Southern Garden

​Heyward-Washington House, Charleston, South Carolina

I have always wanted to visit Charleston, South Carolina and we have planned to visit numerous times over the past ten years, but every time we began planning, something would come up and we had to cancel. This year, we finally got our wish. What a charming little city.  I have travelled extensively to other southern cities but none are as quaint as Charleston. From their horse-drawn carriages to the old architecture and plantations, you feel transported to a different time.

One of the unexpected treats that we discovered walking down the streets were the alleyways that gave us a peek into the beautiful gardens that lie behind the houses. Many of them gave just a glimpse. We decided to take a tour of the ​Heyward-Washington House where George Washington stayed on a visit to Charleston. This is the garden right behind the house and is typical of Charleston gardens.

Bow Lake Beauty

​Icefields Parkway, Bannf National Park, Alberta

I have posted numerous images in the past from Banff National Park and the famed Icefields Parkway. Many people who have commented on these images have wondered how long of a hike it was to reach these beautiful mountain lakes. They are very surprised when I tell them that many of them are just a few hundred steps off of the highway. They are some of the most accessible (and some of the most beautiful) lakes that I have ever been to. That is why I recommend the Icefield Parkway to anyone who wants to visit the Rockies. Just imagine 140 miles of glacier and mountain-fed lakes along with majestic mountains on either side of the road. This image of Bow Lake is just one example of what will be right outside your car.

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Let Freedom Ring

American Cemetery, Normandy, France

This being Memorial Day, I want to thank all of our armed forces for being on watch to protect our way of life. The sacrifices that these men and women make to defend democracy make them heroes.​

I especially want to thank my father who fought in World War II flying over Europe in the Army Air Force. He never talked about his experiences in the war other than he was a gunner. If you were still with us, I would give you a hug and say "Thanks". ​

This image is from the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, site of D-Day. It is a place for reflection of the ultimate sacrifice of our Armed Forces and every American who travels to France should visit.

Cliff Walk Sunrise

​Newport, Rhode Island

A popular destination to visit in New England is Newport, Rhode Island. Newport has plenty to do and see from shopping to sailing. For those who like to tour mansions of yesteryear, it is a mecca. There are eleven mansions that lie on Bellevue Avenue and it's surrounding streets. They were built by the super rich industrialists and financiers of the day during the Gilded Age as summer destinations. These summer "cottages" are quite opulent with the biggest mansion having 70 rooms. Most of the mansions overlook the waters of Easton Bay.

While I enjoy visiting the mansions, one of my favorite things to do is to walk along Cliff Walk, especially before dawn to photograph the sunrise. Cliff Walk is a 3.5-mile public access walkway that lies in between the Newport mansions and the bay. This particular October morning was crisp and clear and the golden colors just before sunrise were spectacular. I noticed the silhouette of this tree along the path and thought it would give great contrast to the bright yellow colors of the rising sun.

Amsterdam Stroll

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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For an American travelling through Europe, it is quite inspiring to visit and learn about the rich history of each destination. I think that the different architectures of each European city contribute to a feel and sense of its history. US cities don’t have quite the same architectural differences of Europe and sometimes feel “cookie-cutter” to me.

I am always excited to visit places and am often surprised that they look very different than I envisioned them. Such was the case with Amsterdam this past September. Strolling the streets, I saw many buildings that were constructed in the Renaissance architectural style with the Dutch influence of gabled facades. This image captures the classic look of this Dutch Renaissance style.

Free Fall

​Multnomah Falls, Corbett, Oregon

One of arguably the best and tallest waterfalls in Oregon was the destination for Greg and me last month during our cross-country drive to Portland. Multnomah Falls, along the Columbia River, is probably the most photographed waterfalls in the northwest. The falls drop in two-section steps, with the upper falls dropping 542 feet and the lower falls dropping 69 feet. The falls are fed year-round by underground springs from Larch Mountain. A hiking trail leading from the parking lot to the Benson Footbridge allows visitors to cross above the lower falls. The trail continues beyond the falls and ultimately to the top of the upper falls, where hikers get a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge.

