Category Archives: Places to Shoot

Architecture, buildings, Historic Buildings, Places to Shoot, Summer, Travel, Urbanscape

Washington D.C. ~ Buildings

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For me, Washington D.C. is all about the buildings. In my world of keywording,  buildings also include monuments, bridges, and memorials. Steeped in history, full of stories, iconic, architecture, and design all catch my eye. I couldn’t get enough. Here they are, in no particular order.

The Library of Congress was NOT what I pictured it to be. From what we saw it was much more a museum than a library. Apparently, it is the official research library that serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country and is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages. Who knew?

We stumbled across this building on our way to a March for our Lives rally. Excluding the White House, the Lockkeeper’s House is the oldest building on the National Mall, built in 1837.

The building dates to a period when this area was a  wharf and was the location of a section of the Washington City Canal, which connected the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Here, an eastward extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal met the Potomac River and the Washington City Canal at a canal lock.

The 350-square-foot house served the canal lock keeper, who collected tolls, recorded commerce, maintained the canal, and managed traffic.

The Vietnam Memorial was powerful. The names on the Wall, originally numbering 57,939 when it was dedicated in 1982, are listed in the chronological order of the casualty dates. It’s interesting how short the wall is from the early days of the war and startling how tall it gets in the middle. Additional names have since been added and as of May 2018, there were 58,320 names. The number of names on the wall is different from the official number of U.S. Vietnam War deaths, which is 58,220 as of May 2018.

Mount Vernon was a beautiful way to spend an afternoon. The main building was under renovation so we wandered the grounds. It became less beautiful as we entered the slave quarters and realized how many people were owned to make these grounds a working farm back in the day. The above image is a room of the restored slave quarters.

The plantation is on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C.

The Washington family acquired land in the area in 1674. Around 1734, the family embarked on an expansion of its estate that continued under George Washington, who began leasing the estate in 1754 before becoming its sole owner in 1761.

In 1858, the house’s historical importance was recognized and it was saved from ruin by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association; this philanthropic organization acquired it together with part of the Washington property estate. Escaping the damage suffered by many plantation houses during the American Civil War, Mount Vernon was restored.

Mount Vernon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is still owned and maintained in trust by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association and is open every day of the year. Allowing the public to see the estate is not an innovation, but part of an over 200-year-old tradition started by George Washington himself. In 1794 he wrote: “I have no objection to any sober or orderly person’s gratifying their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens, &ca. about Mount Vernon.”

This is an image of the lower floor of a round barn found on the property. It was invented to have hay laid out on the above floor, have horses walk on it, and ground it up to have it fall through to the bottom floor and be swept up and used. It was cutting-edge technology back then.

The Capital is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall. Though no longer at the geographic center of the federal district, the Capitol forms the origin point for the district’s street-numbering system and the district’s four quadrants.

Central sections of the present building were completed in 1800. These were partly destroyed in the 1814 burning of Washington, then were fully restored within five years. The building was later enlarged by extending the wings for the chambers for the bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives in the south wing, and the Senate in the north wing. The massive dome was completed around 1866 just after the American Civil War.

The Supreme Court Building also referred to as “The Marble Palace,” serves as the official workplace of the Chief Justice of the United States and the eight Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. It is located in the block immediately east of the United States Capitol and north of the Library of Congress. On May 4, 1987, the Supreme Court Building was designated a National Historic Landmark.

The proposal for a separate building for the Supreme Court was suggested in 1912 by President William Howard Taft, who became Chief Justice in 1921. In 1929, Taft successfully argued for the creation of the new building but did not live to see it built. Physical construction began in 1932 and was officially completed in 1935 under the guidance of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, Taft’s successor.

I don’t remember what this building is but we got out of the car, I looked up and saw this…so I SHOT it.

Beautiful architecture was everywhere, be it churches, office buildings, or homes, it was everywhere.

Walking from one place to another, outside of the National Mall, we would come across random buildings like the Embassy of Kazakstan.

The National Education Association.

The National Geographic Society.

An iPhone picture of the White House. Some days you could get right up to the gate and some days not. Today was a good day.

The Washington Monument’s construction began in 1848 and was halted for a period of 23 years, from 1854 to 1877 due to a lack of funds, a struggle for control over the Washington National Monument Society, and the American Civil War. It was built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the first President of the United States (1789–1797). Located almost due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world’s tallest predominantly stone structure and the world’s tallest obelisk at 555 feet 5+1⁄8 inches (169.294 m) tall, according to the National Park Service (measured 1884). It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances.  The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the first stone was laid atop the unfinished stump on August 7, 1880; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884; the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885; and officially opened October 9, 1888.

We never did secure tickets to go up in it. Next time.

The World War II Memorial was stunning. But this plaque was possibly the most important part of the memorial. It is the Freedom Wall. It explains the price of freedom in very real terms. The wall holds 4,048 gold stars you can see behind the sign to the left. Each star represents one hundred American service personnel who died or remain missing in the war. The 405,399 Americans dead and missing from World War II are second only to the loss of more than 620,000 Americans during our Civil War.  And THAT only includes our country. And only service members. Let that sink in for a minute.

This is a super cute little bridge along the waterway of the Jefferson Memorial whose pillars you can see below.

I found this quote on the Southeast wall to be very pertinent to today’s politics: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” I have more to say but I’ll stop there. 😉

 

The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in May 1922. It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has sometimes been a symbolic center focused on race relations.

The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The memorial is open to the public 24 hours a day, and more than 7 million people visit it annually.

Even the Metro station is kinda cool inside.

We went to a Washington Nationals Major League Baseball game with our friends. I even ate a hot dog.

The Smithsonian Institution is legendary. I learned this at an exhibit: “The Smithsonian Institution started with a gift from an 18th-century English scientist named James Smithson who left his fortune to the United States, a country he had never seen. This exhibition looks at the history of the Smithsonian, focusing on its research, museums, and public programs in art, culture, history, and science and the role of the American public in the Smithsonian museums and research.

The Smithsonian is a partnership between its specialist staff and the American people. ”

Walking around old Alexandria we ran into some old buildings.

I’m not sure what this building is but we emerged from the underground Metro to this. Stunning.

This is the National Portrait Gallery which is full of, you guessed it, portraits! Among other art pieces.

We didn’t go into Chinatown but found one of the entrances to it near the portrait gallery. Again, next time.

Here’s Ellen at Union Station, on our way to find the Amtrak train that will take us to New York City.

