Pier into the Night

Edgecomb, Maine

I am sorry for the title of this blog post. After publishing almost 500 images on my site, it gets really hard to come up with something original. There are times when I know what the title of the post  is before I edit the photo. Usually, it expresses something about the trip I was on, or the feeling that I had when I captured it. Other times, I will finish editing a photo, and just come up with absolutely nothing for the title. It is times like these, that I end up with a lame title like this one.

I am not sure why I couldn't come up with something better, as I was with my son as we scouted lighthouses for his short film. It was quite a magical evening and an unexpected one. We had stopped in Edgecomb, Maine at a hotel that I knew nothing about. The reason I stayed there was that it was relatively near the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse that I wanted to shoot at sunrise the next morning. After scouting out the lighthouse and having dinner, we noticed that the hotel had one of the longest piers I have seen and was lit wonderfully. I got out my gear and we spent a couple of hours talking and shooting.

Busy as a Bee

Sparta, New Jersey

Okay, I have done it. Every person who has ever taken a photo of a flower seems to want to get one when a bee has landed on it. It is such a cliche type of shot that some will ask, "Why take it?". My only defense is a take on what George Mallory said when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. "Because it was there."

Your next question may be, "Why post it?". My answer is to make a point. I read somewhere that  some ridiculous percentage (I think it was 20%) of all photos ever taken were shot in the last 10 years. Boggles the mind. So when all of us head on out to capture some moments, whether we are amateurs, enthusiasts or professionals, the subject is likely to have been shot before. While that might sound a bit discouraging, my advice when heading out to shoot is to get the classic shots out of the way first, and then try to get creative with different compositions. They may not be 100% original, but they are likely to be different from every one else's. 

Behind Nubble Light

Nubble Light, York, Maine

The Maine Coast is blessed with some of the best lighthouses on the eastern seaboard. Whenever I am asked which one is my favorite, the answer is always changing. So, today my favorite is Nubble Light (aka Cape Neddick Lighthouse) in York, Maine. I have posted images of this famous lighthouse several times. All of those times, the images are the classic view from the land like this one. The lighthouse actually sits on a small island mere yards offshore.

We had taken a boat tour of the southern Maine Coast, particularly to get a glimpse of the lighthouse from the other side of the island. For those interested in the boat tour, it sails out of Perkins Cove in Ogunquit. The light wasn't great (I shot it at noon), but I really wanted to get a photo from behind the island. As we rounded the island, I spotted this small boat and knew that it had to be part of the composition. The clouds in the background added to the interest of the scene. 

Mile High Blue Hour

Denver, Colorado

Back in April, my son and I spent three nights in Denver, Colorado. We stayed at the Residence Inn just outside downtown. When I booked the hotel, I had no idea it was located in a prime spot for taking great skyline photos of this great city. We only had to walk two blocks and had this view, and I captured this image during the day's blue hour. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

Historic Dome

Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts

Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, is a historic meeting hall and marketplace near the city's waterfront. Built in the 1740's by a local businessman, the meeting hall was the scene of many speeches prior to and during the American Revolution by famous orators such as Samuel Adams.  

In addition to the hall, the marketplace includes three long buildings known as North Market, South Market, and Quincy Market. Today, the market houses many stores and restaurants. The Quincy Market houses quick service food items with an eating area in the center. This image features a portion of the dome that lies above the dining area. 

Bow Lake Reflection

Bow Lake, Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

The Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada is one of the most breathtaking drives that a landscape photographer (and others) can take. From the world famous Banff National Park in the south, the parkway spans 140 miles to the less famous, yet equally beautiful, Jasper National Park. Lakes, mountains, waterfalls, glaciers and wildlife can be spotted along the full length. 

I have been there twice, and am looking forward to going back there in June. It is hard to pick a favorite site (there are many), but in the top five has to be Bow Lake. Laying right along the parkway, it is an easy lake to spot, with rugged mountains as a backdrop. This particular composition is from the south end of the lake, and, if you look closely, you can see the Num Ti Jah Lodge on the opposite shore. 

Relics of the Past

Zaanse Schans, Zaandam, Netherlands

Windmills are usually associated with The Netherlands. I am guessing that the association is due to the fact that there were once over 10,000 windmills throughout the country. Today, only 10% of the windmills are still standing, and most of these are non-functional. Despite that, we were determined to get a chance to see them when we visited Amsterdam.

Fortunately there is an open air conservation area and museum just outside Amsterdam in Zaanse Schans. There, along the banks of the Zaan River, the museum has six working windmills. Each one of these relics are adorned with great bright colors, and they really stand out against the river and sky.

Colors of the Southwest

Monument Valley, Navajo Reservation, Utah/Arizona Border

Last year, I was able to drive cross country from Connecticut to Oregon and back again. I have been asked a number of times to recommend an area to visit. My answer is usually the Grand Circle of the American Southwest.

