This great facility is also known as the Great Synagogue or Tabakgasse Synagogue. It is also the largest synagogue in Europe seating up to 3,000 people. Great spot to visit just to take in the wonderful architecture.
To view a larger version, click HERE
Sorry for the slight absence from my blog and social media. I needed a break and took it.
I took this photo of the Great Turtle Brewery bar on my last trip. This nice brewery sits on Mackinac Island Michigan. I’d suggest you check it out.
To view a larger version, click HERE
When I was in northern Michigan a few weeks ago doing some ship wreck scuba diving with my buddies, we came upon this beauty. This is the front portion of a real Great Lake Freighter converted into waterfront building. I don’t know if they’re using it as a cottage or some other purpose. It was a unique find and this photo doesn’t do it justice. This thing is big….taller then the adult pine and hard wood trees around it. This was on the St. Mary’s River which connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron.
To view a larger version, click HERE
This massive statue sits on top of the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)…we know it as World War II. This stainless-steel statue is 203 feet tall. Counting the museum building it sit on, the entire structure is 335 feet tall and it weighs 560 tons. The sword in her right hand is 52 feet long by itself and weighs 9 tons. That’s a huge statue by any comparison!! The State Emblem of the Soviet Union is on the shield. Even though this war ended in 1945, they didn’t start the construction of this statue until 1979 and it was completed in 1981.
In Kiev, Ukraine where this is located, the statue is controversial due to Ukraine’s complicated and currently rough relationship with Russia. Blair and I spent a few hours walking around this national park photographing the war monuments, tanks, etc…. If you’re wondering, the blue and yellow tank in the foreground is painted the Ukrainian colors.
To view a larger version, click HERE
It has been a few years since my last visit to St. Martin. I took this photo on the beach looking out at the Great Bay. Amazing location!! I’ve had this photo processed and sitting on my hard drive for a long time…. It was just waiting for it’s time… Guess what? It is time.
To view a larger version, click HERE
Don’t forget to check out my photo galleries. I update and add to them often.
On our recent trip to Charlotte, MJ and I wandered around the downtown area. It was basically deserted, since it was Christmas day. We found this mural on an abandoned building a few blocks from Marshall Park in the southeast corner of downtown. I thought it was an appropriate photo following today’s event.
To view a larger version, click here: https://500px.com/photo/194226185/make-america-great-again-black-inventors-by-brook-ward?ctx_page=1&from=user&user_id=3695440
Graffiti in Charlotte
Tonight I’m posting something different. I think you need something different from time to time and so do I. For your viewing pleasure, I present to you “The Beast”. I took this picture off the coast of Isla de Guadalupe Mexico in 2012. It took us 30 hours by boat to reach this spot. We traveled from San Diego and by boat to Ensenada Mexico where we checked in with Customs. Then from Ensenada, we made the long crossing to Guadalupe.
Once on site, we anchored off shore and drove with the Great Whites for three days. I don’t know how many different Great Whites we saw, but they circled us on every dive. Sometimes there would be only one at a time, other times there was up to 5 at time….that we could see. So I don’t know if there were only 5 sharks or 50 different sharks. In the end, it doesn’t matter. We had a great experience and enjoyed the show.
The Beast in this photo was typical of the 14 footers we experienced. Large, graceful, and just amazing.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click here.
This is a small site within the National Park Service situated in Virginia about 20 minutes from downtown Washington D.C. It is approximately 800 acres on the Potomac River with this wonderful waterfall called the Great Falls of the Potomac River.
My co-worker, Darleen, told me about this location just prior to my Washington D.C. trip. I am so glad she did, what an amazing location. When you are standing here looking at this waterfall and the surrounding park, it is hard to believe it is so close to the city. Just awesome!!
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the photo above.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the photo above.
This is a re-print of the article I wrote for Nikon Rumors.com, which they posted on their website on Jan. 11, 2013. You can see that version here: http://nikonrumors.com/2014/01/11/guest-post-shark-photography.aspx/
Shark photography….really???? I know that’s what you’re asking at this very moment. Let me come back to that question.
My interest in photography and scuba diving was engrained in me early by my father. In the 1960’s he was scuba diving on shipwrecks in the Great Lakes during the infancy of recreational scuba diving, as we know it today. He also worked as a professional photographer his entire life, so I grew up surrounded by these activities and his passions were passed onto me. Over the last twenty-five years I’ve completed hundreds of dives in all different environments (lakes, quarries, cenotes, rivers, ice, oceans, wrecks, deep dives, reefs, drift diving, big animals, exotic locations, etc.) in over 20 countries and taken tons of photos. I started taking my photography seriously about six years ago. No big shock that I decided to combine my hobbies and purchased an Ikelite underwater housing and strobes for my Nikon D90. Since then, I’ve upgraded my main camera to a Nikon D800 and focused my photography on three areas (HDR Landscapes, HDR Architecture, and underwater images). I use the D800 for the above-water work and continue to use my Nikon D90 setup for the underwater work.
Photographing sharks in their native environment is one of the things I love most. So back to the question about “shark photography…really?” Yes really!! Now I realize that scuba diving isn’t for everyone. And scuba diving with some of the most dangerous animals on earth really isn’t for everyone. I’ve had countless people ask me why? Why risk it? Why would I even want to be that close? Why get in the water with these animals? In the end, the answer is the same….. I love seeing these beautiful animals up close and for those brief encounters trying to just experience the moment. I don’t find them scary and have never been threatened by them for a second. I honestly don’t think they see humans as anything other then something odd in their world. In the past I’ve dove with Great Whites, Tiger Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Reef Sharks, etc…. So when we were planning our last trip and decided on the Playa del Carmen area of Mexico, I knew it was an opportunity to dive with and photograph Bull Sharks.
Mark from Phocea Mexico
So I booked my dives in advance with Phocea Mexico (http://www.phoceamexico.com/). I must say they were the friendliest, most well organized, and greatest value of any dive operator I’ve encountered in all my travels. During the months of November through March, they do a daily Bull Shark dive about a quarter of a mile out from the main swimming beach in Playa del Carmen Mexico. Earlier in the day, I completed two reef dives with them and saw Bull Sharks in the distance during those dives. On all of my past shark dives, the crew used chum to get the sharks to come in close to us. Not here!!!! We literally took the boat out from the beach, went over the side and quickly dropped to the sandy bottom at about 60 feet deep and waited. Within minutes the sharks found us and came in close for a peek at the visitors in their territory. After about ten minutes the numerous sharks got bored of us and moved off…..I thought. Later when we started to swim back up to the boat, one of them followed us right up to the surface. Nothing like looking down and finding a 10-foot Bull Shark right below your feet…. I loved every minute.
On the Bull Shark dive, I photographed them using my Nikon D90 in the Ikelite housing with two Ikelite strobes. I had the camera set in Manual mode at f8, ISO 100, and 120th of a second, RAW format with the shark about 10 feet away. Top side, I used Photomatix Pro to tone map the image and convert it into a black and white (B/W) image in Photoshop CS6. I felt converting it into a B/W helped make the shark pop out of the image. The original picture was very blue since there isn’t much light to distinguish colors below 30 feet. The color image was a little flat.
Great White Shark - Guadalupe Island Mexico
Tiger Shark in Bahamas
Great White Shark
Bull Shark
Bull Shark
