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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

It was about 6 am. Our hotel was right next to the Louvre and only a stone’s throw away from the Seine river which flows right through Paris.

I had just spent some time shooting the Louvre and the little Arc de Triomphe (see previous post) and decided to wander on and cross the river. The sky was magnificent although not a lot of color. Doing HDR shots of scenes with lots of sky can be a challenge as you’ll often get a lot of noise. This shot was one of those and presented an excellent opportunity to try the recently upgraded Topaz Denoise 4. It did an excellent job as you can see.

About this shot. Right in the center of the picture, you can see the top of the Eiffel Tower. The building in front of that is the Musee D’Orsay, which is housed in a former railway station. The museum is famous as it holds the largest collection of impressionist master pieces in the world. Linda and I wanted to visit this museum too, but we just totally ran out of time. How sad is that!

This is the left bank of the river Seine and the bridge you see there is the Pont Royal (I am standing on the Pont du Carrousel).

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OK, so I am afraid of heights! There. I’ve said it. Now you know.

Linda dragged me up to the top of the Eiffel Tower one evening. Yes, all the way up to that section you see here in this picture. Did I enjoy the ride? No, not one bit. Was I pleased I went? Absolutely! (Thank you Linda for making me do it). We got some wonderful night shots from the top and I’m sure I’ll be posting them in due course. The views are simply amazing, albeit bloody scary.

At the top, you arrive in an enclosed area which is surprising large for something that looks so tiny from the ground (that should tell you how high this thing is). The views from this area are mightily impressive as you can imagine you can see for miles in all direction. The French even posted little signs around the area of well known cities and how many miles away they were from that spot. The scariest part was going outside. You see, there is another section at the top that is open, sure it has a steel mesh fence, but it is still open. Needless to say, Linda just had to get me out onto that section as well. And because of the mesh, I had to go right to the edge to stick my lens through to get any worthwhile shots. Standing THAT high up and THAT close to the edge is a very humbling experience, believe me.

Other than the scary part, the experience was exhilarating and photographically rewarding. This shot below was taken from the second tier, which is only about one third up. Every hour, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower puts on a light show with thousands of blinking lights putting on quite a display.

During the weekends and summer vacation days, the Eiffel Tower can get as many as 30,000 visitors (in one day!). Linda and I can attest to this as we came here on a Saturday and found the lines for tickets to be miles long. We came back on a Tuesday evening (in May so no school vacation) and stood in line for a mere 5 minutes.

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There are two Arc de Triomphes in Paris. The famous one stands in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle, the other one, half the size and seen here, stands directly between the Louvre museum and the Tuileries Gardens. It is called the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. What is so awesome about this is that it stands at the beginning of the “Axe Historique” (historical axis), a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the center of Paris to the West.

In fact, you can see it on this picture.

If you look through the arch, you can see the obelisk on the Place de la Concorde. Behind that the Arc de Triomphe and those tall buildings in the background is La Defense, the business district of Paris. You are looking right through the Tuileries Gardens and the Champs Elysees. One straight line. It is about 5 miles long. Cool.

This shot was taken at about 6am on a weekday. You can tell because there are no people. During the day, there are hundreds of people here and on the weekends, the place is positively swarming.

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I just returned from a business trip in the UK. Thanks to awkward flight schedules and not being able to leave when I originally wanted to, I ended up having to spend a day in London. I know! Life can be tough, but someone has to do it, so I weathered the not to nice weather and set out to see what I could find.

This first shot of the Houses of Parliament was shot early in the evening. It was actually raining although you can’t tell from the picture. I was a little annoyed as the section just under Big Ben is totally obscured in scaffolding and did not lend itself to any nice shots from the bridge. Also a bit puzzling was the fact that there were no lights on the sections to the extreme left and right. This is why I chose THIS shot as the ones taken later have a bigger contrast between the lit up parts and the dark sections. Taken as three shots each 2 stops apart.

In this second one it is very clear that it was raining. I made sure I had my lens hood on as this helps prevent getting rain drops on the lens. I find that nothing is more frustrating than getting home and finding your pictures ruined by small droplets of water. Very hard to photoshop away, especially if there are multiple.

You can also see the scaffolding pretty clearly in this shot. A shame. I’ll just have to go back one day

This next shot is taken on Trafalgar Square. Mid-morning, but I had already been up for hours. I found it a bit challenging to get a good composition on Trafalgar Square, but settled on this view of the fountain.

This last one was a bit of an experiment. I just wanted a phone booth, but after playing with the bracketed shots, I really  liked how this came out. Pretty iconic shot.

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Linda and I visited Point Reyes today. It was one of these weekends where weather forecasts first predicted 80% chance on rain, then 30% and the day turning out to be beautiful! The whole area is beautiful and scenic views vary from rolling green hills, Eucalypt groves, rugged coastline and sandy beaches with roaring surf. We’ll be returning here in April when the place is awash with spring flowers.