Normally the falls are packed with visitors and the footbridge is crowded with people. The day I shot this image, it was quite rainy and only the adventurous (or photographers with an early morning flight the next morning) were out. 

Zoomed Bloom

​Sparta, New Jersey

One of the challenges that face many photographers is that they get into a rut. I consider myself a travel and landscape photographer that loves to capture the beautiful places that I am lucky enough to visit. That is why I like shooting with other photographers that have different ways of looking at things and challenge your creativity. That is one of the reasons that I frequently sign up for Denise Ippolito’s workshops. Not only is Denise a phenomenal bird and flower photographer, she just oozes creativity.

At her Sunflower Workshop last year, she suggested that I try zooming during my exposure. I had experimented with that technique in the film days with not much luck. With the digital cameras and their immediate feedback on the screen, it is easy to play around and see the results immediately. After experimenting a bit with the zooming technique, I got this image that I am very pleased with.

Thanks Denise. Check out her great work and workshops here.

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Yosemite Splendor

Yosemite National Park, California

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What can I say about Yosemite National Park that hasn’t been written or said before? With names like John Muir and Ansel Adams championing the park, it is easy to understand why Yosemite is something special. Muir fell in love with Yosemite’s beauty and worked tirelessly to ultimately bring National Park status to it. Adams popularized Yosemite with his stunning and surreal photos displaying the majesty of the park.

Every time I visit Yosemite, I marvel at its natural beauty from El Capitan to Half Dome and everywhere in between. Just walking in the same place where Muir and Adams may have walked is inspiring. My favorite thing to do there is to get up before dawn before all of the people start showing up and watch as Yosemite Valley begins to light up as the sun begins to rise showing its full splendor. This image was taken during one of these times.

Above the Treetops

​View From Hunting Island Lighthouse, Hunting Island, South Carolina

One of the days we were in Hilton Head, we decided to take a day trip to Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina. Hunting Island is about an hour from Hilton Head and is South Carolina’s most visited state park. It is a 5,000-acre park and it actually is a semitropical barrier island.

One of the attractions in the park is the Hunting Island Light. The light is no longer operational and visitors can climb to the top for a nominal fee. The climb is about 150 feet and once you get to the light’s landing, you have a clear view of the surrounding area. Once I got to the top and went outside, I was taken with this view showing all of the different shades of green that contrasted beautifully with the blue sky.

Chilling on the Glacier

​Columbia Icefields, Icefields Parkway, Alberta

The Columbia Icefield is located along the Continental Divide in the Canadian Rockies. Part of the Icefield runs from northwestern Banff National Park to the southern end of Jasper National Park. It is made up of eight glaciers and is surrounded some of the highest mountains in the Canadian Rockies.

Parts of the Icefield is visible from the Icefields Parkway, particularly the Athabasca Glacier. There is an Icefield Interpretive Centre along the Parkway where visitors can get tickets to be taken on the glacier in specially designed snow coaches. These vehicles are actually snowcats that have been fitted with bus seats. Visitors are driven onto the Athabasca Glacier (at a top speed of 16 mph) and are able to get out and explore. The melting water is pure and is refreshing to drink.

Park Avenue Destination

​Courthouse Towers, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

I remember the first time I visited Arches National Park in 2005. My son Greg and I flew into Salt Lake City and hopped into a rental car for a four-hour drive to Moab. I remember being in quite the bad mood as the airlines left my luggage back home and I needed it for the next morning’s shoot in Arches. When we got into Moab, we thought we would get a quick lay of the land in Arches. We stopped at the first parking lot, which was Park Avenue, and I immediately was back in a great mood.

Park Avenue is a steep-walled smooth sandstone canyon. There is a one-mile trail that runs the length of the canyon and when hiking the trail, you know why it was named Park Avenue (especially if you have ever walk down Park Avenue in New York City). Near the end of the trail, you get a view of the Courthouse Towers. On our recent cross-country trip, Greg and I recreated our earlier trip and the first thing we did was head out onto the trail. The weather was overcast but when we got close to the towers, the sun peeked out, casting a nice warm glow to the sandstone structure.

