Okay, I am a Star Wars fan and have always believed that Darth Vader died in the Return of the Jedi. I was walking around Victoria this past July and who do I find? That's right, Darth Vader. Obviously his death was greatly exaggerated and he really survived to live another day. I'm pretty sure that if Darth (can I call him by his first name?) knew that he would end up playing a violin on a Victoria street corner for a few coins, he might have decided to really die during the battle of Endor. By the way, he plays a mean violin.
Enter at Your Own Risk
Off to Bill Fortney's New England Photo Workshop tomorrow. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it. Hope to learn tons as well as shooting parts of New England where I've never been. That's always exciting. I may post a few next week but I am not sure of the schedule and internet accessibility. If I am unable, I will be back to normal the week of October 17th. And now for today's photo. Every time I walk around New York City, I come across something different and unusual. This is one of those times. I was walking around Brooklyn and came across this at the entrance to a restaurant. While it is unusual and funny, it didn't entice me to enter and try the food. When I was in business school, I never learned to warn potential customers of the risks of visiting my business.
Campanile View
I am really excited this week. On Friday, I saw that there were some last minute openings in Bill Fortney's and Matt Kloskowski's New England Photo Workshop. I've never taken a photo workshop before and have always admired Bill's and Matt's work. I decided to take the plunge and I am heading back to Maine on Saturday for the workshop. Looking forward to it so much. Now to today's image... Venice is one of the most unique cities in the world. It is a photographer's paradise with views on every street / canal. The center of our stay in Venice was St Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco). The square seems to be the designation of every traveler to Venice and is also a popular meeting place for the locals.
The piazza is home to the famous St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. To get a different view of St Mark's, you can enter it's campanile (bell tower) and go up 323 feet to see the basilica from above. The view shows the five domes of St Mark's against the backdrop of the surrounding city.
Tribute in Bronze
Walking around the cities in Europe often serves as an informal history lesson. There are monuments that everyone recognizes and then there are others that commemorative some special time or event that may be less known. I came upon this monument on a street in London opposite the London Eye. It is an amazing tribute to the men and women who fought in the Battle of Britian which, in essence, saved England from being overrun by the Nazis. Not only was England ill-equipped for the battle (4,000 planes vs. 1,660 planes for the Allies), but their pilots were inexperienced and not well trained. It was through their sacrifices and efforts that England won the 3-month battle for air superiority over England. The victory led to Winston Churchill's famous quote, " Never was so much owed by so many to so few." Unveiled in 2005, the monument is a granite structure that has bronze panels that depict various aspects of the battle in the air and on the ground. While the sculpture contains a number of scenes, the most amazing one is this section that shows a group of pilots scrambling off to their planes. I was quite taken with the textures and details of this monument and think it pays great tribute to the airmen.
Glass Canopy
When planning our recent vacation in Alaska, we decided to end our trip in one of my favorite cities, Vancouver. We elected to stay at the Pan Pacific Hotel that is part of Canada Place so we didn't have to go very far when our cruise ship docked. We were very lucky to have some great weather and spent a lot of time exploring the city. The last night of our stay, before we headed home, turned out to be the best night for shooting. There was a golden glow everywhere we walked and the reflections on the surrounding buildings were some of the best I have seen. This view is one of my favorites of the night and I took it as I was leaving the hotel. The hotel's glass canopy with it's geometric shapes nicely framed the buildings that surrounded the city block. As I processed the image, I noticed what I thought were halos but after careful inspection, they turned out to be reflections from the light on the glass.
Boat Building Reflections
This image is of Hartford's semi-famous Boat Building with the Travelers Tower in the background. Hartford, often referred to as the "insurance capital of the world", is also the capital of Connecticut. You may not be able to tell, but the Boat Building is actually a two-sided building that looks like a football from above. Built in 1963, it was the world's first two-sided building. The building is located on Constitution Plaza adjacent to the Connecticut River immediately to the east. When approaching from the east, the building looks like a sail of a boat that is docked against its moorings. The building itself has a lot of meaning for me as I moved to Hartford from the Philadelphia area for a job in 1992. I worked in that building on and off for about 10 years. I shot this image during Scott Kelby's "Worldwide Photowalk". I was drawn to the contrast between the glass of the building with it's refections against the more traditional Travelers Tower.