I hope you enjoyed the small sampling of the buildings we encountered on the D.C. portion of our June adventure.

Until next week, Happy Shooting!!

Art, Cultural, keywording, Music, People, Places to Shoot, Travel

Music we enjoyed

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Music and people, people and music. You can’t have one without the other. It was tricky separating these two keywords as they are somewhat interchangeable.

Our first full-on musical encounter was in Progreso, Mexico when through the market came a family band. It looked like mom, dad, and three boys. Dad was on clarinet, the two older boys were on drums, the youngest had the donation cup and mom followed along, keeping an eye on her brood. They were really quite good but gone before I could get my camera out after our donation to take a decent picture. The sad part? The boys were working and not in school. We were there in April.

Our main musical encounter was, you guessed it, New Orleans! We were there for their first French Quarter Jazz Festival since Covid.

There were plenty of solo guitar players, some with donation tins and some not.

Definitely some well-worn guitars.

This guy had his karaoke music playing and was singing his heart out for a buck.

And some were just playing for themselves.

Then the parade began and the jazz bands came marching down Bourbon Street.

You can almost hear the music while looking at these images.

The Navy even sent some musicians. The fellow below was FULL of personality. Imagine if THIS is how we went to war and we wound up making music together instead of death and destruction. If only…

On a street corner, we ran into this quintet playing some interesting instruments. There was a standup base and a washboard among the crew.

Raw talent if you ask me, riding a bike with this big drum.

I’m not sure who this is but a painting was made of her and she was selling CDs. She was an amazing clarinet player with a small band on a street corner in NOLA.

We ran into Mai-Mai (My-My?) near some statues in Armstrong Park. He was just hanging out on the park bench, chatting with people and playing his guitar. We listened and talked with him for a while. Such a sweet man.

Dollywood had some great Bluegrass bands playing as well. The South definitely did not disappoint in the music department.

Places to Shoot, Travel

Excursions or…a busy, busy trip

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Excursions is a new main theme that began as Urban. I was looking for a catch-all keyword I could use for random images but as it turns out, almost all of the images fit under other main themes. I then decided I needed to tag all of the little adventures we had along the way including museums, beaches, bike rides, cemeteries, city visits, etc. To be clear, the keyword Urban has evolved into Excursions. We’ll have to see how I like it and how useful it is.

This image is an example of one picture needing at least three main theme tags; people, nature, and excursions.

Portal was a busy two days and three nights. Our excursions included visiting the little town, following Michelle around on her daily house-sitting tour, a quick driving tour of the area including Rodeo, NM, and some campgrounds in the Chiricahua national monument, and a couple of short hikes, one to this watering hole and another to a beautiful vista in the monument.

The Harlingen area was a remarkably busy four days and five nights given that we were only supposed to be there two nights and one day.

These little babies, maybe baby Jesus? were found in a store in Mexico. They were initially tagged as People, though that’s a stretch, and Art, another stretch. This is an example of an image not fitting in any of the initial main theme tags very well but they were seen on our excursion into Mexico.

Heading into Mexico we crossed the famed Rio Grande River. Here is a border patrol truck driving the river frontage road. I have no idea how far this road goes or how many desperate people they encounter each day. The river is smaller than I had imagined.

The tags for the above image are Transportation, Nature, Excursions.

In the Harlingen area, we had several errands we ran. Here’s ellen at the post office mailing a package to her sister in Bellingham, WA. We also got the truck windows tinted, tried to get help fixing the outdoor shower leak, discovered some items we needed and did a Walmart run, went grocery shopping, saw a movie, hit a mall, and the like.

South Padre Island was a big day. Being only an hour away it was easy enough to get to but we actually spent a good chunk of time in Port Isabel, the town on this side of the bridge connecting the two.

The sand dunes on SPI are tagged People, Nature, Excursions.

The cemetery in Port Isabel is very close to this hotel. We walked over from the lighthouse where we could see it from the top. This picture is a classic example of needing a catch-all tag like Excursions. I guess it could also fit under Buildings.

This image is tagged People, Buildings, Excursions as it is the stairway up to the top of the lighthouse.

This is Ellen in her childhood home in Harlingen. Finding this home was the reason for our deep south Texas detour. It was such a wonderful experience. The owners were lovely and let us in to visit. Ellen told lots of stories of her adventures with her siblings in this house.

We had three full days in Houston with cousin David and that was a very busy time as well. We did two bike rides on bayou trails. One of the rides went past a bat colony. We could see any bats but found evidence of them in their scat on the ground. It didn’t smell very good.

We also went to Houston Post, a renovated U.S. Postal facility that has the largest urban park on top of a building in the country. Inside are restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues. It’s still being developed but it is in Houston’s theater district downtown which is second in size only to Broadway in New York City.

This is in downtown Houston where you can walk down to the bayou. It is said you can kayak in these waters although we did not see anyone in them.

We spent an afternoon at Rice University. An hour and a half was spent at a lecture cousin Dave had signed up for. He’s my idol in the area of not letting your brain atrophy.

We also attended this fascinating museum. The museum is home to “the country’s largest collection of funeral service artifacts and features renowned exhibits on one of man’s oldest cultural customs,” according to its website. For its hallmark exhibit, Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes, the museum collaborated with the Vatican to highlight the ceremonies surrounding papal funerals. As of October 2020, the museum has a presidential exhibit, including Abraham Lincoln’s death mask.

Displays go back in time as far as Ancient Egyptian funerary practices and include items like hearses and unusual coffins. It also devotes space for a Presidential Funeral Gallery. Among other items, it has the original $99.25 funeral bill for George Washington.

And the interactive exhibit on Frieda Kahlo.

On the way to Galveston, we hit the Johnson Space Center. Named after Lyndon B. Johnson, the Johnson Space Center is NASA’s center where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres in the Clear Lake Area of Houston, which acquired the official nickname “Space City” in 1967. The center is home to NASA’s astronaut corps and is responsible for training astronauts from both the US and its international partners. It houses the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, which has provided the flight control function for every NASA human spaceflight since Gemini 4. It is popularly known by its radio call signs “Mission Control” and “Houston”.

We had two excursions in Galveston, the town itself where we spent the day, and a walk to the beach from camp.

