The little things in Bratislava
I'm back at it - sharing a HUGE collection of photos from a trip I took to Bratislava, Slovakia. But this isn't your normal post, featuring some landmark or well-known sight. This is 16 photos of the little things I found there while wandering with my camera. Take a look!
I don't just shoot the landmarks - I shoot it all!
Over the last couple of years here on the blog, I have mostly been sharing photos of the "big things" that I see when I travel somewhere: the landmarks, the iconic structures, the big churches. And I plan to keep shooting them, because they are awesome. But all along, I have also taken a lot of shots of the "little things" that I come across in my travels as well - graffiti and interesting signs, street scenes, deserted alleyways, little European cafes - the list goes on.
In fact, I did a post a while back about the little things that I saw in Amsterdam. And I also did an entire post about what I call "the postcard shot", and why it's not about getting the "big shots" when you travel.
So this post is similar to that one from Amsterdam, but of course from a different town. This is from Bratislava, Slovakia which is a beautiful little town nestled next to the Danube River, and about an hour away from Vienna. I loved it there. I hope to return some day.
I was there over 2 years ago, and still have plenty of photos to share from that trip. And by the way, when I was there I met up and shot with Miroslav Petrasko, who is a local, a great photographer, and all-around awesome guy. You should follow his blog too! You will find some amazing photos to enjoy.
So these are just some random snaps from that trip. No order to them, no theme or anything - just things that I saw while wandering, that happened to catch my eye. While a number of these include graffiti or look a little grungy, the city is actually quite beautiful and well worth a visit! Just want to be clear about that! :-)
And as you can probably tell from the pics...I just love doors.
Enjoy!
(click any photo to view larger)
First look at The Sydney Opera House
Today's post is all about the Sydney Opera House - it's pretty awesome! I went over to Australia last week, and was able to capture quite a few shots of this iconic structure. It was #1 on my list of what to shoot, and I shot it - LOTs. So take a look at these 5 photos and enjoy the visual tour!
Here's a few photos of that iconic Aussie building - the Sydney Opera House!
If you read my last post, then you know I spent last week Down Under in lovely Sydney, Australia. It was quite a trip (and quite a long trip - a 16 hour flight!) but it was great overall and I came home with a lot of photos (about 2000) that I believe I will be proud of. (I say believe because at this point I have only gone through about twenty of them. So, lots more coming from Sydney!)
Also, I just created a list of where to take photos in Sydney - so check that out and let me know what you think! There are 15 photos on that list, and I haven't shared them anywhere else yet!
Anyways, the Sydney Opera House is probably the best-known spot in Sydney (and probably Australia), and as such it was at the top of my list when I found out that I was headed over there. So as soon as I arrived and got settled, I headed out to go shoot this place.
It was a beautiful evening (as you can hopefully tell by the photos) and it was great to finally see this with my own eyes, after so many years of just seeing pictures. I walked all around Circular Quay (the main harbor front area) and shot a LOT of photos of the Opera House, so that's another way of saying you will see more at some point in the future. I just can't bring myself to put 10 or 20 pics of the same place in one post! (Well, maybe close to 10.)
And I call this "first look" because these are quite literally the first few shots I took of the Sydney Opera House as I made my way down to Sydney Harbor on my first night there. As you can see, they are all from very similar angles, each slightly different in some way. I also walked up REAL CLOSE and shot it a lot of unique ways, but alas, that will have to wait for another day!
So, without further delay, take a look at these shots and let me know what you think!
And while I was at it, I couldn't resist taking that first photo over to Topaz Impression and doing a little painting with it! This was done with the Van Gogh setting, with some minor adjustments.
And this version was also done in Topaz Impression, but with the Cracked Fresco setting.
iPhone fun in Sydney Australia
Well hi there! I made a reasonably quick trip over to Sydney, Australia last week, and came home with a LOT of photos. But, today's post is a bit of a teaser - just iPhone shots for ya. I haven't had time to get my Olympus shots processed. So come back, ok? There's a lot more coming! But for now, enjoy these photos and this quick tour of my little adventures Down Under! G'day mate!
