If you look up "bruschetta" on Wikipedia, here's the definition: "[Bruschetta] is a food the origin of which dates to at least the 15th century from central Italy. It consists of grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper." Toppings of meat, cheese or tomatoes are "variations."
And, as I discovered when I received this bruschetta in Florence, Italy, there are variations in how the tomatoes are prepared. I'm used to having them chopped. But this appetizer was great. It's a healthy snack, too. No wonder the Italians seem to be so svelte. If I had been looking for a snack in my home town, I probably would have had an M&M Blizzard.
Behind me and to my left is the Red Hook Brewery, which is just outside of Seattle. I doubt you care about that detail. And you may be getting bored with the many Washington State leaf pictures I have featured in this blog. But here's another one.
Pink is perhaps a more accurate color to describe this amazing structure. The color comes from the unique, local sandstone from which it is constructed. This cathedral is the 7th tallest church in the world and for 2 1/2 centuries it was the tallest building in the world. The cathedral's namesake town sounds German and the food looks German, but trust me - it is in the beautiful Alsace-Lorraine region of eastern France. On a side note, terrorists sought to detonate a bomb in the square in front of the cathedral in 2000 but the plot was revealed and foiled.
If you were hoping for a photo of the famous "red light" district of Amsterdam, sorry. I've heard that taking photos there can be very risky - the women working there want their privacy protected.
This is another industrial photo. I get paid to do things like this. Little do they know that I find it fun to wander through factories taking photos of the things being made.
If you lived in Hawaii, I'm not sure that the title of this post would make much sense. Think it's always warm with a chance of rain. But near Dearfield, SD, where this photo was taken, the brown and golden tones suggest that winter approaches. I took this photo out of the window of my truck because it was too darn cold to stand outside. I also forgot my tripod. When I shoot landscape photos, I like small apertures, low iso and (therefore) slower shutter speeds.
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.
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?
This is a candid shot of a family photo that Brian and Katie's wedding photographers were organizing. That's why no one is looking at me. I love the light and the soft colors in this photo. The light is late afternoon ambient light sifting in through the east windows on the 22nd floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul. The people pictured are a few of the many Rausch's that inhabitant our new world. (Thats Katie and Brian in the middle of the group.)
Here's one more from Katie and Brian's wedding - this time from the reception dance. The reception was on the 22nd floor of the Crowne Plaza in St. Paul, MN, and, as you can see, the view was spectacular.