These electrical lines remind me of some I photographed in Kathmandu. During the 19th century, Galveston became a major U.S. commercial center and one of the largest ports in the United States. It was, for a time, Texas’ largest city, known as the “Queen City of the Gulf”. It was devastated by the unexpected Galveston Hurricane of 1900, whose effects included massive flooding and a storm surge that nearly wiped out the town. The natural disaster on the exposed barrier island is still ranked today as the deadliest in United States history, with an estimated death toll of between 6,000 to 12,000 people. The city subsequently reemerged during the Prohibition era of 1919–1933 as a leading tourist hub and a center of illegal gambling, nicknamed the Free State of Galveston until this era ended in the 1950s with subsequent other economic and social development.

Our last morning was a foggy one.

Then it was on to New Orleans. We really only had two excursions in three days, the plantation museum and NOLA itself. New Orleans was a gold mine for photography and within the city, we had what seemed like a million little excursions. We hit restaurants, museums, parades, shops, and we people watched to name a few.

These two critters were taking in the festival parade. They could use a good brushing, don’t ya think?

This critter was at our Cajun Restaurant where we ate after the morning at the plantation.

These big round containers had something to do with raising and processing sugar. The slave quarters are in the background.

We went to a Mardi Gras mask store where the owner/artist makes leather masks. They were exquisite .

Again with the Voodoo Museum. There was so much fascinating information in there.

By chance Ellen’s sister Ruth was in Poplar, Mississippi visiting her son and grandchildren when we were passing through so we stopped in. This is her son’s place and Ruth’s bedroom when she visits.

Our visit to Houston, MS was brief. We had planned two nights at Davis Lake Campground and one whole day in this small town of 5,000. The city hall is beautiful and I have no doubt this lunch counter saw some action during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Another Houston excursion included finding Ellen’s grandfather’s grave. We found it largely on Ellen’s memory of where she used to visit when she lived there. It overlooked the high school, which mysteriously burned down in 1973 after electing its first Black homecoming queen.

We allowed ourselves one day to visit Dollywood. These two images are from there. We also rode the steam train which was pretty cool. But we weren’t loving the theme park so we headed to Gatlinburg in the afternoon.

The town of Gatlinburg wasn’t our jam either. It was kind of a cross between The Strip in Las Vegas and Main Street at Disneyland. Buy, buy, buy, and fake, overdone building facades. We DID have some delicious fudge though and a good meal at a restaurant with a Hopi Radio sticker on its window.

What saved the day was the sky bridge experience. We took a ski lift to the top of a hill and walked on suspension bridges between other hilltops and had pretty great views. It turns out Smokey Mountain National Park is the most visited national park with 11 million visitors a year.

From Tennessee, we headed to Weaverville, NC, just outside of Ashville to visit some old neighbors who had moved there a few years ago. It was a delightful time, we had lunch at the country club, drove around Ashville and got the tour, and stopped at this park for a wander. It was beautiful with turtles and lots of birds.

In Hillsborough, NC we stayed three days to visit my beautiful cousin Wendy and her two lovely children. We had many outings with them including lots of thrifting. Wendy could rival Chelsea, our daughter, in the thrifting department.

We also hit up UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and their gardens,  chapel, and downtown Hillsborough, and just hung around her property which is full of chickens, mules, ducks, geese, and at least one snake.

Five states later we are in Cincinnati for a week! Following a day in the ER with Akacia she rallied and we thrifted.

We tried to go to the shark girl museum but had lunch instead.

Ellen and I hiked Embshoff Woods.

We also walked around Eden Park and saw great views of the city.

We found this beautiful pond at Spring Grove Cemetery. Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum is a nonprofit rural cemetery and arboretum in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the third largest cemetery in the United States and is recognized as a US National Historic Landmark.

On the Purple People Bridge, one can stand in two states at once. Not quite as impressive as the Four Corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico but fun nonetheless. It connects Cincinnati and Newport, Kentucky. And locks are always fun to shoot.

After Cincinnati, we stopped in Iowa for two nights. from there we hit the Amana Colonies for a morning of walking and photographing. the stores were fun. There was an entire store devoted to just Christmas ornaments and decorations. Baskets of taffy are always fun.

Once we made it to Nebraska after our harrowing experience in near tornado weather we got up the next morning and my brother Jonathan took us to the Platt River. He felt a need to wade across and check out the other bank. It is a shallow slow-moving river that occasionally floods. He showed us signs of severe erosion where parcels of farmland are being swallowed up by the river.

That afternoon went to a local cemetery where my birthfather is buried as well as several members of Jonathan’s family. They have been on this farm for over 100 years. The next day we donned beekeeping suits and helped with some bee boxes. Later that day we helped extract honey and bottle it. SO cool!

On to Denver and our excursions there. Chelsea took us to Idaho Springs on I-70 outside of Denver for a day of hot rubbing in some natural hot springs. It was a delightful day. We finished with some Colorado Style Pizza and a quick look in an outdoor clothing thrift shop.

In Denver, we stayed with my brother Jonathan and his wife and two kids and visited our good friends the Prows (who had this sign hanging in their home). Of course, both of these images could be tagged under Art or Signs, or both!

We ran errands at the mall, walked the Santa Fe Arts District, walked the kids to school, and generally hung out with family. We bugged out a couple of days ahead of schedule to miss the snowstorm heading our way with over a foot of snow predicted.

I feel like we were twice as busy as this blog shows but it was a nice mixture of busy and chilling at campgrounds and with family.

Thanks for letting me revisit our amazing adventure. I hope you’re enjoying reading it as much as I am writing it! Until next time,

Happy shooting!

 

 

Art, buildings, Places to Shoot, Travel

Buildings along the Way…

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Buildings. I love them. I love their form, their function, their stories, and their history. This was one of the tougher edits as far as choosing what to share. Architecture in the south and east is so very different than what we have out west, especially in New Orleans. I couldn’t get enough.

But first! a quick word about keywords. I changed one of my main themes from architecture to buildings and here’s why: buildings, in my mind, is a broader subject. It includes, for me, all things built by humans. It could be a pool, a bridge, homes, skyscrapers, windows, doors, door knobs, gates, fences, and the like. Those are actually some of my keywords under buildings. Here are all nine of them: doors, windows, interior, brick, church, gate, historic, stone, and house. I’m not sure I’m married to this list and it will change as my subject choices change, but that’s what I have at this point in time.

Beyond the main theme, you could honestly just keep going with subsets. For example, one could pull up all church images, change the preset to churches and continue to add keywords like steeple, stained, glass, pews, altar, religious, etc.

Our first stop on our adventure was with some old, dear friends in Portal, AZ. We stayed in our camper, and they slept in the yurt. We ate and lounged in the yurt as well. We cooked and used the bathroom in the tiny house on the right, which is hooked up to a cistern and a septic tank.