Salerno Rooftops
I have always considered Italy my destination of choice. There is something about it aside from the fact that my maternal grandparents were born there. I was especially excited about my trip last September in that I was going to visit the Amalfi Coast. The last time we were there, we opted to spend the day on the Isle of Capri. This time, we had just one day and had to choose whether to travel along the coast via a small tour bus or take a boat that would cruise down the coast to Amalfi. We decided on the latter and took a bus out of Naples toward Salerno to meet up with our boat.
I had always wanted to visit Salerno as it is my mother's family name and I am sure some of my ancestors originated from there. As we approached the city, the rooftops became visible. While it wasn't the golden hour, the light was still pretty good as I pressed my camera against the bus window. Luckily, I was able to capture the scene without any reflections from the windows or buses passing by in the opposite direction.
Weather Beaten
Today, we revisit the Bay of Kotor, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Located in Montenegro in between Croatia and Albania, it is surrounded by towering mountains making everything seem small in comparison. We had spent the morning touring the bay and taking in it's wondrous sights. The afternoon was set aside to walk trough the town of Kotor. Walking through the streets and alleyways, we felt like we had been transported to a time long ago. Everywhere we turned, the old buildings looked and felt that they had thousands of stories to tell. This house was illustrative of the look and feel of the town. Obviously the weather had worn away at the facade, shutters and unusual chimneys. The rustic look was prevalent and set against the backdrop of large rugged mountains, it begged us to stay a little longer than we were able. I hope to be able to revisit Kotor for an extended stay sometime in the future.
Shadows
Newport, Rhode Island has been a summer resort destination for a long time. In fact, during the Gilded Age, many rich industrialists built some of the most opulent summer "cottages” of the era. They came to Newport for the short summer social season. Their "cottages" had large receiving areas, dining, music and ballrooms, but with few bedrooms, since the guests were expected to have "cottages" of their own. The social scene at Newport is described in Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence. The biggest of all of the mansions is the Breakers which was built by the Vanderbilt family. The Breakers has 70 rooms and contains approximately 65,000 square feet and cost $12 million to build in the 1890's.
This image of a small portion of the front entrance to the Breakers caught my eye before entering the mansion. The sunlight painted great streaks of shadows on the marble columns and walkway.
Giant Spoke
I thought I would give you another uncommon image of a very famous icon. When looking at this subject, I was trying to figure out how to capture it in a way that showcased the size of this popular attraction in a way that was different from the thousands of other photographs of it. The spindle in this photo is approximately 225 feet in the air. The cables include 16 rim rotation cables and 64 spoke cables, which are similar to bicycle spokes, holding the rim tight to the central spindle. Did you guess what it is? No, it's not a big bicycle spoke in the sky but rather London's very famous tourist attraction, the London Eye. Have a great weekend everyone
Cape May Light Sunrise
I have always had a fondness for lighthouses and love to visit them whenever I can. In fact, I am currently touring New England lighthouses with my son who is an aspiring screenwriter. He has recently written a short story in which a lighthouse is featured prominently and we are in the process of scouting possible locations for a shoot. You can see more about his project and itinerary at his website. You can probably expect some of the New England lighthouses we visit in future blog posts. This image is of Cape May Light near the southern tip of New Jersey. I was visiting my brother-in-law who has a place in Wildwood and took my nephew out before dawn to shoot the lighthouse with the sunrise in the background. I hadn't done any scouting beforehand (I know, this should be done whenever possible) and there wasn't a great angle to get both the lighthouse and the sunrise in the composition. Instead, I went out to the beach and was quite pleased with the scene of the lighthouse basking in the soft light of the sun against the blue of the dramatic clouds.
Spiderman's View
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.
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.
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.
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.