Photo Story
One quickly discovers walking around Venice Beach (I did nearly 8 miles of walking in one day!) that it is a city of many murals. Some can take up the entire side of a 3-story building, like in the above, and are very public and visible. That would seem to make the most sense to put a mural where many people can see it.
Read MoreKiki and I suddenly left Florida one Saturday night in early November. I had long been wanting to do it, but with such things sometimes they just happen all of a sudden due to the sudden rising of circumstances. We did have a destination though when setting out -- Iowa. To get there it brought us through a few U.S. landmarks that I had never been to before. One of them was Gateway Arch in St. Louis. This will be the first post in a series called Westward Bound.
Read MoreKiki and I took a weekend trip over to the West Palm Beach area of Florida to check out a dog beach near Juno. The night before we happened to come across a scenic ocean park that lead to a pier. Though this is officially the Lake Worth Pier, it is most know for Benny's on the Beach restaurant. I liked how this pier retains the classic look of old Florida from the 1960s. It suits the beach scene well better than modern looking piers and structure on piers.
Read MoreThese fireworks were not the first flashes of light in the skies over Cape Coral on 4th of July 2016 evening. Those were from the lightning sparking horizontally through the clouds. Still, Red White & Boom 2016 started sharply at 9:30pm with only a very light sprinkle. Toward the end the rain did start coming down a little harder and you can see the water droplets that got on my camera lens in the lower right corners of the two photos below.
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Inokashira Park with sakura cherry blossoms in full bloom - Olympus 5060 digital cameraIt is the first day of spring, which in Florida does not have as much meaning as there is never really any winter so it's not a date to look forward to like it is in most parts of the world. This is expecially true in Tokyo, where the end of March brought my favorite (and millions of others' favorite) time of year, cherry blossom season. Sakura (the Japanese word, also a popular name for girls) bloom for about two weeks. If things time out right, that means getting two weekends to enjoy the pinkish white blossoms. Above is Inokashera Park, a place to see sakura in a more natural setting from land or water. Many couples go out on small boats, but the legend of the pond is that any couple that does is then doomed to breakup!
The old & new of the Shinjuku area of Tokyo Japan with a river lined with cherry blossoms.This photo is from my neighborhood in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo and highlights the contrast of the ultra-modern, the traditional and the natural world all in one, which is why of all places I lived abroad, Shinjuku was the only one I felt a real connection with. On this weekday, I had the cement river walkway all to myself.
Overlooking a pond in Shinjuku Gyoen during cherry blossom season
The pond and overlook temple above are in Shinjuku Gyoen, perhaps the most esteemed place to go to see sakura. This park was within walking distance from my apartment and my favorite place to escape the city while still being in the heart of the city.
I thought this ceiling was very interesting looking in a Tampa hotel - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRThis image is from a wedding I photographed a few years ago in a hotel in Tampa. I was at the reception area early to shoot the table settings, wedding cake, etc. Upon entering the ballroom I was immediately taken with the ceiling. To me it looked like a UFO floating right on top of everything. In editing I added some effects to heighten the alien look to the ceiling and room in general of this HDR image. What does it look like to you?
A view from Tampa Jet Center with Raymond James Stadium home to the Bucs in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRI have had the chance to attend several events at the Tampa Jet Center in Florida. Most of my photographs focus on the cars and people at those events, but I liked the airport setting itself and as one cannot exactly stroll onto a runway and make photographs legally in most situations, I appreciated the unique opportunity I had to shoot on the tarmac. Luckily Mother Nature provided a nice background as the setting sun sent some orange light into the clouds at dusk that evening.