Portal is an unincorporated community in Cochise County,  in southeastern Arizona. We got off I-10 and drove 25 miles south-southeast of San Simon on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains. This area is often called the Yosemite of Arizona. The community is also a popular location for birding. 

One of our Harlingen, TX days was spent in South Padre Island. To get there we had to drive through Port Isabel, part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville – Matamoros metropolitan areas. Established as a town after the Mexican War of Independence, Port Isabel became an important cotton-exporting port before the American Civil War. The harbor, town, and lighthouse all were fought over and exchanged hands during the Civil War.

This is the pool at our funky RV park in Walasco. It was heaven. We mostly had it to ourselves as most park inhabitants had already fled the heat and gone back to Canada.

This is Ellen’s childhood home. The owners were SO lovely and let us come in a poke around. Ellen shared childhood stories she could recall and it was fun to listen to how the house USED to be when she was a kid.

This is cousin David’s home in Houston. He does a lecture series at Rice University when he is in town, exercising the mind you know, and we joined him. I could have done a whole blog alone on the architecture of Rice University.

On our way to Galveston, we couldn’t pass up the Johnson Space Center. We did a tour of the grounds and drove by this building that still contains a Saturn V rocket. It was really long.

On to Galveston. The above image had three main theme hits, animals, art, and buildings. I chose to share it in buildings. I believe this was part of a restaurant.

We found an oil rig museum that was quite interesting.

There were a lot of beautiful buildings in Galveston. Some had plaques on them that announced that they had survived the big hurricane of 1900.

Following south Texas, we headed to Fountainbleau State Park on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain in Louisiana. It was beautiful and we really wished we had our bikes there. There was an alligator in the pond, Spanish moss hanging from the trees and we were about 40 minutes from NOLA across the causeway.

We spent two days in New Orleans, one just walking around and taking it all in, the other we met my cousin Dave, from Houston, and watched the French Quarter Music Festival parade for the first time in two years (due to Covid). I’ll explore more of that with Music.

The interesting buildings in NOLA were endless.

Peeling paint, color, style, NOLA had it all.

This is a view of the main house of the Whitney Plantation. Such beautiful grounds but such devastating human stories.

We then found ourselves in Houston, Mississippi, another of Ellen’s old stomping grounds. She lived here for 18 months around her freshman year in high school (1969). This lunch counter at Parson’s Drugstore no doubt saw some sit-ins at some point.

Here is a picture of City Hall and Ellen’s old house.

The Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh areas of North Carolina had amazing architecture as well. I learned that Duke and the University of North Carolina, arch college basketball rivals, are across town from each other. Both have BEAUTIFUL campuses.

These images are from the Duke University chapel. Below are the catacombs where a few past university presidents are buried.

On to Cincinnati! We found this set of steps on a trail in the middle of the city.

The skyline of Cincinnati and the Purple People Bridge that connects Ohio and Kentucky.

Following Ohio we headed to Nebraska with a stop near Iowa City. We learned of the Amana Colonies so we went there to walk around and have lunch before driving to St. Paul, NE.

The Amana Colonies are a set of seven villages located near Iowa City.  The villages were built and settled by German Radical Pietists, who were persecuted in their homeland. Calling themselves the True Inspiration Congregations, they first settled in New York near Buffalo in what is now the town of West Seneca. However, seeking more isolated surroundings, they moved to Iowa in 1856. They lived a communal life until 1932.

For eighty years, the Amana Colony maintained an almost completely self-sufficient local economy, importing very little from the industrializing American economy. The Amanians were able to achieve this independence and lifestyle by adhering to the specialized crafting and farming occupations that they had brought with them from Europe. Craftsmen passed their skills and techniques on from one generation to the next. They used hand, horse, wind, and water power, and made their own furniture, clothes, and other goods. The community voted to form a for-profit organization during the Great Depression.

Today, the Seven Villages of Amana are a tourist attraction known for their restaurants and craft shops. The colony was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

That evening we landed at the farm in St. Paul, NE, following a harrowing thunder/dust storm that prompted tornado warnings as it moved northeast at 65 mph. That is not a typo…65 mph.

On the farm property is a one hundred-plus-year-old farm, the oldest barn in the county. These milk jugs and lanterns were found in this barn.

Our final stop was Denver to visit our daughter, Chelsea, my brother Jonathan and his family, and our good friends the Prows.

We parked a street off of the Santa Fe Arts District and found these windows in the church we parked in front of. I loved them.

That’s it on the buildings keyword. There was so much more to share but in the tradition of keeping this blog short and to the point this is what I have.

Next week is another of my favorite subjects…transportation!

Happy shooting!

 

Art, keywording, Photography, Places to Shoot, Travel, Urban Art

Art along the Way

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There will be a minimum of nine posts in this series. Why nine? Because Lightroom allows me nine keywords that I have put in my “main themes” preset. Last week’s blog is the tenth as it was my introductory post on my keywording system, AND an introduction that we have returned and to expect the stories of the images. So, here we go.

As previously stated I currently have the following keywords in my “main themes” preset: art, buildings, food, music, nature, people, signs, transportation, and urban. Today’s theme is art.

In my first edit, I do a couple of things. I mark poor quality photos with an X to later delete, a P which flags “wow” images for future editing, and assign groups of images with at least one, sometimes more than one,  keyword, usually from my main themes list, for future keywording. In this case, I then pulled up all of the art images to further assign keywords. I typed art into the keyword set box and nine more words came up to make it easy to further identify photos. Those keywords are folk, glass, graffiti, metal, murals, painting, patterns, statues,  and stickers. I’m in the early stages of setting up these presets and as I discover better words to use I adjust the preset.

Another thing I’d like to point out is that I only had three cameras with me, an iPhone 8, a Canon Powershot S120 point and shoot, and a Lumix DX8 micro 4/3 body with my “travel” lens, a 28-300 equivalent. I’ll identify each image with the camera used.

That being said, let’s check out the art!

iPhone 8

When we got blown off the beach at Padre Island National Seashore and headed to Harlingen we had to find a way to fill our three additional days. On our first extra day, we went to South Padre Island, driving through Port Isabelle on the way. SPI as the locals refer to it is the polar opposite of the National Seashore. It is developed and very touristy. Think south Florida. On our way over we stopped to walk around Port Isabelle and found this dolphin sculpture. It turns out they are everywhere. This is Port Isabelle’s public art animal.

