Carnival Valor By Moon Light

As you may have noticed, MJ and I have been away.  We were on a cruise to celebrate our 26th Anniversary.  They’ve been wonderful years covering the range of emotions, experiences and activities.  I’m an extremely lucky guy.

Anyway, let’s talk about this photo and how I captured it.  It is my habit when cruising to get up at least one morning at around 5am to walk around the cruise ship and photograph it.  I like that time for a few reasons:

1.     All the other tourist are sleeping off the previous night’s party, which means I have the ship to myself.  And you know I don’t take many people pictures.  If it weren’t for the few Carnival employees that are working, it would really look like a ghost ship.

2.     Once I get done photographing the ship, it is usually time to capture the sunrise.  So I get a two for one arrangement.

There is only one negative of my approach, the ship’s security team never know what to make of me.  On this last trip, I counted no less then 6-security people following me around.  A few of them talked to me, but the rest just watch from a distance.  Normally you’ll never see a security person on a cruise except when you leave and enter the ship.  But when I am out photographing the ship in the middle of the night, it must raise a red flag in the security department. 

So this photo was captured at around 6am and you can see the moon is still high in the sky.  And of course, it looks like I have the ship to myself.

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.

Special note:  If you’ve ever been on a cruise before, you know they try to take your photo all the time (because they want to sell you a print later).  They’ll photograph you at dinner, boarding the ship, leaving the ship, on excursions, around the pool, etc….  One of their big things are to setup mini photo stations around dinner time so you can stop by and get your photo taken while you’re all cleaned up.  Anyway, MJ and I were on our way to dinner one night and we saw this photography backdrop at one of the photography stations.  What caught our attention is that this backdrop is of Pittsburgh.  So all these people from around the United States, who are on the high seas in the Caribbean, were stopping to get their photograph taken in front of the Pittsburgh skyline.  I thought that was interesting.   

Skogafoss, Iceland

Hello.  I hope you’re having a great Tuesday.  Tonight I have an old photo for you, with a new twist.  Meaning, I loved this photo when I took it in 2013 and processed it then.  So I reprocessed it again this week and am sharing it again with my latest and current processing techniques.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

To purchase a print or see the entire gallery, click the photo above.

To purchase a print or see the entire gallery, click the photo above.

Machine Shop - Father's Day

In honor of Father’s Day, today’s blog picture is from W.A. Young and Sons Machine Shop and Foundry down in Rice Landings Pennsylvania.  Now I have no idea what this machine produces in the machine shop, but it’s an interesting photographic subject.  So for all the dads who like to work in their personal workshops, whether it is a garage, mill, barn, basement, or photography studio, have a great Father’s Day.

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.

Mean Fish

I captured a ton of photos when Jay and I visited Detroit last year.  And I’ve probably processed about 20% of them so far.  Heck, I am still processing photos from my 2013 San Francisco trip.  Each HDR photo takes me between 20 minutes to 1 hour to process.  So I can’t zip through my photos and I also get bored processing to many from the same trip in a row.  Therefore, I hop back and forth between trips.  These factors create two situations:

1.     It takes me a while to finish processing each trip.

2.     Since I hop all over when I am processing photos, I also post pictures from my trips out of order.

Some people might think I’m not efficient.  I like to think my method helps keep my processing fresh (I don’t get bored and stale) and I don’t post to many photos in a row from the same area/topic.

So all that was to help explain why tonight I randomly posted a picture of a fish graffiti scene that I took in Detroit.   

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.

2015 Bic Calendar

Last year, I was contacted by the Bic Company about one of my photos.  They wanted to include it in a 2015 calendar they were creating for retail sales.  We worked out an arrangement including a requirement that they mail me one copy.  Well, it finally showed up in June 2015. 

The photo they selected is one of my older photos (and least favorite).  Regardless, I am proud to have my work displayed in the same calendar as Trey Radcliff.  Trey is an HDR master photographer.  I think the last time I looked, he has over 20 million subscribers to his website and even more social media followers.  Anyway, it made me feel good.

To purchase or view a better quality version of the Bridge picture, click the photo above.

To purchase or view a better quality version of the Bridge picture, click the photo above.

Basilica Cathedral de Lima (Peru)

We didn’t get a chance to enter this beautiful Roman Catholic Church, but we spent some time in the Plaza Mayor across the street.  The construction started on this building in 1535.  The construction was completed three years later in 1538 and has been remodeled since a few times.

It was very disappointing that every church is Lima would charge you to enter (just to look) and wouldn’t allow photography….  Ugh!!!!   Anyway, it was cool to look at from the outside.

To get an idea of scale, look closely at the cars and people in front of the building.  Cool stuff!!

Mugs

Today I have something different for you.  While we were in Peru, near Cuzco, we stopped by a local artist shop to watch him make clay pottery.  He completed a small demo for us and we got a chance to look around his gallery.  These mugs are about 50 percent complete.  They’ve been created, but need to dry, be sanded, glazed, and have the final design/graphic added to them. 

I realize this type of photo won’t appeal to most people, but I liked it. 

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.

San Francisco Church

This is one of many colonial catholic churches in Lima.  The Catholic religious congregations were each allotted a piece of land in the early days of the city.  Most of the congregations erected monasteries, convents, or churches in honor of patron saints.  MJ, my dad and I visited a bunch of them as we walked around the city. 

One of the best-preserved churches, San Francisco was built in the baroque-style of the late 1600s.  It has several gilded side altars and an impressive lattice dome.  It has a very cool library with a collection of ancient religious texts, some of them brought over in the first wave of Spanish priests after the conquests of the Incas. 