I popped over to Sydney last week - fun!
Ok, that's a slight exaggeration - coming from Texas, you don't really "pop" over there like it's a 30 minute flight. It's actually the LONGEST FLIGHT IN THE WORLD. That's not a joke. The Qantas flight from Dallas to Sydney (using the new Airbus A380) is well over 16 hours, covering north of 8,500 miles/13,800 km. That's some serious butt time!
And I was in coach. My ass is getting numb just thinking about it again.
I am actually writing this while in Sydney, on my last night here (Saturday evening, Sydney time) and scheduling it to go live on Monday morning, Texas time. The beauty of the internet. I will spend all day Sunday on the return flight. By the time this post goes live, I will be home again and hopefully still sleeping soundly! So read on, while I snooze a bit.
Well enough about all that, how about some pics?
I took a LOT of photos while in Sydney, and obviously haven't had any time to process them (much less even get them off the memory cards!). So I thought I would do this iPhone post and hit a few of the highlights. It's a beautiful city, though I will say the big draws are the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge - which are both beautiful. Outside of that, I of course explored quite a bit, including hunting down some of the awesome graffiti that I Googled (found it!).
You'll be seeing quite a few Sydney shots here, as soon as I can get to them. Hope you enjoy this iPhone teaser, and thanks for stopping by today. G'day mate!
Some thoughts on the iPhone 6 camera...
And by the way, these were all shot with my new iPhone 6 and processed in Snapseed. I haven't shared much iPhone stuff here over the last year or so, but I still take a bunch of them. I was slowing down quite a bit, but now that I have this new iPhone 6, I am getting pretty fired up about mobile photography again!
I previously had the iPhone 4S, but it was well over 2 years old, and showing a lot of signs of age (and tons of usage). It wasn't always working great, and now compared to the new one it feels like it was made in 1975 or something. This shiny new toy is a total blessing. While the camera is great (especially considering this is a phone), I do love the bigger screen. It's just crisp and gorgeous.
And no, I did not get the iPhone 6 Plus. Perhaps if I was 6'5" tall and had banana hands, then I would consider it. But no, I'm not, and that thing is too unwieldy for me. The iPhone 6 took a little getting used to, because even the smaller new one is still considerably larger than my old iPhone 4S, but after a couple of weeks we are very happy together. :-) Ok, on to the pics!
I grabbed this one from the Harbor Bridge. A good walk up there, but worth the view!
On my 2nd night here, I was treated to an absolutely FABULOUS sunset. So awesome!!
Just some shopping arcade I ran across - thought it was pretty nice looking!
See what I'm saying?? AWESOME. GRAFFITI.
If you've been here before, you know I love train stations...so I had to visit their Central Station. Grungy goodness.
And one more of the opera House, during that killer sunset. Such a photogenic building!
St. Mary's Cathedral - very beautiful!
Here's an angle on the Opera House you may not have seen before...
Walking around Circular Quay, headed to the Harbor Bridge. This is before that crazy sunset happened!
Yep, it's the Opera House again - big surprise! But I did like the sunset light here...
And a word of caution - as a tourist, you may be tempted to try Vegemite, because you remember that Men At Work song from the 80's (and sorry, I know it's stuck in your head now) but DO NOT TRY IT. It's a prank that is foisted on unsuspecting tourists, especially Americans. I do not believe that it is actually even food. It tastes like what I imagine tar or axle grease to taste like, but with more salt. It's completely horrible (sorry, Aussie friends, but come on, you eat that?). I tried it one morning at breakfast, and seriously wanted to spit everywhere. You may vomit. I had to leave immediately so I could brush my teeth. STAY AWAY FROM IT. :-)
Walking the canals of Copenhagen
A trio of shots from Copenhagen - which has a few canals, as well as awesome architecture! Also, I am using new software to edit my photos - read more in this post!