As a side note, these two art pieces were also assigned the main themes keyword of animals.

iPhone 8

On SPI you have to walk under this great big turtle to get into a store that sells all things beach.

iPhone 8

We also discovered that, in Walasco, we were about six miles from Progresso, Sonora. Yay! Mexico for a day! This wall, however, was at a restaurant we ate at in Harlingen upon our return.

Canon S120 Powershot

In Houston with my cousin Dave and his spouse Bong, while wandering around downtown, we came upon this musician.

Lumix

We only gave Galveston one day and really enjoyed ourselves wandering around and looking at the old buildings and seaport life. This sculpture was out at the end of a dock near the oil well museum.

Lumix

Oh yes, now we’re in New Orleans. Lots of art here. This cane belongs to our Voodoo Museum tour guide.

Lumix

We were in NOLA for the first French Quarter Music Festival since Covid and there were a lot of art vendors for our enjoyment.

Lumix

We were in Lousiana for three days, on the second day we went out to the Whitney Plantation Museum. It was a sobering experience and is the only plantation in Louisiana that focuses on the lives of the slaves more than the plantation owners. These two statues were outside of a slave house.

Lumix

We found this art exhibit in Dollywood. For me, it was the highlight. As much as we LOVE Dolly Parton we did not love her theme park. Maybe I’m just over theme parks and their fakeness. Oh well, the umbrellas were cool.

We rescued Dollywood day by leaving and heading to Gatlinburg. Evonne had told us that Gatlinburg is a popular place for the folks in Cincinnati to vacation. We began at the visitor center and found a Skyride that takes you to the top of a mountain where you can walk across suspension bridges and take in the views. More on that later. What you get here in the art blog is a sticker on the window of the restaurant we ate at from Hopi Radio!!

iPhone 8

Lumix

We didn’t spend enough time in the Asheville, NC area but I DID manage to find this very cute statue in a neighbor’s yard. I could do a whole post on just art in Asheville.

iPhone 8

in the Hillsborough, NC area these are the two art items that made the cut. The above dog is leaning up against my cousin’s house and below is one of a hundred mosaics, part of a public art project where folks can create a mosaic with the theme of I Love Hillsborough.

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iPhone 8

A shark-headed girl, sitting on a bench, in the lobby of an art museum, in Cincinnati. I loved it.

Lumix

This is a May Pole blowing in the wind in the Amana Colonies of Iowa. We were turned on to this adventure by a friend we were texting with who used to live in Iowa. It’s so great to be able to add last-minute adventures while traveling.

iPhone 8

Now we’re in Denver, our last stop before heading home. The above blanket made of old ski sweaters was found in a thrift store in Iron Springs located in the mountains outside of Denver. They have lovely hot springs there and Colorado Style pizza. More on that later.

iPhone 8

One afternoon we drove down to the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver to wander around and see what art was on display. This is what we found.

iPhone 8

iPhone 8

iPhone 8

iPhone 8

I hope you enjoyed the brief art exhibit of our seven-week journey. Until next week!

Happy shooting!

Adventure, Family, Places to Shoot, pop-up camping, Travel

Coyote Hawk’s Big Adventure

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April 2nd is one week away. That’s when Coyote Hawk takes us on our epic journey South to Portal, AZ to visit good friends then East on Interstate 10 all the way to New Orleans, visiting friends and family along the way. From there we’ll head North to Cincinnati before jumping on Interstate 80 and heading back home, again, visiting friends and family along the way. Keep on the lookout as I will post on this blog our adventures and discoveries along the way.

Let’s begin with a camper tour:

In the above image, you see the driver’s side of the camper. The bench my feet are on as well as the one I’m sitting on provides us with a lot of storage. This is good as we’ll need to bring clothing for 85 degrees and humidity in south texas as well as potential late spring blizzards along I-80.

The counter has a two-burner stove, a sink, and a small counter space. The drawer on the left holds our utensils and the cabinet below that is for our pots, pans, and dishes. Below that are the batteries and the other cabinet doors are the water pump and fuses.

On this side is the refrigerator with stickers on it. Above that is a shallow space for personal items. To the right of that is our pantry. Below that is a double-door cabinet for ellen’s clothes and below that is a similar cabinet for our shoes. The bed pulls out over the table to make it King-Size. We have to push it back each morning to access the table.

We’ve now spent 12 nights in her. Ellen has been it her 16 nights as she took her camping while I was in Florida on a photo workshop.

We’ve had her off-grid at White Tank Mountain Park, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, and McDowell Mountain Regional Park, all in the Maricopa county park system in the Phoenix area. We fill up the 20-gallon fresh water tank, run the hot water heater that holds six gallons and get our electricity from our solar panels.

We hooked her up to shore power once, at Patagonia Lake State Park in Southern Arizona, over Christmas last year. We also experimented with city water, bypassing the 20-gallon tank. Both systems worked great. Sadly, though, we did not blow out the outdoor shower well enough and ended up with a leak in the brass faucet system. Four-Wheel Camper sent us a replacement and it was just installed.

The other item we recently fixed, with the help of our brilliant friend Rod Horn, was the after-market backup camera. Ours disappeared when we took off the tailgate. Rod machined a bracket that goes over the license plate and he was able to attach the backup camera to it.  Works like a charm.

Coyote Hawk will get her first oil change on March 30th. Other than that, we should be ready to roll on April 2nd. For this trip, we decided to leave behind bikes and paddleboards as we will be spending a lot of time with friends, family and in cities,  visiting museums. We have menus ready to go and will spend the day or two before we leave grocery shopping and packing any last-minute items. We have lists and lists of lists.

Our mail is taken care of, our neighbors are watching the place and watering our plants. We don’t have any pets. I think we’re set!

I’m not sure what this Epic Adventure Blog is going to look like exactly so be patient and let’s see how it turns out together, shall we?

Thanks for reading!

 

AHPS, Animals, Animals, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Nature, Outdoors, Photo Workshops, Photography, Places to Shoot, Travel, Water

Birds of South Florida with Arizona Highways PhotoScapes

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The workshop, Birds of South Florida with photographer Beth Ruggiero-York and Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, was nothing short of amazing. It ran from February 6-12, 2022, and began in Fort Meyers, Florida on the Gulf Coast. We made our way south, through Everglades National Park,  ending on the Atlantic Coast at Boynton Beach. Here are the images from that epic journey.

This is a rough itinerary of our photographic locations should you ever find yourself in South  Florida with a camera. Speaking of cameras, all images were shot with a Lumix DX-8 and most with my 100-400 mm lens.

