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Thanks to all who visit my Travel Photography. Feel free to leave comments. They are well appreciated. Any questions on how I do my HDR shots, leave a comment!
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"Farms of Lancaster County, Pa"-Anytime we are near Philly, we try to get over to Lancaster County and drive the back roads. The Amish and Mennonite farms are spread out everywhere. They take such care in maintaining their properties, so us tourist can take beautiful pictures. I’m sure that’s not their reason, but I do encourage you to get off the Interstate, slow down and see what life was like 100 years ago. Stop at the roadside farmer’s markets and get some homemade rootbeer. Autumn is the best time to visit. Pick up a map that shows where all the covered bridges are and take the tour around the county checking them out.
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"Farms of Lancaster County, Pa"-Anytime we are near Philly, we try to get over to Lancaster County and drive the back roads. The Amish and Mennonite farms are spread out everywhere. They take such care in maintaining their properties, so us tourist can take beautiful pictures. I’m sure that’s not their reason, but I do encourage you to get off the Interstate, slow down and see what life was like 100 years ago. Stop at the roadside farmer’s markets and get some homemade rootbeer. Autumn is the best time to visit. Pick up a map that shows where all the covered bridges are and take the tour around the county checking them out.

amishmennonitesfarmsautumnfallsikoforestwoodscolorbackroadstrees

  • "Alfredo's at Bracciano Lake, Italy"-All I knew, when we arrived in Rome from our long trip from Phoenix is, I didn’t want to drive far and I wanted a hotel on a lake for the night. Italy doesn’t have many lakes near Rome you can stay on. We planned a week traveling aimlessly through Tuscany on our destination in Cinque Terre. We looked on the map and saw that north of Rome was just what our tired bodies had wanted, a lake. It was in the off season so we knew that getting a room would be easy. We found Hotel Alfredo on Bracciano Lake. A picture-perfect setting on a circular lake with Odescalchi Castle staring down on us. A full moon topped it off. What else could you ask for. Oh..It was my birthday!!
  • "The Organ"-Arches National Park, Utah-Recently I went up to Utah to hike around the National Parks of Arches and Canyonlands. I kept coming back to this area for morning and evening shots and hoping for some interesting cloud cover. To catch this perspective I laid on the ground in the sand with this little yucca plant within 2 feet of the lens, hoping I could get it and “The Organ” rock formation in focus. I think I succeeded. The yucca is 1 foot high, the rock formation felt 500 feet high.
  • Autumn at Wolf Creek, West Virginia-I flew out from Phoenix to spend a week exploring West Virgina in the autumn. New River Gorge was one of my planned destinations. Years ago we had stopped here and did a little hiking and I always wanted to come back. This time I was prepared, or so I thought I was. I had come with 3 camera format options:; large format, medium format and digital. I was never big into large format, because well it was big and heavy and hard to hike with. I did not bring a big enough tripod, so by mid day after hiking a mile to waterfalls, I lost patience and muscle and packed it away. It was expensive, $4.00 each time I took a picture. This photo of cascades on Wolf Creek, not far from underneath the New River Gorge in West Virgina, was one of my favorites of the trip. I used the digital camera this time. It was sunset, deep in a valley and was quite dangerous to take. This perspective took balancing my tripod on 3 rocks on top of a cliff, with nowhere to stand. I had no way to use the viewfinder, so I just kept shooting and adjusting until it worked. One of those “don’t try this at home” moments.<br /> <br /> P.S: The airlines broke the large format camera into pieces on the way back to Phoenix. I put it on E-bay and sold it to some guy in Alaska who bought it for parts, for what I paid for it. Easy come, easy go!
  • "Ruins of the Acropolis"-The Acropolis sits high on a hill overlooking all of Athens with it’s mostly white homes outstretched as far as you can see. It’s a hard time to visit with all the political problems there. We didn’t wander to far from the bus and stayed pretty much on the tourist route. Grabbing a photo without all the other tourist in the way was a challenge, but what an incredible piece of history to be part of.
  • Spreckels Organ Pavilion, San Diego-One of the world’s largest outdoor pipe organs. John D. and Adolph Spreckels donated the organ to the city of San Diego in 1914. It sits in Balboa Park next to the zoo and museums. Would have been nice to see the pipes, but it was not open when we were there. All the grounds in the park are beautifully manicured. This is a great place to spend the day enjoying the great weather, restaurants, art exibitions, all the museum and taking pictures. The old spanish architecture makes for great HDR photos. This one was taken with 3 photos merged in Photomatix and finished in Topaz and Photoshop CS5.