Unfortunately, the church didn’t allow any photos of the inside of the building.  I really wanted to photography the library.  You have no idea how hard that was to only look and not capture it with my camera. 

One of the more interesting areas of the church was the catacombs.  These were part of Lima’s original cemeteries built under the church.  They estimate that there are 75,000 bodies buried under the church and many are exposed and stacked in strange patterns in different pits.  I did sneak a photo of this area…see below.

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.

Human remains in the catacombs:

This is from the catacombs in the lower levels of the church

This is from the catacombs in the lower levels of the church

Residential Door in Maras Peru

After a tour of the Salinas de Maras (salt flats) and Moray (Inca archaeological concentric terraces), we spent some time in the small village of Maras.  This very small village had narrow cobble stone streets with lots of interesting residential doors.  This picture is an example of one such door.  You can’t tell by looking at the picture, but the doors were only about 5 feet tall, which was typical of the doors in many old residential structures around Peru.  The old government and cathedrals were the exact opposite.  Many of them had doors over 20 feet tall.

Anyway, something about these doors caught my attention and I spent some time capturing them with my camera.  By the way, I’ll post some pictures from the Salinas de Maras and Moray in the future.

Have a great weekend.  

To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, please click the photo above.

To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, please click the photo above.

Cuzco - Puno Border

Crossing from the Cuzco province (basically the same thing as a state) to the Puno province means passing this spot in the Andes Mountains.  This was the highest elevation we experienced in Peru at a little over 14,100 feet.  I can tell you that it was a little hard to breath.  Not terrible, but you could feel it. 

Anyway, we stopped at this spot for a few minutes to look at the roadside vendors and take in the view of this amazing mountain range.  My picture doesn’t do justice to this beautiful spot.  Sorry I can’t give you a picture to match the real world experience of standing there.  Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.

Note:  Don't forget to look at the video below to see how beautiful this site was via a different media format.

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.

Sorry about the wind noise on the video.

Abandoned Pittsburgh

Yesterday I went on a long photo walk to numerous locations with a friend from California.  He was in town for one afternoon, so we made the best of it and hit a number of popular Pittsburgh photo spots.   We started with this abandoned church in the Lawrenceville area of Pittsburgh.  I’ve been in this spot a few different times and I am always surprised at what changes from visit to visit. 

Yesterday, we ran into a lady who was trying to clean the place up.  Probably a losing battle, but she was trying to get it done.  Anyway, somebody set up these chairs to create a little seating area.  So, I took advantage of it.

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.

Light Painting In Peru

While we were in Peru, I met a photographer from Sacramento.  He and I went on a few photo walks during the trip.  One of the photo walks was along the Rio Vilcanota in the village of Urubamba at night.   We did a little light painting, including this one.  I took a 30 second exposure and used my cell phone to “paint” the word Peru into the photo.   Do you like it? 

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.

 

 

Aymara Woman

While traveling through Peru, we spent some time at Lake Titicaca.   We took a boat out into the lake to visit the floating islands of Uros, which are created by Aymara tribes.  The Aymara people are an indigenous nation in the Andes regions of Peru, Bolivia and Chile.  Two thousand years ago, their ancestors ran to the lake to escape attacks by other groups.  They created floating islands that they and their families have continued ever since.  The islands only last about 30 years, so they have to continuous rebuild and maintain their islands, which are made from reeds that grow in the lake.  

Anyway, while we were there, I took this photo of one of the elders.  She was one of 25 family members living on one island (there are 89 total islands).  Something about how sad she looks make this picture interesting to me.  While I interacted with her, she didn’t appear sad to me.  But after returning home, I looked at the picture more closely.  All I see is a sad woman, but that isn’t her. 

By the way, that’s her hut behind her.  They are simple one room (5 x 8 feet) huts made out of the same reeds they use for their floating islands, boats, etc….

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.

Before Kristine, mentions it.....I will.  Yes I photographed an actual person.  I know it goes against my routine, but it happened.

Machu Picchu

First, let me start by apologizing.  I know I’ve been absent for the last 10 days.  MJ and I have been traveling across Peru with my dad.  As you can probably imagine, the Internet access is limited in the Andes Mountains.   

During our time in the country, we traveled to Lima, Cuzco, Puno, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo, Aguags Calientes, Machu Picchu, Juliaca, the floating islands of Uros, Lake Titicaca…..along with a number of other villages, historical sites, cool locations.

We had 6 flights, 2 boat rides, 2 train trips, taxi rides, tuk tuks, numerous bus rides, and I walked over 80 miles.  It was a heck of a trip.  Anyway, the highlight of any trip to Peru (and a must see) is Machu Picchu. 

It was built by Incas around 1450, but was abandoned a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest.  It remained hidden from that time until Hiram Bingham brought international attention to it in 1911.  It is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and like I already said, it is a must see.  No picture, including mine, will ever do it justice. 

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.

Suh

I had dinner tonight with one of the Detroit Lions’ scouts.  We had a nice conversation about the team, the recent draft, past players, his job, etc…  I appreciated his time and willingness to meet with me.

After that conversation, it got me thinking about how I am ready for football to start now.  I am also starting to miss Ndamukong Suh.  Say what you want about him….he’s had his share of cheap shoots and personal fouls.  But he is one of, if not the best defensive player in the NFL and now he won’t be on my Lions.  We had 5 great years with him, but he’s the type of player that should start and end his career with one team.  Plus off the field, he is very generous with his money donating to many charities. 

So now Miami will benefit from his talents and all I can do is wish he was still on the Lions team……  

Ndamukong Suh

Ndamukong Suh