DId you know there are canals in Copenhagen? There are a few!
Copenhagen is no Venice or Amsterdam in terms of canals, but it has a few and it is a very beautiful city. I love visiting Copenhagen, and am very thankful that I have been there twice now. I hope I can return again some day. Like I said, it's just beautiful.
On my last visit, I spent one afternoon wandering around with the camera (ok, more than one afternoon!) near Christiansborg Palace, which is awesome by the way. Then again, I just LOVE palaces and castles, which is one of the reasons I love Europe so much. It seems they are everywhere.
Oh, and churches too. Europe has a few of those, and they're fabulous.
BTW, I have recently started using Intensify Pro by Macphun - it's amazing software that I use to edit my photos. You can read my full review here. It's really a fabulous product and I am starting to use it a LOT!
It wasn't raining that afternoon, but the skies were threatening the whole time, which is actually ok with me. I prefer a little drama in the sky - beats a boring old clear blue sky any day of the week. I enjoy a clear blue sky if I am having a picnic or something, but when it comes to photography, I'll take a dramatic, cloudy sky any time!
Well one of these Danish canals essentially circles the Palace, so after shooting the architecture, I strolled over here and fired away. It's so refreshing to see stuff like this - keep in mind that I live in Texas, so this is not a normal sight for a guy like me.
We have a big world out there, and exploring it with the camera is just so fulfilling to me. I hope you enjoy the photos and don't mind my little ramblings that come along with it!
I couldn't resist this little tobacco shop - too cool.
iPhone fun in Amboise, France
Well, hot on the heels on my last iPhone post from France...here's another one: this time, lovely Amboise!
As I mentioned last week in my iPhone post, I am way behind but I am sure trying to catch up. I'm sure that happens to all of us photographers. We shoot, process and share...then realize we have skipped over a bunch of stuff!
It happens to me all the time. Since I process my photos out of order, I am always in my Aperture library looking at shots that I have taken on all sorts of trips to all sorts of places...and I frequently find some real gems and wonder why I didn't get to them sooner.
It's really the same with my iPhone. While I don't have nearly as many iPhone shots as I do Nikon shots, there are still quite a few. As of this moment, I have north of 2,000 photos in my iPhone camera roll. That may not sound like a lot, but in the last 2 years I have removed at least that many 3-4 times, so the total iPhone library is something like 8,000-10,000. That number is a guess since I am too lazy to look it up, but it's at least directionally accurate.
The cool thing is that I always find stuff to process on the iPhone, and I always find things I love when I do that. There's just a lot of content that I am carrying around, and it's awesome to be able to take a few minutes and crank out some artistic stuff. That's one of my favorite things about iPhoneography - processing photos is not a big production requiring dedicated amounts of time. I can get a few shots done in 5 minutes. That's awesome.
Anyways, these shots are also from the family trip last summer to France, but from the little town of Amboise, which sits alongside the River Loire as it winds its way through the Loire Valley. It's a picturesque area and the town is rather charming. I loved it there, and would love to go back.
In addition to shooting various street scenes, of course I was happy to find a little mural showing good old Leonardo da Vinci, who famously spent time here in his later years. In fact, his tomb is here, up at the castle/chateau which sits on the hill above town. I'll save that spot for another iPhone post at some point. It's pretty wicked.
And of course, I went out a couple of times in search of a great sunset...and WOW was I ever rewarded for that idea!
Well that's it today folks, thanks for stopping by, and here's one last look at the arch and tower which sits squarely in the historic town center. So much charm here, you really must visit. Have a great day!
Shooting the canals
I really love Amsterdam, but not for those reasons. :-)
It's a great town in my opinion, and great for photography. I suppose if you were into street photography, that you would find Amsterdam to be rather colorful and fun for that sort of thing. But as you know from coming here before (if this is your first visit, WELCOME!), street photography ain't my thing.