Grand Canal View

San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy

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Even though it has been a while since I have been to Venice, I continue to go back to my images from then and see one that resonates with me. This is one of those images. We stayed in the Hotel Monaco, which is located on the Grand Canal waterfront just steps from St Mark's Square. It is a very popular tourist destination with St Mark's Basilica and the Doge’s Palace as main attractions.

What I loved most about the location was the ability to be so close to the waterfront at sunrise and sunset. This view across the Grand Canal was shot in the late evening, just before sunset. It features San Giorgio Maggiore, one of 188 islands that make up Venice. The buildings shown in the image are part of both the San Giorgio Monastery (built in 982) and the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore (built in 1566). The fading light gave the buildings a wonderful glow.

The Battery and a Triple D Update

White Point Garden, Charleston, South Carolina

April was a busy month for me. After my cross-country trip to Oregon, I was able to actually sleep in my own bed for five nights before heading on vacation to North and South Carolina. Our first stop was Charleston, a place that I have always wanted to visit but never seemed to get there. Now that I have visited it, I won’t hesitate to revisit it again.

My first impression of the city was what you would expect from a location so steeped in history from the American Revolution to the Civil War to the present. There are very few buildings that are not homes and the few that exist are no taller than 5-6 stories. The styles of homes include Antebellum, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italian and Victorian. I haven’t visited any cities that have such a wide diversity of architecture.

The other lasting memory of Charleston will be the great old southern oak trees throughout the city. These wonderful trees, with their large far-reaching branches, are beautiful and add to the feel of the city. This photo was taken in White Point Garden located in The Battery section of the city.

Triple D Update – We were only able to visit three restaurants that were featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives television show on our southern trip.

  • Barbecue King Drive-In – We landed in Charlotte on the first day of our trip and headed here for lunch. With a three-hour drive ahead of us and with the place having no bathrooms to wash our hands, none of us opted for the fried chicken, which was featured on the show. Big mistake. Everything that we ordered was average at best (I had the BBQ Platter – Pulled Pork, Hush Puppies, Slaw and Fries). Not sure if we would have felt different had we had the chicken but I don’t think we will ever know.
  • Tattooed Moose in Charleston. I had what the menu described as the best sandwich ever made, Mike's Famous Duck Club.  It is a triple-decker filled with duck confit, apple smoked bacon, hickory smoked cheddar, on sweet Hawaiian bread with garlic aioli, lettuce, tomato, & red onion. I am not sure if it is the best ever made but it certainly is in the top ten that I have had.
  • Early Bird Diner – A classic old time diner outside of downtown Charleston. It was a late dinner and I opted to try the Chicken and Waffles mainly because it was featured on the show and also because I have never eaten it. It included pecan encrusted fried chicken and cinnamon waffles drizzled with honey mustard sauce and maple syrup. It was quite good and I wouldn’t hesitate to order it again.
  • The Wich Doctor – This was not featured on Triple D but absolutely should be in the future (hear that Guy?). We stumbled upon it in Folly Beach, SC and it specializes in sandwiches and pizza. I had a pork belly sandwich served on toast with a sunny side up egg, shaved cabbage & tomato. Absolutely yummy.

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Floating

​Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California

With all of the many times that I have traveled to the City by the Bay, I had never visited Golden Gate Park. Not sure why but I had it on my "must see" list on my last trip there.  Golden Gate Park is an urban public park ​that measures over 1,000 acres and is actually 20% larger that New York's Central Park. It is host to many of San Francisco's attractions and is a magnet for tourists, attracting over 13 million visitors annually. 

The day we went to the park was quite dreary and raw and while we were walking around, it started to rain. Fortunately, we were close to the ​Conservatory of Flowers and we headed in. The conservatory is a greenhouse and botanical garden that houses a collection of rare and exotic plants. It has a wonderful display of water lilies, one of which can be seen in this image.

Hiking the Hoodoos

​Banff Townsite, Alberta, Canada

Anyone who enjoys mountains, lakes and the outdoors will fall in love with Banff National Park. Whenever I am asked to recommend a place to visit, Banff is usually the first place out of my mouth (Yosemite is second). The lakes are pristine and easily accessible and the hiking trails are plentiful. Many of the hikes originate in the town of Banff like the Hoodoo Trail.