My adventure began with trying to GET to Florida. I was supposed to leave Flagstaff on Friday, February 4th, and arrive in Florida that evening. However, recent winter storms provided me with an alternate plan. Between cancelations, delays, hotel stays, and changing airlines  I eventually left Flagstaff Friday evening and arrived in Fort Meyers Sunday around 10:00. The workshop was scheduled to begin at 3:00 that day so I had time to Uber it to the hotel, grab a quick nap, and meet our participants right on time!

The adventure continued when we left the hotel lobby on Sunday afternoon for our first shoot at Naples Pier. We were scheduled for a 30-seat minibus to take us around for the week but walked out to a full-size motor coach that was FAR too large to access some of the parking lots on the schedule. We took it to the pier for lack of a better option. However, following that first shoot we dropped our people off, had the bus driver take us back to the airport where Ron York, Beth’s husband, the other photo guide, had secured us three premium SUVs. Beth, Ron, and I became the bus drivers for the week. Whew! Crisis averted.

Naples pier was a nice way to begin the workshop and just get out and warm up the old camera. On Sundays, however, the powers that be do not allow fishing, Wait, WHAT?!? No fishing means way fewer birds. Hmmm. We wandered around the end of the pier when someone spotted a few egrets on the roof of the building. YAY! Birds! Again, crisis averted. I only took my 100-400 mm lens out on the pier. We all lined up, aimed our canons, and photographed these characters.

This Ruddy Turnstone was wandering the pier. I hadn’t noticed he had lost a foot until I downloaded the image.

More Ruddy Turnstones squawking out below the railings along the pier.

The first official day Beth had us up early and driving out to Cape Coral to photograph the neighborhood Burrowing Owls. They had set up shop between the fences to a set of baseball fields and a street. The houses on that street face the owls. So there we were, lined up and waiting for the little guys to wake up and come out and say hi. 

They blend in remarkably well. The owls throw themselves a festival every year. Apparently, they have been living here for quite a few years.

I found this Loggerhead Shrike hanging out on a post.

After leaving the Burrowing Owl neighborhood we headed to Sanibel island stopping at Pond Apple Park, a set of ponds that attract birds, on the way to Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. We parked in the Matzaluna Italian Restaurant parking lot. The trail entrance is out by the road. The park is about 40 acres and is a place to definitely spend some time.

This Wood Stork was showing off her new pedicure.

If you can look past the birds there are some pretty cool plants in Florida as well.

The White Ibis. As common in Florida as pigeons.

Next, we went to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge which is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States.  It is world-famous for spectacular migratory bird populations.

The refuge was created to safeguard and enhance the pristine wildlife habitat of Sanibel Island, protect endangered and threatened species, and provide feeding, nesting, and roosting areas for migratory birds. Today, the refuge provides important habitat to over 245 species of birds.

We took the four-mile Wildlife Drive, stopping along the way to photograph birds. These were all shot with my long lens.

Florida Pigeion (White Ibis)

Roseate Spoonbill, a crowd favorite.

A fishing Tri-Colored Heron.

Monday was one of our longes days because next, we head south to Everglades City for lunch at a food truck and a photography boat tour out among the mangroves.

Everglades City is at the mouth of the Barron River, on Chokoloskee Bay. The Bay is approximately ten miles long and 2 miles wide. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands.

This was our lunch spot. See the green umbrellas behind the building? We ate at those tables. At this point, I believe we were either in or at least at the edge of Everglades National Park.

We then divided into three groups, loaded three different boats, and headed out in three different directions so as to not be in each other’s way for pictures.

A couple of baby mangroves taking root.

Our captain showed us an Osprey nest, a Bald Eagle nest, a shell island built by Native People over hundreds of years, and a spit of land that housed these White Pelicans. They were chillin’ on the beach until we floated a little too close. They then got into formation, except for the one guy, and tried to march but had nowhere to go. We motored back away from them and everyone mellowed out.

We toured an area full of islands like this. We had a regular prop boat, not an airboat like they use in the thick of the Everglades. All three boats met up at sundown at one particular island where many birds go to roost for the evening. It was quite a sight.

Tuesday morning we started off at Big Cypress Boardwalk. This was in Everglades National Park. Boardwalks are a common way to have trails in the park due to the massive amounts of water. I was also glad to be above any potential reptile run-ins. This was a short walk through a very dense, watery jungle that ended at a more open pond.

The pond had a few smaller birds (as seen above) as well as several Heron and a Wood Stork.

AND! An alligator.

Woody Woodpecker made an appearance on our way back to the vehicles. We heard him for most of the trek in so when he finally made himself seen everyone was quite excited.

Our final stop of the day before heading to our new hotel in Homestead, FL was an area of the park called Shark Valley.

Shark Valley is a geological depression at the head of the Shark River Slough located along the Tamiami Trail (US 41).  Shark Valley empties into Shark River in the Ten Thousand Islands of Monroe County. The Valley characteristically includes sawgrass prairie that floods during the rainy season, hence the name “river of grass”—Pa-Hay-Okee, from the Mikasuki language—for such marshes in the Everglades. We will walk the Pa-Hay-Okee trail tomorrow .

Wildlife seen in Shark Valley includes alligators, ibis, wood storks, roseate spoonbills, raccoons, white-tailed deer, and various amphibians. Here’s some of what I saw:

This guy landed on the railing right near us. He looked like he was on a serious mission. The trail we were on was paved and followed a ten-foot-wide “canal” on one side that continued into a deep jungle on the other side of the canal. The opposite side of the path was dense jungle. The sun was out and this was by far the warmest and most humid day we would encounter. coming from the cold winter at 7,000 feet in Flagstaff? I loved it.

These little guys attracted a crowd. They were literally at our feet in the weeds. Just across the way was mama. She never seemed too concerned, luckily.

 

A goofy-looking Anhinga.

Two different types of turtles, one on the stick and one just below it in the water.

This Anhinga was swimming underwater like a snake. He’d come up for air and usually had a little fish in its bill. It was such a great place to shoot because you could follow his path on the footpath. The canal was narrow enough that the animals were never too far away.

I walked with just a sling and my 100-400 mm lens which made it easy and maneuverable.

What a difference 24 hours makes. We went from the sunniest day to the rainiest day in that amount of time. Wednesday morning found us at Pa-Hay-Okee Trail. A boardwalk through the everglades. Though it was beautiful, this was not my favorite place to shoot but only because I really don’t consider myself to be a landscape photographer. So I focussed on other things.