I don't shoot portraits, weddings, or what is typically known as street photography. I do shoot a lot of street scenes though. I love that stuff. And no, I am not trying to confuse the matter.
Anyways, in Amsterdam as you know there are a LOT of canals. The city's identity rests primarily with the canals. It's defined by water. So being a guy who loves HDR and reflections, well...that's what draws me in. I could shoot that stuff all day.
So on my last visit there, I spent one evening out shooting with my friend Michiel Buijse, who is relatively local and a great photographer. You should go see his work. He's good. So we spent a great deal of time shooting things like this, partly because it's awesome and partly because you see this stuff at every turn. Not a bad way to spend an evening, actually!
Evening in Temple Bar
The Temple Bar in Dublin - beautiful at night!
I love Dublin, and I say that a lot here. There's a lot to love about that town. One particular spot that I love there, probably more than all the rest, is the Temple Bar District, and the Temple Bar pub itself. The area is basically their nightlife and entertainment district, and it centers on The Temple Bar pub itself, which you see in the photo.
The district has retained it's historic, sort of medieval feel and the streets are all cobblestone, which adds to the cultural feeling of the place. Of course that makes walking a little harder, especially when I am carrying a large camera on a tripod and looking around, not down at what I am stepping on. I haven't fallen over yet, but have come close a few times! And yes this area is a magnet for tourists, but I don't care - I just love it. It has so much character.
My hotel preference is just a few hundred feet from the Temple Bar, so that makes it really easy for me to photograph it, especially at sunrise. Whenever I am in Dublin, I always try and get up to shoot sunrise. It's just amazing to walk these little cobblestone streets in the early morning hours, and not even see another person out. I just love that. Conveniently, it makes the photography a little easier too. :-)
And in case you are wondering, yes this is an HDR photo. I actually don't shoot too much after dark, but I was headed back to my hotel on the evening I took this one, and just couldn't resist a few more shots. Of course, I do that a lot!
Sunrise at the Ferry terminal
Catching the first ferry of the day in San Francisco!
San Francisco is a wonderfully beautiful town, whether you bring a camera along to document it or not (though I obviously recommend you do). When I am there I try to shoot as much as possible, which is hard because I am always there on business. But somehow, I find a way. :-)
Actually, "the way" is that I normally get up early and wander the streets before I get busy with work. That's ok with me. Though I like my sleep as much as the next person, I like photography better, so I make sacrifices. Isn't that why caffeine was invented anyways??
On the morning of this photo, I was wandering around the Ferry Building area (which in addition to being close to my normal hotel, is also my favorite building in SFO) and shooting away. It's a great area because in addition to the Ferry Building, just a few steps away is a great spot to shoot the Bay Bridge from. It's all good. In fact, that's the Bay Bridge off to the right there.
So I fired away inside the Ferry Building way before anyone else showed up, and then as sunrise was coming together I popped out back for some of that nice morning light that I alway seem to find out West. I saw this Ferry terminal and decided it would look cool to snap it with the great color and light...and then a guy walked up to buy a ticket. I decided to take the shot anyways, and am glad that I did. I feel like having him there gives it a little different feel. What do you think?
Exploring Chinatown with my iPhone
Do you ever take a trip and use ONLY your iPhone?
I have done that at times, but not because I don't want to lug my full-frame NIkon around. I've done it when I think there is absolutely no time for me to shoot on a trip, so I leave my big ole boy at home. It sucks, but it happens.
Last week is a perfect example of this. I work for a company based in San Francisco, and we had our annual kickoff last week, which is another way of saying that my days and night were all full. But being who I am (and needing a little break one day!!) I slipped out for a little walk late one afternoon, and since we were in Union Square, I decided to head over to Chinatown for a little while.
