Travel
This is some kind of succulent plant growing in the back yard of the house we stayed at in Kona, Hawaii. This was a reject from my "Seeing Green" series, but I'm trying to keep my blog going this week without missing a day. My "Seeing Red" series starts tomorrow.
The girl in pink is Megan and she was willing to pose for one of my traffic mirror self-portraits. This time, I'm with a student group in Munich, Germany. Megan and I had split off from the group to visit the Pinakothek Art Museum.
Notice the German flag flying on the car behind us. My observation about Europe is that Europeans are not as inclined to wave their national flags as the Americans are. The reason for this might be that they still carry the strong memory of the occasional dangers of nationalism. But one of the times that nationalism and flag waving are rampant is when the World Cup Football matches are being played, as they were in the summer of 2006, when we were in Germany and Italy traveling the "Romantic Road."
The Italians went on to win and we were in Florence, Italy, the night this happened. You might remember a photo I posted from "the morning after." Canon 5D 1/320s f/7.1 ISO800 95mm
As we experience "the coldest first two weeks of October ever recorded," it's not hard to think of warm, sun-washed places like Santorini, which is pictured here. A student group, my wife and I spent several hours on this amazing island in the summer of 2004. As winter sets in, I long to go back. Do you want to come along?
Canon 1D II 1/1000s f/18.0 ISO500 90mm
These were growing over a doorway in a back street in a little village in Croatia. Green things like this seem to suggest the promise of something. Jelly? Wine? Or a meal for birds?
We saw much that was green on our trip this past summer to Sitka, Alaska, including these sea bass. Our vantage point was an excursion boat named the Sea Life Discovery. I was fascinated by the murky, green water that our boat moved through and I was intrigued by the sea life. I took over 100 pictures but most are out of focus. Though this photo is a little marginal, it's one of the better ones.
Sea Life Discovery A view of the inside of the Sea Life Discovery
Canon 5DII 1/100s f/5.6 ISO1600 45mm
Special Note: This is the first is a series this week that I am calling "Seeing Green," which will feature green things I have photographed. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
I like the transitional colors in these leaves. And I also like the veins that are clearly visible.
I made a brief venture into my back yard this morning and found this leaf, which was still wet from the rain we had earlier in the morning.
My wife tells me that this is a coneflower. I am posting this because I had posted a coneflower photo this summer - but I have switched the seasons. Check out my other coneflower photo by clicking here. If you are really interested in coneflowers, you can go to conflower.com. Yes, the flower has its own blog.
Let's go to Hawaii! This was growing outside the house we stayed at the last time we visited our son Jon, who worked in Kona on the Big Island. I think this flower is called "Bird of Paradise."
I skipped the gondola ride the last time I took students to Venice, but my students didn't. I was killing time while they took their ride, crossed one of hundreds of bridges and, low and behold, there they were! (They are in the 3rd gondola from the front.)