Sunrise was beautiful.

The most difficult thing to get used to in Florida is the flatness. There are no landmarks to help keep your sense of direction intact and on really cloudy days you don’t even know where the sun is.

The boardwalks were super cool. Even if I wasn’t super inspired to shoot I was really glad just to be there and enjoy the magic that is the Everglades.

Following this trail, we headed back to town for breakfast. It was really wet so as a way to see something cool but not necessarily stand in the rain with our camera gear we went to the Robert is Here Fruit Stand and Farm.

Robert Is Here is a family-owned and operated fruit stand in Homestead, Florida. They specialize in rare & exotic fruits and vegetables, mostly grown right there on the farm.  The location started off as a literal side of the road Fruit Stand and has grown into a complete tourist destination equipped with an animal farm, play area, and picnic tables. It was a pretty cool way to spend an hour and let the rain dry up if only a little.

You could also purchase chocolate or gummy alligators.

Read the sign to the left of the coconut carvings to see what they actually are.

They also had quite the collection of old tractors.

From there we were off to  Anhinga Trail

There weren’t as many birds here as in other locations. We chalked that up to the rain.

This Purple Gallinule has some BIG feet! He uses them to run across the tops of the lilypads. In sunlight, he is VERY iridescent. But seriously, those FEET!

Hanging out in the rain.

From here we headed to Flamingo, FL. This was one of my favorite places to shoot. There was so much going on here. Between the raindrops, we saw a crocodile (not an alligator ), a nesting osprey, and manatees. We also grabbed lunch here at another food truck. Restaurants in the Everglades are hard to come by.

There was a marina here in Flamingo. Also, an old pier.

The manatees were drinking drips coming off the floating dock.

Our final stop of the day was Mahogany Hammock Trail, another boardwalk. A Hammock is hard to explain but I’ll try.

A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad-leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation. Hammocks can be found nestled in most all other Everglades ecosystems. In the deeper sloughs and marshes, the seasonal flow of water helps give these hammocks a distinct aerial teardrop shape. 

On Thursday morning we drove from Homestead to Boynton Beach, FL. Our afternoon shoot was at the  Wakodahatchee Wetlands. The Wetlands are constructed on 50 acres of wastewater utility property.  Wakodahatchee features a three-quarter mile boardwalk that crosses between open water pond areas and islands with shrubs and snags to foster nesting and roosting. This site is part of the South section of the Great Florida Birding Trail. Over 178 bird species have been identified there, along with turtles, alligators, rabbits, fish, frogs, and raccoons.
Each day, the Southern Region Water Reclamation Facility pumps approximately two million gallons of highly treated wastewater into the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, which in turn acts as a percolation pond, returning billions of gallons of freshwater back into the water table.

We photographed this area for about three hours each Thursday evening and Friday morning. It was so great to experience the difference between evening bird activity and morning bird activity. Watching

Apparently the week before, these guys were falling out of trees it was so cold.

There was a LOT of nesting and courtship activity.

Baby Great Blue Herons!! They are definitely ugly cute. They were the only babies I saw. The rest were in preparation.

We ended the workshop at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. What a beautiful place. I can’t wait to go back with my bike and bike some of the trails. They also have a canoe trail I’d love to explore.

There is a trail behind the visitor center, a boardwalk trail, that goes through a deep, dark cypress grove.

Once we left there we headed out to the end of the road and found this:

This dock saw plenty of action. Just to the left of it is the Great Blue Heron. Somewhere below is the alligator waiting for the fisherman to catch something he can steal. And in the distance flew flocks of birds heading across the setting sun to their roosting place.

I chatted with a lady who had been out kayaking. She and her friend took the wrong channel and ended up out where they should not have been. The channel closed up and when she got out to move her boat along she realized she was a foot or two from an alligator. Yikes! Glad they made it back safely!

Wow, that was a long post. It was a spectacular trip. Keep p in mind that these pictures are only the tip of the iceberg. I came home with over 4,000 images. I have since edited them down to just over 1,000 but still, these only tell part of the story.

I highly recommend this workshop and I think it will be offered again in 2023 so look for it on the Arizona Highways PhotoScapes website.

I hope you enjoyed my trip to Florida, thanks for looking.

Happy Shooting!

 

 

 

AHPS, Animals, Animals, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Nature, Photo Workshops, Places to Shoot, Shooting Close to Home

Shoot at the Zoo with AZ Highways PhotoScapes

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On March 5th this year I joined photographer Amy Horn and Arizona Highways PhotoScapes for a day of shooting at the Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield, a town just west of Phoenix. It’s a spectacular way to wander around a relatively small zoo and practice your photographic skills. I brought with me only one camera body and lens. I shot with my Lumix DX-8 and Olympus 100-400 mm zoom lens, which equates to a 200-800. At times this was a little too much lens but 98% of the time it was perfect.

One of the skills we learned was how to shoot through a fence and make that fencing disappear. If not entirely, then at least mostly. The following images are my attempts to create such magic.

The fence in this image is so blurred it almost appears as part of the background.

This lioness was watching the day go by behind a chainlink fence.

All the animals were quite active on that day. We’re assuming due to a cool front moving through the state.

“Pumba, you ARE a pig”. The warthogs were also behind a fence. Again, the fence is so blurred it’s barely noticeable.

The following set of pictures, by contrast, were of animals NOT behind any sort of fence. Wait, let me clarify, they were behind enclosures, but I could photograph them without shooting through a fence of any kind.

This crane image was captured on the safari tram through Africa. I was able to use Lightroom to grab the background, take down the exposure to make it appear as shade, and highlight her (his?) beauty.

This little guy was on a monkey island across some water. He was going to town on a piece of tree. His little old man expressions were super cute.

Again from the Safari Tram ride, we saw this gazelle.

Zombie Flamingo Appocolypse?

Heading into Dragon World we passed the slow-moving tortoises to see some, well, dragons.

You can see the fence that this ostrich was behind. He (she?) was pretty close. Apparently, the ostrich is not the sharpest tool in the shed. They do, however, provide for some great facial expressions.

Moving on to the duck pond where there was a LOT of activity.

Egyptian Geese.

A pair of wood ducks with her in full mating regalia. I caught them just before they, well, YOU know, they tried making baby ducks. I hope they were successful.

A beautiful  Red-Crested Pochard looking for a mate.

A very colorful Mandarin Duck strutting his stuff.

There were even a couple of majestic black swans.

…and a turtle.

