salem on the way home (okay, we went a little out of the way). It was a chilly April day and the wind was blowing extremely hard. The clouds had rolled in and it was all I could do to stand still while taking a shot of this boat across the way. I particularly liked the colors of the boat contrasting with the water on such a gray day.
Click to learn more about Salem.
Heavy Load
Venice is a magical place and it is very hard to describe it to someone who hasn't been there. There is a feel to the "city" that is unlike anywhere else I have been. Venice actually lies in a lagoon that is protected from the sea by thin strips of land that have three small inlets. Rather than an island, Venice is actually made up of 124 small islands connected by small bridges. Venice is a favorite destination for tourists who arrive by plane, water taxi and cruise ships. This particular morning, I got up at dawn and wandered out onto the Grand Canal. This is one of the few times you can avoid the crowds of tourists and get some shots without worrying about bumping into someone. I noticed this artist that had the same idea and was painting the scene. As I began to shoot a few photos of the artist, I noticed this large cruise ship being towed down the Grand Canal out to sea by a little tugboat. It was an amazing scene that I never saw coming. I think I enjoy the images that were a result of just dumb luck the best.
As I edited the photo, I wanted to give it a painterly feel and I am happy with the result.
There is a great video that explains how Venice "works" and needs to be constantly maintained.
Touring the City of Counts
One of the places we have always wanted to visit was Barcelona, so last year when planning a Mediterranean cruise, we made sure that we picked one that began and ended there. Our plan was to fly into Barcelona on the day we embarked and then spend 3 days there when we returned to port. We barely made our cruise due to a 3 hour flight delay out of Boston. We missed our connection in Munich and thanks to a great Lufthansa employee, we caught a Spanair flight that got us on the boat 20 minutes before it left port. As a result, we barely got a glimpse of Barcelona that day so I wasn't really sure what to expect when the cruise ended. The day we disembarked, we carried on a tradition that we started many years ago when first visiting a new city. This tradition is to see if there is a "hop-on, hop-off" bus and, if so, ride it our first full day in the city. These buses tour the city all day to its most famous attractions allowing the riders to hop off wherever they want and hop back onto a later bus. This works well as we can get a feel of the city and get a sense of what we would like to explore further the following days.
Barcelona, also known as the "City of Counts", amazed us with the diversity of architecture. The architecture ranged from gothic architecture to modernism to some of the world's more bizarre buildings including the surreal Sagrada Família church.
This shot was taken from the upper level of the hop-on, hop-off bus near the end of the day when the sun was beginning to set. It is a HDR from a single shot since getting off a bracketed sequence from a moving bus is virtually impossible. I have become reasonably good in getting decent shots by shooting off 5 shots at a time hoping that one of the shots is a keeper.
Iron Horse
There is something about trains that I really love. Can't really put my finger on it but whenever I see a train, I want to photograph it and ride on it. I've been on some memorable train rides including the Rocky Mountaineer that goes from Vancouver, British Columbia to either Banff or Jasper, Alberta. One of my favorites is the train ride from Durango, Colorado to Silverton, Colorado. The train is a narrow gauge, which is better suited to navigate the sharp curves of the mountain terrain. It was used to haul silver and gold ore from the Silverton area as well as supplies and workers. Today, the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is used as a tourist attraction. The train leaves Durango for a 3.5 hour, 45 mile trip trip through the rugged San Juan Mountains. The scenery along the way is outstanding. It arrives in the town of Silverton for a two hour layover. Silverton is a small old-time mining town which has been designated as a National Historic District.
This shot was taken as the train was readying to head back to Durango. It is a HDR from a single photo.
Click for information about the train's history and schedule.
Around the Bend
When I was planning last year's vacation to Yosemite National Park, the biggest challenge was how I was going to fit in all of the parts of the park that I wanted to photograph. Since I was the only photographer in the group and we were only there for three days, I had to be totally organized to make the best of our visit. Researching on the internet for the best locations to shoot proved to be extremely challenging. Not only are there are so many places to see and photograph in the park but knowing what time of day to shoot at each location was proving impossible. It was then I found the book "Photographing Yosemite Digital Field Guide" written by Lewis Kemper. I found the book to be exactly what I needed. Not only does the book outline tons of locations, it also provides photos from most of the locations as well as the best times to shoot. Armed with this guide, I found it easy to plan my short time in the park. I would highly recommend this book for anyone that is interested in shooting in Yosemite. You can buy the book on Amazon.com for $13.59. Note that I have no affiliation with the author.
This shot was taken from just after dawn from Sentinel Bridge (one of the locations noted in the book). It shows the Merced River going around the bend just past the bridge. While I was hoping for the golden glow of the sunrise, I wasn't too disappointed in the clouds as I think they add an air of drama against the rock formation.
Motif No. 1
This bright red building is a fishing shack In the small town of Rockport, Massachusetts. Located on Bradley Wharf, it is purportedly the most painted fishing shack in the America. The shack even has its own name, Motif No. 1 that was given to it by an art teacher in the 1920s who, after seeing his students repeatedly draw the shack, exclaimed "What? Motif No 1 again!" The original shack was destroyed by the blizzard of 1978 when it was swept into Rockport Harbor. Motif No. 1 was rebuilt within a year. The fishing shack has even been commemorated on a postage stamp.
We had vacationed in Rockport is the 1980's when we lived in New Jersey. At that point in time, I wasn't into photography. Since we now live in New England, I finally got around to revisiting Rockport with my son to photograph good old Motif No. 1 and the surrounding area. There are many places to set up a tripod but this location is probably the best angle. I highly recommend a visit to Motif No. 1 if you are in the Cape Ann area.
Path to the Beach
Happy Fourth of July weekend everyone! One of the best places to spend the fourth in New Jersey is to head down to the Jersey shore. Every year, thousands of people from the surrounding area (South Jersey, Philadelphia, New York and Delaware) head to Wildwood, NJ. Wildwood is a favorite summer destination that is home to one of the best beaches in NJ as well as a two mile boardwalk. The boardwalk has numerous amusement piers as well as tons of shops, arcades and food stops. Since I grew up in South Jersey, I have many memories of Wildwood. I still remember hearing the tramcar's annoying "Watch the tramcar please" warning as it tried to weave through the crowded boardwalk from one end to the other.
I don't get to visit Wildwood much anymore since I live in Connecticut, so I instead, I am posting this image that I took a couple of years ago of one of the paths to Wildwood's beach. I'm sure it won't be deserted today.
Click to learn more about Wildwood.