​The Hoodoo Trail offers some of the best views of the Bow River, Mount Rundle, the Bow Valley and the renowned Banff Springs Hotel. This is a relatively easy trail that makes it very popular and is even paved in parts. Depending on the season and time of day, it can be very crowded. The Hoodoos themselves were formed by  erosion made of rock and sand and are great to see, but it is scenes like this one that make this a great hike.


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Good Morning, Kotor

​Kotor, Montenegro

Sometimes there are days that are perfect for photography and every shot captures great memories. This is an image of Kotor, Montenegro just after the fog lifted (as can be seen in this post entitled Blue Fog). Looking at the two images, it is hard to imagine how much the scene changed within 45 minutes. 

Kotor is a great location that is relatively unknown but it is really only part of the experience. When the full length of the Bay of Kotor is taken into account, it is an amazing place, especially when sailing from one end of it to the other. I have never been to a place like it, where the surrounding mountains tower so high against the water (maybe in Scandinavia which I haven't been to yet).

Old Energy

​Kinderdijk, Netherlands

On my recent cross country trip, I was amazed to see the number of wind turbines ​that dot the landscape starting in the midwest and continuing to the west coast. We don't see that many wind turbines in the northeast and, while I have seen them in my travels, the large clusters of them in "wind farms" was quite the sight. I was particularly surprised to find out that Iowa has the third largest number of them in the US.

In researching wind energy for this post, I was surprised to find out that today's wind turbines are actually referred to as windmills if the resulting mechanical energy is used to drive machinery rather than electricity. 

I am sure to some, these wind farms are sleek looking and efficient but, to my eyes, I'll take the look of the old windmills that were built hundreds of years ago. When I look at this image that I shot along the banks of the Zaan River outside of Amsterdam, I wonder what the people who built this windmill would think of today's windmill replacement.

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Alien Landscape

​View from Double Arch, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

It has been a couple of weeks ​since I have posted although it seems longer. April was a pretty busy month driving with my son out to Oregon and taking a planned vacation to North and South Carolina with friends. All told, I was home only 6 days since March 30th and I estimate that I logged almost 6,000 miles in the car during that time. 

This is an image that I shot in Arches National Park. I was hoping to get the classic sunrise shot of Turret Arch but, as you can see, the weather was not cooperating. We headed instead to Double Arch which is one of my favorite spots on the park. As we walked toward it, we heard music that was actually a Mormon choir singing below one of the arches. I don't know what time they got there but it had to be early. As I climbed up to the bottom of the arch, I glanced out into the distance and saw this scene with the surreal clouds framed in one of the arch's opening. It looked very much like an alien landscape and I knew right then that this image would make it to the blog. The back of the arch was lit nicely though the other arch.

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We Are Off to See The Wizard - Part 2

​Snooze Café, 2262 Larimer St, Denver, Colorado

This is a followup to yesterday's post on the great Wizard of Oz mural that I wandered into in downtown Denver. This image show the right side of the mural.  ​

My wife and I are heading to North and South Carolina today for a vacation with our friends. I will try to post while I am away but probably won't be posting every day. Looking forward to visiting and shooting the Charleston, Savannah, Hilton Head and Asheville areas. If anyone has a suggestion on where to shoot, leave me a comment. Thanks.​

We Are Off to See The Wizard - Part 1

​Snooze Café, 2262 Larimer St, Denver, Colorado

Walking around the city of Denver this month was really ​a neat experience. I hadn't been downtown in almost 20 years and was amazed with all of the construction that was going on. Almost every area that we visited in the city was vibrant and had something to do and see. The area surrounding Coors Field was quite different than I remember.

​There were murals everywhere that were very cool, especially this one of Dorothy and her friends from the Wizard of Oz. It was one of the most colorful and interesting murals that I have seen in a while. The mural was tucked away behind a very narrow outside food bar at the Snooze Café. The only way to take a full shot of the mural was from across the street. Unfortunately, with the trees, fencing, chairs and benches, it is hard to get a clean shot of it (I know I tried). I was determined to get a decent shot of the mural and decided to capture it in two photos. This is the left side of the mural. Tomorrow, I will post the right side.  The mural is located at 2262 Larimer Street.