Why? There is something for everyone in this area that encompasses large portions of four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah). The Grand Circle contains 10 National Parks that will blow you away. From the Cave Dwellings of Mesa Verde to the vastness of the Grand Canyon, visitors can pick and choose from quite a few types of geological marvels.  Arches, canyons, rivers, lakes, canyons, hoodoos, buttes and many more dot the landscapes. 

When you include the 31 state parks and the wonders of the Navajo Nation, such as Monument Valley, shown in this photo, it is quite a challenge to figure out which ones to visit first. The one thing that is consistent with all of the sights in the Grand Circle are the great colors of the sandstone and formations that might remind imaginative people of Mars. 

Heading Around the Bend

Durango & Silverton Railroad, Colorado

One of the things that I have discovered over my years of travel is how much I love riding in trains. It all started when we visited Vancouver, Canada, for a vacation in the nineties. We had a day to kill, and I saw a magazine ad for a half-day train ride up and back along the British Columbia coast. We liked it so much that we ended up returning a couple of years later to Vancouver to take the Rocky Mountaineer to Banff, Alberta. Now it is pretty routine wherever we go to see if there is a scenic train to take.

We found a great all-day train ride that runs from Durango to Silverton, Colorado, and back through the San Juan Mountains, parallel to the Million Dollar Highway. We have done it twice, and will do it again the next time we are in Durango. I took this shot the last time I was there. It was really freezing out but, being a true photographer that will endure just about anything to get the shot, I stayed in the open air car most of the way.  

Docked

Cozumel, Mexico

Okay Winter, I surrender. Another storm yesterday dropping about a foot of snow followed up by ice here. I know that those of you who don't normally get snow, think it is beautiful out when Mother Nature drops a few inches on us. I have to admit, I feel that way on the first snowfall of the year, maybe even the second. But by now, I don't think it is beautiful anymore. In fact, I hope to never see it again. All that is on my mind is being somewhere warm right now. Maybe on a cruise ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico, like we were a couple of years ago. We definitely should have gone cruising this year, but instead we are headed to New Jersey where they have almost as much bad weather as we have in New England. Next February, we will be headed south for some warm weather.

Racing Against the Storm

Mammoth Hot Springs, Canary Terrace, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

No two national parks can be more different in landscape than Grand Teton and Yellowstone. The amazing thing about them is that they are located right next to one another in northwestern Wyoming. Grand Teton is one of my favorites, and I attended a photo tour there last summer. I decided to spend a few days by myself in Yellowstone before I headed back home. 

After spending a couple of nights at Lake Yellowstone, I headed to Mammoth Springs, with the hope to shoot Canary Springs during sunset. It was sunny when I left the hotel, and, 10 minutes later, I grabbed my gear and started to walk toward the springs. I noticed that there were dark clouds starting to roll in, and I thought that I had plenty of time. I didn't know how fast the rain was coming, but I knew I was in a race to get in a few shots. It turned out to be one of the fastest photo shoots that I had, and I barely had enough time to shoot a few brackets before the deluge would start. 

I decided to process this as a black and white, as I wanted to make sure the mood of the moment came through the image.

 

Palatial Mural

Achilleion Palace, Corfu, Greece

Snowed again yesterday in Connecticut. The weather this year is so unpredictable and extreme. We normally head south for a week in February, but we decided not to this year. Big mistake. When I thought about all of the warm places I have been, the island of Corfu, Greece, came to mind. I remember visiting the Achilleion Palace, which was built in 1890 by the Empress of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria. The palace was named and designed after the mythical hero, Achilles. The palace itself contains many  murals and statues throughout the building. 

This image is of the mural in the small chapel in the palace. I had to really boost the ISO to take this handheld shot, but thanks to Lightroom's great noise reduction, it came out pretty good.

Half Dome Sunset

Yosemite National Park, California

How do you visit one of the original national parks and get an image that no one else has gotten? The short answer is you don't. This magical place was made famous by the famed naturalist, John Muir, and brilliantly documented by photographer Ansel Adams. Since then, photographers have flocked to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California to walk in their footsteps. I'll be the first to freely admit that there may be some small section of the park that hasn't been photographed, but who knows for sure?

Enthusiast photographers, like myself, go there for the beauty and ruggedness of the landscapes, and, at the same time, to walk in the footsteps of these pioneers. One of my favorite formations in the park is Half Dome. It is a uniquely shaped formation ,where it looks like half of the dome has fallen away, leaving a sheer flat side. Geologists believe that 80% of the dome still remains.

This angle of Half Dome is from Sentinel Bridge during sunset. It is fascinating watching the shadows slowly crawl up the formation until the tip is the only thing that is lit.