If you haven't been, Chinatown is very interesting and a great place to walk around. I have shot there once before, early one morning a year or so ago, and found it to be quite beautiful and interesting. I hope to get back with my Nikon on a future trip. So I wandered around the back streets and alleys, which I highly recommend doing, and also along the main drag, and took quite a few iPhone shots.
These are all single exposure iPhone pics (as opposed to shooting with ProHDR, which takes two exposures and combines them), and all are adjusted with Snapseed. Snapseed is by far my favorite iPhoneography app, and you can see my quick review of it here. I plan to write more about that later. :-)
So, enjoy the pics and let me know if you have any questions!
Looking into 2014
Looking ahead into 2014
(wherein I discuss future plans and ponder whether I really am a "photographer")
I enjoy the whole “new year” thing. I find it enjoyable to look back at things that have happened, and to look forward in anticipation of what may come. There’s something interesting about it. I guess it’s fun to see how the journey has unfolded. It never seems to go the way you think it will, and yet it always seems to work out just fine.
I feel the same way about my photography in general, and this blog in particular. I love this journey that I am on, and it is fun that there is nothing linear about it. It’s not a straight line from “starting the blog” to “well-known blog”, or whatever you want to put in that last set of quotes. I’m not really sure what I would put in it, actually. There’s a lot I want for this blog, apart from it being my creative outlet.
And that is what I am talking about today...
I have been thinking a lot about this blog lately, and what I would like to do with it, what direction I want to head in, and those sorts of things. So as I think about all that, I thought it would be fun to just put my thoughts out here and get your feedback, dear reader. I’ve never done anything like this, so I hope someone shows up and reads it!
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section, if you don’t mind. I would sure appreciate that!
Ok, so what is all this about?
Here’s the deal. I have had this blog for 4+ years now, and I love it. I loving taking photos, and processing photos, and sharing photos. I love writing up blog posts and adding new things to the blog. All that is going to continue so don’t worry about that. I will keep doing that. But I have been thinking about the bigger picture of what I enjoy, and have realized that I am a little torn about the types of content that I want to continue to add here.
For most of the past 4 years, I have shared a photo here on the blog about 5 times per week, each with a little description of where I was, or something to that effect. That’s been fun, but it’s starting to feel hollow to me. It’s a one-trick pony. It’s basically me saying “I went here and I aimed my camera at this”, 5 times a week. While I have enjoyed it, it’s not substantive.
In fact it’s boring, to be very frank about it. Getting there, being there, taking the photo, processing the photo and sharing the photo is all great - it’s just the short post with a little description gets kinda boring. Make sense?
I want to add a little more depth to it for my sake, and hopefully for yours as well.
Writing is fun! (but it takes a while)
If you haven’t noticed, more of my recent posts have a bit more writing behind them. While the writing is generally tied to the shot or the trip I was on when I took the shot, that’s not always the case. Also, I have done a couple of longer form articles here and they have been well received...and I appreciate that.
They’re also a lot more fun for me. So in other words, I am starting to write more, and I am enjoying it…and it seems many of you are as well. I intend to do more of the long form posts….it just won’t be every week, since it takes time to come up with ideas, write them out, and then edit, edit, edit, and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite…..then finally share it (and hope it doesn’t sound dumb, trivial, foolish, or uninformed).
Additionally I have significantly expanded my section on Top Photo Spots in various cities where I have traveled and shot. I love creating things like that, and expect to do more in the future as I have enough familiarity with a place to create something of value.
Am I a photographer.....really?
When I try and define myself as it relates to this blog, obviously photographer comes to mind first. That’s the core of the site, that’s what it’s all (mostly) related to, and that will continue. But there’s a lot more that I want to discuss here and things I enjoy sharing, so I wanted to get your thoughts on it all.
In addition to photography, there’s travel, there’s writing/blogging, there’s my iPhone addiction, and more...the list goes on. And while I think of myself as a photographer, I also think of myself as more than that. When I mention to people that I am a photographer, they usually ask me something like “Oh, do you shoot weddings or portraits”? The short answer is no. I have no interest in either one of those.