  • Court Yard at Al Cotega, Venice-If I was looking for this place, I probably would have never found it. Each time we visit Venice, our goal is to try to get lost in the deep dark corridors and back alleys and walkways, just to see where we end up. You can’t get to lost because Venice is pretty much like an island. Sooner or later you come out somewhere near the train station or the Rialto Bridge or San Marcos Square. This 4 star cottage hotel had one of the most colorful little courtyards. Geraniums were everywhere. Good thing I took a picture of the sign!
  • "St Mary Falls, Glacier National Park"-It was getting near sunset and I had my doubts about trekking on a 1 mile hike out to St Mary Falls, alone. This is Wyoming, wild bear country and I have a fear about bears. I’ve run into them face-to-face before, seen them on many trails and I’m not fond of it. I never ventured out this late in the day, but I knew this would be the perfect time to catch a good shot of the falls. An Asian couple was speeding by me and I ask if I could tag along. We made it to the falls in record time. They wanted to snap a quick picture and head back. I convinced them to hang out for a little while so Buy a Print of this Photo-St Mary Falls,Glacier National Park-I could get my gear set up and snap a few different perspectives. They lasted for about 5 minutes and I did not want to be left behind, so I packed it in and we headed back. It doesn’t take much to spook yourself when you’re traveling alone. This stop was late in the season and they were closing Glacier National Park for the winter in just a few days. I was on a 6000 mile, two month journey to hit all the National Parks in the Northwest, including some in Canada. I kept moving south and autumn was coming in full bloom. I’ll share some of those another time.
  • "Farms of Lancaster County, Pa"-Anytime we are near Philly, we try to get over to Lancaster County and drive the back roads. The Amish and Mennonite farms are spread out everywhere. They take such care in maintaining their properties, so us tourist can take beautiful pictures. I’m sure that’s not their reason, but I do encourage you to get off the Interstate, slow down and see what life was like 100 years ago. Stop at the roadside farmer’s markets and get some homemade rootbeer. Autumn is the best time to visit. Pick up a map that shows where all the covered bridges are and take the tour around the county checking them out.
  • Buy a print! Irish Red Sunset-I waited patiently for the tide to roll out so I could climb down to all these piles of sea weed and get a closer shot. What I didn’t expect was how slippery the stuff was going to be. I was far from anyone hearing the sound of my voice, let alone finding me should I trip and fall on some of these jagged rocks. I treaded softly through the muck and waited for the sunset to come to me. I got what I came for and then treaded back through the sloshing water in the dark to the safety of my car.
  • "Buy a Print"-Canals of Burano, Italy-A short distance by water taxi or water bus from Venice is a cute small island called Burano. Every home is painted a different color. Like Venice canals weave through the town from every direction with many bridge crossings. This island is definitely a tourist destination with shops and restaurants up and down the cobblestone walkways and corridors. As a photographer your camera never stops clicking as the “photo ops” simply unfold in front of you.
  • "Buy a Print"-The Walled City-Croatia-Dubrovnik has a long history of war, earthquakes, fires, and at one time rivaled Venice as a seaport. The walls run 2 km around the city and at some points are as thick as 6 meters. It was nice in the heat of the day to walk the dark and narrow passageways. Many of the homes were only accessible by climbing steep stairs. That grew old real quick as I searched for interesting doorways to photograph. This photo is the farthest point north of the city catching the edge of the wall, looking out to the Adriatic sea. This is a place you just want to meld into the history and spend time absorbing the city and beyond. Restaurants are everywhere and you just want to try everything. This a place you don’t want to breeze through. Come and spend time. For those following “Bachelorette” on T.V., this is their next stop, next week!
  • Buy a Print! "She Thinks My Tractors Sexy!"-Hard to believe there was a day when tractors were steam driven, just like locomotives. At Goldfield’s Ghost Town in Apache Junction, Arizona, there are quite a few old rusting farm and mining machinery just lying around wasting in the sun. I’m sure this steamer has seen alot of gunfights in the streets of this western-style tourist haven. Great place for HDR photography on a cloudy day, with all it’s distressed wood buildings and ancient oxidizing gold mine equipment and things. I’ve taken many photos over the years at this location from engagement photos, christmas card photos, to high dynamic range photo tours. Great spot to visit if you’re in the Phoenix area. Make sure you check out the steakhouse with live entertainment.