Today’s trip included a stop at the wreck of the Point Reyes, a fishing vessel run aground at Inverness on Tomales Bay. As you can see from the picture below, the tide was out. The light was pretty much perfect. While this shot is not an HDR, I did come back with several bracketed shots and an HDR will follow soon.

The next stop was Drakes Beach. We wanted to to go to the lighthouse, but on weekends the state closes off the road and one has to take a shuttle bus. As we did not have the time, we decided to check out some of the beaches and ended up at Drakes Beach.

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Holland is famous for a number of things, but windmills are perhaps the most iconic of all. Used to pump water out of low lying land, windmills played a vital role in a country of which two fifths lies below sea level. The name “Nederland” literally means “low land”.

No wonder that water has been such an influential force in so many aspects of every day life. After all, this is the country with dykes everywhere and is a nation that plays a dominant role in many water-related sports such as speed skating and swimming.

Today, modern engineering takes care of keeping land dry, but the Dutch are immensely proud of their wind-powered water management legacy. Windmills are a nostalgic icon of those early days and are enthusiastically preserved whenever possible. Nowhere is this more evident that in a place called Kinderdijk, where no less than 17 windmills are clustered together and present just about the most classic view of Dutch country side one can imagine. Needless to say it is a popular tourist spot and a great place to go for a day of photography.

I am hoping to take Linda there in May when we will be in the Netherlands so here is a shot to “get in the mood”. This is one of those 17 windmills at Kinderdijk and is a 3-shot HDR. It was a rainy day (as you can see from the clouds), but I was lucky to get this shot with some great reflections during a break in the rain.

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The magnificent Fort Point is located right under the Golden Gate Bridge, on the South side. It was built to protect San Francisco harbor from Confederate and foreign attach during the and after the US Civil War.

While its many arched walkways are considered to be a great showcase for the art of master brick masonry, it is also great for some powerful photography.

Here is a great example of the “feel” of this place. I just LOVE these corridors that disappear into the distance, no distractions or decorations other than the brickwork, arches, faded colors and those wonderful lines. This is agreat place for a weekend visit (the place is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday). There are superb views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the rooftop, which is easily accessible.

This is a 3-shot HDR, each shot is 2 stops apart.

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Attended a PowWow today, held in Auburn, California.

What a colorful event this is! While some tribes do not allow you to photograph them, many do and, with a bit of patience, you can be rewarded with beautifully vibrant pictures of Native Americans in traditional costume.

The music is basic, but with an amazingly catchy beat. It is hard to sit still and before you know it, your feet are tapping in sync and you start moving your head and body to the beat. A look around at the crowds and you see you are not alone with most people moving some part of their body to the beat. The main drummers were “Northern Eagle” and “Red Buffalo”

The event was organized by the Auburn Big Time Pow Wow Committee, celebrating Native American art and Culture.

Tribes represented included: Cree, Choctaw, Blackfeet, Miwok, Apache, Shawnee, Kiowa, Shoshone, Lakota and Aztec.

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Emerald Bay is part of Lake Tahoe and is designated a National Natural Landmark for its brilliant panorama of mountain-building processes and glacier carved granite. It is found in the South West corner of Lake Tahoe and is an inlet that can freeze over in a severe winter due to its shallower water.

This is a location I’ve been wanting to shoot for a long time and finally got around to doing it. This was taken about 30 minutes before sunrise from a rocky ledge at Eagle Falls. My plan had been to get the gushing water of Eagle Falls in the foreground, but alas, it’s September and the falls were just a trickle. Besides, at this time of the morning, it was too dark to see anything in detail.

The island you see in the middle of the picture is called Fannette Island and is the only island found in Lake Tahoe

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I had previously posted about Bodie, the ghost town found on the Eastern sides of the Sierra Nevadas. In the same vicinity lies Mono Lake, one of the oldest lakes in the Western hemisphere.

Mono Lake is especially known for its mineral structures that stick out of the water in many odd shaped formations. These “tufa” towers, as they are called, were created when fresh water springs bubble up through the alkaline waters of the lake. The water is salty and, just like in the Red Sea, makes you float like a cork. The salty water also provides perfect living conditions for brine shrimp, which attract millions of migratory birds.

While not quite in the millions, the lake also attracts photographers as the tufa formations make interesting subject material, especially at sunrise and sunset. I had two mornings and two evenings to spend there and was up at 4:30 am to be ready for the morning glow as the sun starts to rise. The picture here was taken about 15 minutes before sunrise, you can see the yellow glow behind the hills in the background. Unfortunately, there was some wind, as you can see in the distance and no clouds. Often spectacular skies can be seen here, but no such luck. It was still beautiful though and I hope to go back soon.

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