Yes, another self-indulgent photo! And you wouldn't know that this is Paris, would you? It could be our local Mini-Mart. But check out the the wine section of this petite store. Only in France would you see something like this.
That's my friend Scott P standing with an empty shopping basket. We are about to fill it with our favorites beverage, which isn't wine. On this occasion it was probably Kronenbourg 1664. And, yes, that was a very good year!
I learned a couple weeks ago that a former student of mine, Erin H., is looking at the blog from time to time. Given that there are other former students who also see this blog, this might seem unremarkable. But it turns out that Erin is in Paris for a year, and there's something special to me about having someone there checking out my blog. :-)
Erin writes:
Living in Paris for the year, and being able to look at your blog is a great reminder of where I come from, and also how many places I have yet to visit. . . .
In honor of Erin, I am kicking off a series called "A Week In Paris." For a while, my blog becomes a reminder of where she is and where some of us would like to go some day.
Incidentally, Erin also has a blog of her own, with many great photos, and I suggest you take a peek: worldmoods.blogspot.com
You could just see this another wall with ivy growing on it. Or you could see it as a deeply symbolic photo representing the conflict of "man vs. Nature," and our attempt to impose structure and pattern on a universe that is as random as the ivy's vine creeping across a red brick wall.
What was I thinking when I took the photo? Frankly, I was probably thinking that I liked the yellow tint that seems to edge all of the leaves. More likely, I wasn't thinking at all. . . .
I found these brightly colored leaves in the heart of downtown Seattle. I had wandered out of the conference I was attending during my lunch hour to look for a few photo opportunities. I found this tree in a courtyard of an office building. After I had taken a few photos, I noticed two armed security guards walking my way and they weren't smiling. They told me to stop taking photos. I said that I was only taking pictures of leaves. But that didn't matter. They told me I was on private property and that I would be charged with trespassing if I didn't leave the property. So I left.
But I got this photo!
This is Michelangelo's "Moses," and it is housed in one of the most unassuming places any great work art resides - the Church of St. Peter in Chains in Rome. Michelangelo was commissioned to do Pope Julius II's tomb and Moses was to be one of 50 sculptures to decorate the tomb. Humility? I don't think so.
The Pope ran out of money and the tomb was scaled back. But we got "Moses" out of the deal. Why the horns? Well, one account I've read says that the horns come from a mistranslation of the Old Testament. The Hebrew should have read "rays of light," not "horns."
Whenever I see a Michelangelo sculpture, I am struck first by how amazingly life-like the cold stone is. But I am also in awe of the physical feat it must have been for Michelangelo to wrest the figures from the stubborn Carerra marble.
This is an early morning shot of a back lit tree in the Borghese Gardens in Rome. There is something prehistoric-looking in these leaves. I don't know what kind of tree this is but it could be a relative of the locust, which grows in some places in South Dakota.
This is yet another photo from the Plitvice Lakes. I am standing on the shore shooting down. The clear, blue water is not fancy Photoshop work - it is the amazing work of Nature.
This is one of the many waterfalls at the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. I had no tripod for the shots I took in this beautiful location so the water isn't quite as blurry as I'd like. The striking feature of the the Plitivice Lakes is the amazingly blue and clear water that flows through the park.
Here's another "reflections" photo. It's Deb again, striking a pose on a cruise boat sailing the eastern Aegean Sea. I think that's the same sun that sets in South Dakota, though.
Thanks to those of you who responded to my "The End Is Near" post. I'm persuaded that I need to keep posting. It's a good thing for me because it makes me go back and look at photos I'd forgotten about. It also motivates me to try to capture new things in new ways.
Before I go back to photos, I thought I'd show you one more geeky blog statistic page. This one shows the ranking of photos over the last 11 months based on number of page visits. Interestingly, the most viewed photo on my blog is "View of a Nude Beach - Corfu." I don't think that it's the best picture of the 300+ pictures that are posted. I think the word "nude" is the secret to its success.
Among the other statistics I get are the search terms that brought people to my blog. And "nude" "nude photos" and "nude beach" bring people to my web site every day. I'm well aware that people like you don't get to "A Photo A Day" via Google. So relax. I know it's not your prurient interests that cause you to bookmark "A Photo A Day." Right?
If you've got a minute, try doing a Google photo search for "nude beach Corfu." WARNING: if you don't have safe search on, you will see more than the sand and sea at this beautiful little beach I photographed. You may even see some private parts. But you may also see my blog photo.
Incidentally, 4 of the top 10 photos in my blog are from Brian and Katie's wedding.
My wife doesn't really like it when I take her photo so instead I often take a photo of the reflections I see in her sunglasses. This is a palm tree in Mexico. But it's also a close-up Deb's head. She'll be thrilled.
I don't mean 2012. I mean the end of this blog.
In this screen capture, you are looking at the monthly statistics for "A Photo A Day." Boring? Probably. I started this blog on February 21, 2009, and I plan on ending it on February 20.
What is interesting about the graph is that though it indicates that people take a look from time to time (over 25,000 hits), I have very little clue of who those people are. I would really appreciated hearing from you. I don't want to sound like I'm needy but if any of you can offer a compelling reason why I should continue and that I haven't become redundant, I may continue to post.
I do appreciate people taking the time to look at my pictures.