  • Tropical Brook in Hawaii-Along the loop trail going to Akaka Falls on the Big Island of Hawaii, this small little stream has caught my eye a number of times. You pass over a small bridge and it just catches you. Definitely gives you the feeling of a tropical rain forest. I did a longer exposure to smooth out the water and soften things up a bit. You can almost feel the cool breeze looking at.
  • "Canyonlands in Utah"-You feel like you are on top of the world as you stand on the edge of these canyons outstretched to the snow-capped La Sal Mountains off in the distance. It’s another one of those places that gives you the heebie-jeebies if you stand to close to the edge. With the wind swirling in all directions I got as close as I was willing to go. Cloud formations were perfect for HDR imagery and I took this late in the day. No one else around, it was great!
  • "Columns and Gardens, Sedona"-It’s not easy finding Wi-Fi sometimes when you’re traveling. We’re high in the mountains of Nevada in Lake Tahoe. Weathers fabulous and hope to get some great shots around the lake. It’s been 10 years since the last visit. Stayed at the Cottage Inn on the east side of Lake Tahoe, but no Wi-Fi last night so I’ll catch up today.<br /> <br /> In Sedona, is a beautiful shopping area called Tlaquepaque (pronounced Tla-keh-pah-keh) that is a great stop for art lovers. I love all the spanish influenced architecture with gardens and columns, stairs and tiled walkways everywhere. Makes for great HDR photos.
  • "Obrien's Tower at Cliffs of Moher, Ireland"-There was a time when they would allow you out on the edge of the cliffs, where you could lie down and look staight over the edge to the jagged rocks below, until people started falling off! Now you keep a safe distance and feel the awesomeness of this Irish landmark. Looking west you know somewhere out there is the good old U.S.A. and that’s comforting. This is Ireland most visited attraction and for good reason. It’s magical.
  • "Krka Falls runoff, Croatia"-Sedona is considered by many as one of the top ten most desirable places to live in the U.S. If you have ever been there you could see why. Great weather, a beautiful scenic wonderland.<br /> <br /> We are at present in the Lake Tahoe area photographing some of the most exciting spots on the lake. Emerald Bay is our planned destination today. I will put down some photos of this trip soon.
  • "Sedona Red Rock"-Sedona is considered by many as one of the top ten most desirable places to live in the U.S. If you have ever been there you could see why. Great weather, a beautiful scenic wonderland.<br /> <br /> We are at present in the Lake Tahoe area photographing some of the most exciting spots on the lake. Emerald Bay is our planned destination today. I will put down some photos of this trip soon.
  • "Back Yard Garden in Dingle, Ireland"-Imagine having a colorful backyard like this. I found this little spot walking along in Dingle, Ireland and found it quite fascinating. A little stream running through it, flowers and sitting areas all nice and grassy. We don’t have streams running through our backyards in Phoenix, Arizona. More likely at this time of year, dust and everything wilting. Getting back from Lake Tahoe today we found our vines of grapes turned to raisins while we were gone. It got up to 112 degrees today.<br /> <br /> You can find this backyard on Google Earth. It’s kind of cool!
  • Rocky Coast of Lake Tahoe-The entire sky up behind us turned a blazing deep orange and yellows and lit up the rocks to eerie hues of tans and browns. The skies stayed pretty clear and blue for most of the 4 day trip to Lake Tahoe, Nevada this past week. Then one late afternoon thick clouds started rolling in, and I knew it was time to scope out the eastern shores of Lake Tahoe. We hiked down a steep cliff and searched for a spot to collect the granite rocks in the foreground of the scene, which is what I wanted the most. We found such a spot and claimed it before anyone could, probably a good hour and a half before sunset.<br /> <br /> Very few places I’ve been, match the incredible beauty of a deep alpine lake like, Lake Tahoe. Sandy beaches, waves, pine forest, comfortable temperatures, ski resorts, casinos, sailing, romantic cruises at sunset, hiking trails, waterfalls, rivers to go tubing and kayaking and much more. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in the pines the 1st night and then opted for a motel right on the beach. Off-season is a great time to go. Rates are cheaper and you don’t fight the crowds.
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