We were treated to a private animal showing where we could shoot first and ask questions later.

This character, a red-legged seriema, took this fake snake in its mouth, stood up as tall as he could go, and slammed the snake to the ground. So there.

We were presented with a Kookaburra bird and were able to practice the camera settings for flight.

Macaws close up are always nifty.

We then moved on to other animals. Turns out we were helping the next couple of mammals out with their “sessions”. Which apparently, means getting them ready to come out in public and not be terrified.

This little guy was a character. He’d come out, then run back. He did this quite a bit. Then one of the handlers figured out how to bring him out farther. He’s trained to do circles around their feet for a treat. So, she’d take a step as the little guy was rounding the back of her foot, and slowly, he made it out beyond the stage.

This one always makes me nervous. But he (she?) performed wonderfully. He came out in front of the stage and was quite well behaved, keeping all parts of himself…TO himself.

Following the show, we wandered off to Australia for a walk-about. We encountered a mama kangaroo whose little one had just crawled back inside the pouch. A couple of the participants had more patience than I did and waited for the baby to come back out. I can’t wait to see THOSE images!

It was cool watching them jump and use their tales for balance. They are VERY strong animals.

All-in-all it was a great day of photography and instruction. The temperatures were perfect if not a little cool at times but that meant the animals were active, which makes it more fun when you have a camera. I encourage you to join PhotoScapes next year for this workshop or if you need inspiration just get out to your local zoo and see what you can find.

Happy Shooting!

Architecture, Family, Gear, People, Places to Shoot, Travel, Urban Art

A Smart Phone Works…

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Let me say right up front that I am a minimalist in life, meaning I live by the “Less is More” motto, and am a photojournalist at heart. It was my major in college which fit as I began documenting my life, in pictures, at an early age.

With that in mind, I’ve heard it said that the best camera you own is the one you have with you or the one you actually use. For example, if I own a heavy full-frame camera with equally heavy lenses but do most of my shooting with my smartphone because of the weight, then, in my opinion, my best camera is the phone camera. This theory brought me to minimalism in photography. I reduced my gear down from the Canon line to the mirrorless Lumix brand. It serves me well and more often than not I take a lens attached to a camera body attached to a sling and go out shooting for the day. In my pockets, I have an extra battery and a lens cleaning cloth. No pack full of extra lenses, and all the gear that might distract me. I also have just quit bringing a tripod as it always seemed to be an exercise in futility, I NEVER used it.

You now know enough for me to get to the actual subject of this blog…photographing San Francisco with an iPhone 8.

Last summer, August 2021 to be exact, we finally made it to Northern California to see the family after a two-year Covid hiatus. The family lives in Marin County, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. One day a group of us decided to take the ferry to the City then spend the day hopping on and off cable cars. I was torn as to whether I would capture this adventure in a “real” camera or “live it” and just go with grab shots with the iPhone. I chose to live it. Here are some of my images:

This is the crew we went with: my mom, step-dad, sister-in-law, and her two kids, granddaughter, nephew, and my cousin’s kid. It was a formidable team.

We spent most of the day in Chinatown where I found some amazing murals.

My wife, Ellen, and I with our granddaughter. It was her first trip to see the family in eight years.

I love wondering unfamiliar cities and finding treasures like this parking garage entrance.

We HAD to stop by the fortune cookie factory!

We grabbed lunch inside this giant mall and did some quick shopping.

Our two youngest team members were SUCH troopers.

After lunch, we boarded the trolly and headed to Fisherman’s Wharf where we ended the day. From there we walked back to the Ferry Building and headed home.  

Our crew hanging off the trolly as we pass one going in the opposite direction. You can see the Bay in the distance.

I wasn’t preoccupied with photo gear and was able to be present and spend a glorious day with my family while still documenting the day. And it was a single-lens iPhone 8! Not even the fancy three-lens 13 (or whatever generation they are on to).

Have a great time on your next family adventure and remember, it’s okay to live it. 😉

Happy Shooting!

Adventure, AHPS, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Outdoors, People, Photo Workshops, Photography, Places to Shoot, Travel, Water

Surfing, Central Coast, California

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I was on an Arizona Highways PhotoScapes Women’s Retreat in mid-April and had an amazing time shooting along the Central Coast of California. We were based out of Morro Bay.

There were so many great photo opportunities that I decided to break down the trip into sections. The first one is one of my favorite things to photograph…surfing. What a difficult sport. Like anything, it takes such dedication to be any good at it.

Let’s begin with something I’ve never seen before…remote control SURFING!!

His board was probably a foot long and the controller was standing in the surf, just off the pier, having him surf the smaller waves. I must say, he was pretty good!

Now, on to the dedication part. The temps were in the high 40’s each morning. These guys were decked in full, hooded wetsuits WITH booties. No thank you. Too cold for this lover of oceans.

Even in Cayucos, near the pier, in the afternoon temps of mid-60’s, full wetsuits, booties and hoods were the norm.

We ended up in Cayucos, north of Morro Bay, for our afternoon/sunset shooting location. Photographing surfers from the pier was great fun. I shot all of these images with my Lumix GX-8 and 14-150 mm (28-300 mm with a crop sensor) setu-up.

High shutter speed is a must. Photographing the wipe-outs was just as fun as a good run!

There was a lone stand up paddle board surfer.

It seemed to me that catching waves was easier for him as he was already up on the board and used his paddle to drop in.

Once there he just had to balance and not let go of his paddle.

Paddleing out seemed to have its challenges though. He had the paddle to occupy one hand and a board to occupy the other as he crashed through the waves to get out for another set. It all looked very exhausting.

Most of the surfers were on longboards and these two guys were all about walking out to the end of their boards and “Hanging Ten”.

There were a couple of young guys out on their short boards working the waves.

These two joined the mix late in the afternoon. They seriously looked like synchronized swimmers heading out on their boards with pointed toes at the ends of legs that were moving up and down in a rhythmic kicking motion timed to their arm strokes. The boys became less focussed once these two showed up. 😉

At the end of a session, walking out of the surf on a lonely beach shows the potential solitude of surfing.

This was new to me. Covering a board before loading it up after a morning in the water.

Back in Cayucos, the sun setting and a lone surfer calling it a day.

I decided to put these end of the day, sunset images into black and white. I really like how they turned out.

Check out the Arizona Highways PhotoScapes site for information on our upcoming Women’s Retreats and co-ed workshops. It’s shaping up to be a busy workshop year! AHPS.org 

Happy Shooting!