Lots of people do that, and do it well, and love it. That’s awesome, someone needs to do it, and it’s hard work I am sure. It’s just not my thing.
As you probably know from visiting here before, I love to shoot HDR photos of places that I visit. So that usually involves architecture, cityscapes and skylines, train stations, churches and cathedrals, landscapes if I can get to them, and things like that. In other words, I shoot location-specific things. That’s what I love to shoot, and that’s what I will keep shooting. It’s travel photography, basically. I love to show everyone here what a place looks like. We have a big beautiful world out there, and my little contribution to the awareness of it is what I enjoy doing.
I am a blogger.
But you know what else I am? I am a blogger. There I said it. I am a blogger. It almost feels weird to write that down. I always thought of myself as a photographer with a blog, but in many ways I feel I am a blogger with a camera. You can get hints of that in some of the other articles I have posted here.
I spend a lot of time on this blog, doing this and that, changing this and that, and writing and posting content. I spend a lot of time just thinking about the blog, and working on ideas, thoughts swirling in my head. I have a laundry list of things I want to do with the blog, things I want to add, articles I want to write or am in the process of writing, etc. So there’s a lot of stuff I am trying to get published here, in addition to the 5x per week photos.
And guess what? I love all that too, nearly as much as I love my photography...and that’s saying something, because I really love to shoot and process photos.
So as you can tell, I am trying to work through what it is that I am, and where I want to go with this blog, and then figure out how to get there. It’s a lot to think about. :-)
What I currently do
Here’s a quick list of things that I consider core to this blog (and pretty much in order, I think):
- HDR/travel photography
- Travel lists (such as where to shoot in London, or travel photography tips)
- Blogging/writing related to the above (longer form articles – what I would call an “opinion piece” and what you might deem “rambling”)
- iPhoneography (I have so many ideas here)
- HDR Software tutorials / reviews
- iPhone Software tutorials / reviews
- Miscellaneous other reviews (my Nikon lenses, for example)
- Positive quotes and travel quotes (which I really love, and haven’t spent much time on - it should be significantly expanded)
I think that pretty much sums up the current state. So what’s next?
Here are things I will definitely continue to do here on the blog:
- Continue the 5x/week posts, but continue to kick up the writing a notch in each post, assuming time permits it each week
- Continue to add more lists of where to shoot in certain cities (this is of course travel-dependent, and I have to feel like I can make it comprehensive enough to be worthwhile for my readers)
- Continue to add other travel and/or photography lists as I think of them (any ideas for me??)
- Continue to sprinkle in longer form articles every 2-3 weeks (I would love to do this weekly, but that feels like a stretch since I still have so many photos to share here, and the writing just takes me a while to get it to a state of readiness for publishing)
Why do you come to this site, and what are you looking for?
Here are some things I am thinking about…..your thoughts?
- Do you want workflow/processing tips? (How-To, Before & After, etc)
- Do you want tutorials? If so, on what topic?
- Do you want info on why I chose to process a photo a particular way?
- Do you want general travel info on these places I visit?
- Would you like a little travel essay now and then?
- Do you want training on how I use various software products?
- Do you want ebooks? If so, what topics are of interest?
- In other words, what do you find useful? Why do you come to this site, and what would make you want to keep coming back?
As you can tell, I have a lot of thoughts swirling around in my brain. I love doing all this stuff, and have a great time at it. The fact that anyone actually shows up and takes a look is just gravy to me. If I can help someone, that’s even better.
And you can probably read between the lines and see that I want to write more, and add more substantial content than just a short blurb about a photo that I took. I also really love travel, and while this isn’t a travel blog in the traditional sense, it is in some respects and I want to explore adding more travel-specific content.