Lines

Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia

One of my favorite photos that I have taken is this one. I really loved the lines in the image and how they interplayed with the buildings in the background. I think that our favorite photos are often not the ones that are perfect, but ones that evoke feelings we had when we took them. I remember walking the streets of Vancouver on the night before we were headed home, and the light was simply beautiful. Everyone else headed in for the night. but I was really in a zone and shot until dark. I knew that I had some winners to look at when I got home.

When I was going through my Lightroom, I happened upon this image, which brought back the same feelings. It is the same scene as my favorite shot, but the composition is a bit different, and I just had to edit and post it. 

Glacier Walk

Columbia Icefields, Icefields Parkway, Alberta

Yesterday I posted an image that I took while walking around Heidelberg, Germany. Today's post is another shot that I took walking around, but in a polar opposite location. This image was taken just off the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada.

The walk on the Athabasca Glacier is a really cool (pardon the pun) thing to do. In order to get onto the glacier, you must take a tour where specialized buses known as Ice Explorers leave the parkway and travel onto the glacier. For their size (they hold about 50 people), these vehicles have very small engines, and the top speed they can travel onto the glacier is 19 miles per hour. It is usually a lot colder on the glacier than it is on the parkway, and you only get about 20 minutes on it to walk around. Even with limited time, it is still an experience you won't forget.

Heidelberg Stroll

Heidelberg, Germany

I love to wander around the streets of cities admiring the architecture with the hope that a scene will scream out to me to capture it in a photo. I particularly enjoy doing that in the cities of Europe. The history of each European city we visit always fascinates me, and the architecture is so different from the cities in the US.  When walking along the streets, I have a particular habit of looking at alley and side streets just to see what is down them. Oftentimes, they are not attractive at all, but sometimes you end up with a place worth shooting. This is one of those shots that I found when walking around Heidelberg, Germany. I loved the brick road and how the light and shadows gave it a great look.

June Snow Squall

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

When planning a vacation, we try to visit places when everyone's kids are still in school. Typically we shoot for May/June and September/October. The crowds are thinned out, the weather is usually not too hot or cold, and many of the seasonal businesses are either just opening up for the summer or not yet closed for the winter. This works the majority of time, but, once in a while, mother nature has a surprise for you.

This was the case when we visited Colorado a few years ago in June. We had spent some time in the western part of the state and the weather was wonderful. The last of the trip was going to be in Rocky Mountain National Park before we headed home. We stayed overnight in Vail and found out that there was going to be some snow the next day. We had planned to drive up the west side of the Rockies, over them, and head to Denver. We found out that the road over the Rockies was closed due to the weather. Undeterred, we drove up the east side as far as we could go. Along the way, we stopped to shoot some images that showed the the snow over the valley.

Worn Arches

Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida Keys, Florida

Friends of ours just escaped the frigid northeast and headed to Key West, Florida. Since we were there last year, they asked what some of our favorite restaurants and places were. One of my suggestions was to visit Dry Tortugas National Park. I must admit that if it weren't for my desire to visit every US National Park, I might not have gone there. Once I did, it became a must visit at least once spot. Located about 70 miles west of Key West, it is accessible only by boat or plane. Visitors are treated to a wonderful place where they can enjoy snorkeling, explore the coral reef, immerse themselves with the marine and bird life and, if none of these things interest you, you can tour Fort Jefferson.

The fort was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the Gulf of Mexico. Like some government projects, the fort was never completed, due to the fears that the island might not be able to support the weight that finishing the fort would require. Walking around the fort and seeing the amount of brickwork there, I can understand the concern, although one would have thought that particular concern would have surfaced before starting construction. This composition shows the arches that provide the foundation for the upper levels.  

When the Shadow of the Grasshopper

San Francisco, California

Last summer, my son and I visited San Francisco for a few days. My son is a writer and musician and he always wants to visit the haunts  that his favorite author, Jack Kerouac, frequented. One of Kerouac's favorite places to hang out and drink was Vesuvio Cafe, located in Chinatown, just next to one of the most famous bookstores, City Lights. Kerouac spent so much time there that the alley between the two businesses is named after him. Vesuvio Cafe was frequented by Beat Generation celebrities, as well as other notable cultural figures such as Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan and Francis Ford Coppola.

Of course, we had to head into the bar for a drink. Afterwards, I spent some time in the alley shooting photos of all of the murals and pavers that are on display. This image on Vesuvio's wall was my favorite mural.

Dangerous Jobs

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I am sure that many of you have seen or heard of the television show, Dirty Jobs, where the host would spend a day working in the dirtiest of jobs. When I walk through the cities that I have traveled to, I often see different types of jobs being performed. When I see these instances, I will snap a shot of the work being performed. i guess if I ever started my own television show about them, I would call it Dangerous Jobs. In this case, I headed out of our hotel in Vancouver just after dawn to see if I could get some reflections in the buildings in the great morning light. As I was looking around (and looking up), I noticed these window washers cleaning these towers. My first thought was that they were crazy doing that job. My second thought was how long it was going to take them to finish.