05-27-12 A View From Above

Inspired by an article on Lisbon, Portugal,in the Travel section of today's NYT, I went back and looked at things I had from our trip there a couple years ago. This photo was taken from the top of a monument to the Portuguese explorers, who boldly went where no European white men had gone before.I am captivated by aerial shots that show shadows and of course there are strong shadows in this photo, though I'm not all that impressed with what I got. Compositionally, I would like something different, though I can't tell what that would be. If I had spent 30 minutes more, in this location, I probably could have gotten the perfect placement of my unsuspecting subjects below.

05-09-12 Belgian Delicacies

I'm not sure if lust makes the list of mortal or deadly sins. And I'm not sure that having a profound desire for real whipped cream and fresh cherries piled on top of a freshly cooked waffle right now constitutes lust. I suppose I could look all of this up but I don't want to know the answer.This delicious breakfast was served in a small cafe in the beautiful city of Brugge, Belgium. Deb and I were there a few years ago and I found this photo as I was working on cleaning up old, unnecessary things on my computer. But Belgian waffles are necessary and so is the photo.But, alas, my breakfast of oatmeal and skim milk is calling me. That's what I have almost every morning when I am home. Fidelity, of course, is no sin. It is a virtue. . . .Canon 5DII 1/200s f/2.5 ISO500 50mm (Canon 50mm 1.2L)

Lil Ann

This is an informal portrait I took of Ann, who was a friend of my aunt Betty. Ann is 90 years old but looks, sounds and acts like she is at least 20 year's younger. You've got to love Ann. And her red Ford with vanity plates.And this photo was taken by LATI Photo/Media second year student Ashley McCormick. It was taken in one of the many famous New Orleans cemeteries. Here's Ashley's web site.

Winging It Again

Because my wife is a Delta Silver Elite member, we sometimes get exit row seats, which are often located over a wing. And because we have been booking our tickets "late in the game," I often get a window seat, rather than my preferred aisle seat. And because our plane left Minneapolis an hour late, I saw the sunset just off of the tip of the starboard wing.And because of all of this, you are seeing a rather mundane wing shot. But in truth I am posting this today so I really have the opportunity to feature another great student photo, this time of a window in an old house. The photographer was Danine Jacobson, the photo is an HDR manipulation and it won a prize in a South Dakota student photography contest. Here's Danine's web site. And here's another view of this same window.

04-13-12 Ready To Ride

It would have been hard NOT to see the bright, purple bicycles lined up at the hotel we stayed in while visiting Friday, Harbor, Washington. I photographed the bikes but didn't ride one.

04-12-12 Drift Wood

This was taken along the shore at San Juan Island National Historic Park, which is near the southeastern tip of San Juan Island. Of course driftwood was once adrift, and that means anyone navigating the waters along these shores, especially in small boats, must always be aware of the hazards of hitting floating logs before they become shore bound.Here's a Panoramio view of this location.

Seattle City Scape

Being in the right place at the right time makes a photographer's job easier. Sometimes I manage this by intent and sometimes by luck.In the case of this photo of Seattle, I got lucky. Apparently, it had been cloudy, cool and rainy for most of the week prior to our three-day stay in the area. But during our entire stay, it ranged from partly cloudy to crystal clear. I took this photo later in the afternoon, which resulted in nearly perfect light for the scene. And I couldn't have asked for more interested clouds.And, yes, this photo is manipulated in software. In my intent to work on the contrast in the photo, I found a setting in Nik Color Efex 4 that gave a look to this scene that I liked.

Oh, Canada

My son Jon and his friend Lynn gaze off towards Victoria, Canada, from the west shore of San Juan island in Washington state.

Well Musseled

I apologize for the bad pun in the title of this post - I couldn't resist. The mussels were one of the many delicacies we enjoyed on our visit to Friday Harbor, Washington.

California Fresh

California is cooler than South Dakota today but I'm afraid it still has a few things going for it that my state doesn't. For example, here in California I can drive 2 minutes from my aunt's house and find a strawberry patch with luscious, ripe strawberries. I can't do that in Watertown this time of year. These tasted great on vanilla ice cream, incidentally.In our planning for my aunt Betty's memorial at the end of next month, I told Deb that we needed to serve strawberries and Dairy Queen ice cream. Betty stood five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds but she could eat strawberries and ice cream like there was no tomorrow.

Moses Takes A Break

I don't think that Moses ever made it to southern California but if he had, I'm sure he would have enjoyed the palms and the pure morning sun as I did the morning I took this photo.My son, Brian, has astutely observed that this version of Moses doesn't have the horns that Michelangelo gave the original version of this statue. It would be interesting to know why this editorial decision was made by the copyist.To see the "real" sculpture, check out this post from a few years ago.

A Stony Gaze

Many of the photos I have posted recently have been resurrected from a fairly large collection of old digital files that have been languishing in a virtual closet. They are a little like old, worn t-shirts that have great sentimental value but should really be turned into rags. My wife even tells me that if I get a new t-shirt, I need to throw an old one away. Imagine that! What if I had to throw one old picture away for every new one I took?Well, that's not in my genes - I blame my parents for being a packrat. And the good thing is that my photos are pretty well organized and that programs like Aperture, iPhoto and Adobe Bridge make it easy to view collections of old pictures.So today's photo was just waiting to see the light of day. It was taken in Venice, Italy, in 2006 and though it looks fairly simple and straight forward, I put about 30 minutes of processing into this to get it the way I wanted it.I'm sure if I had been listening to our tour guide that day, I could tell you more about this man. But I'm afraid I was caught up in my photography. . . .