While I cannot promise anything about what I plan to do and what direction this blog will head in, I am certainly open to expanding what is available on my site and sharing it with you all. I am having a lot of fun with all of this, and I hope you are too. Even more so, I hope the info that I share is useful, and that you enjoy the photos, the articles and the other content. Thank you.
Thanks in advance for leaving me your thoughts – I sincerely appreciate it!
Another Arc in Paris
This is the Arc de Triomphe du Caroussel - not that "other Arc".
When you mention that you saw "the Arc" in Paris, everyone knows you are referring to the Arc de Triomphe, which sits at the end of the Champs-Elysees and is rather famous as the French monument to those who fought and died for France. But that one is actually called the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile. You can see why it's just called the Arc. That's a mouthful.
But this one is actually different, and smaller (by about half), and located elsewhere in Paris. This one is called the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and is situated just outside The Louvre. Despite it's lack of stature in comparison to it's "big brother", it's still awesome and worth seeing. Size doesn't really matter, after all.
I was at The Louvre shooting a wonderful sunset in the front courtyard, and generally just enjoying the fact that I was in Paris. The Louvre! The Eiffel Tower! Sunset! Photography! I was pretty fired up, and still get excited thinking about it.
Anyways, I saw this arch (I'm going with the American word here) and loved the light and shadow play, so I set up and despite all the tourists, went ahead and fired away. They were moving so slow that it was obvious I could never wait them out.
Hello 2014
Happy New Year - thanks for stopping by!
To keep the bad pun alive from yesterday (wherein I said the last day of the year was the "sunset"), then that would make today the "sunrise" since it's the first day of the new year!
With that in mind, here is a sunrise photo from that most lovely city in Ireland - Dublin. I love that town. Great people, great culture, great accent (!), and great photo opps. Oh yeah, and the Guinness is great too!
I don't know yet if I will make it there again in 2014, but I sure hope so. I grabbed this photo during my last visit there, on the morning I was flying home.
I was ready to go before the taxi arrived to whisk me off to the airport, so I ran around for about 15 minutes and took a few shots, since a beautiful sunrise was happening and well, it's hard to pass up something like that!
And here's the New Year's card we are sending to family and friends:
The ceiling of the Natural History Museum
Dang this place is incredible - and big!! This is the ceiling of the main room at the Natural History Museum in London, and it is most certainly worth a visit. You will not be disappointed, especially if you came with a camera! There’s a photo opp at every turn!
I have been here twice now and each time I keep thinking about Harry Potter and Hogwarts. It just has that look. I took this photo on my visit to London last September, but while I was in London last week I popped in there again. To get a sense of scale, that little red speck along the bottom to the right is a person.
It’s the sort of place I imagine visiting each time I get there, if my schedule permits. It’s just cool. Maybe on one of these trips I will take some time and explore the exhibits too. I get so caught up firing brackets that I forget about those sorts of things. :-)
And here is an HDR Before and After for comparison purposes, if you enjoy that sort of thing:
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Glasgow has some AMAZING architecture. I heard that from several folks before I went there, and boy were they right! You can just be walking down the street and BAM! you run into something awesome like this. This is the Gallery of Modern Art, which is housed in a neoclassical building right in the heart of downtown. I was out after dinner, taking in the beautiful (and lengthy!!) blue hour there, and stumbled across this wonderful structure. It was originally a townhouse for one of the wealthy tobacco lords that lived in Glasgow, but is now a gallery housing lots of different forms of modern art. I went inside a day later, found a great shot to take, and as I was setting up for it the camera police told me "no photos inside". Really? What's the harm? Is my camera going to steal the soul of that sculpture which no one can figure out? Anyways, I didn't start a fuss but I didn't donate to them either!
On a completely unrelated note (except that it's about photography, so I guess that is actually pretty closely related!) I am enjoying my vacation in New Mexico and the cooler weather is great! Here's an iPhone shot I took earlier today while I was out snapping HDRs, signs, and landscapes - my holy trinity!
