This week’s Travel Tuesday highlights a whimsical umbrella art installation in Brno, Czechia.
After the rather sunny image in last week’s installment of Travel Tuesday, it’s time to prepare for a little rain. Or rather, it wasn’t really raining during that day in Brno, Czechia, when I captured this week’s image, but everyone was prepared!
Here’s that abundance of preparation…
Let it rain!
This rather fun, whimsical art installation in one of the main shopping streets in Brno is definitely a great way to bring a little color. With this splash of shades from these umbrellas, one cannot help but smile! It certainly made me smile and look up for this photo!
We focus on visible light in photography, such as the life and colors found in sandstone. The intricate hues reflect a vibrant essence of nature, for us to appreciate.
This episode is taking a bit of a departure from the various explorations, as they mostly have been somewhat outside our usual view of the world around us. I’d like to visit an approach to bringing our standard range of visible light into a bit of a different light. After all, photography is about writing with light (or writing the light).
Let’s take a look at today’s image…
Life Flowing in Rock
This is an image from my 2023 trip to Valley of Fire state park in Nevada. As we traversed part of White Dome loop, I noticed both the lines and coloring going through this sandstone. In order to get all the depth I needed in this image, I took a focus-bracketed set of images, as the individual sand particles are just about visible.
I was struck by the combination of colors and subtle hues that were in the rock, providing me with both a sense of life force within the rock and that even this sandstone formation was malleable. Life and its colors are all around us, so it’s key that we open all our senses to what Nature offers us!
Focus on Stuff, one of our Cardigan Welsh Corgis, who had a tough week and is a love regardless. He’ll take some time to recover, as we take care of him.
This week’s edition is a special one, as it’s been a rather intense week for our featured canine (and for us as well). In last week’s installment of Saturday’s Canine Companion you met Darwin, the first of our Cardigan Welsh Corgis. If you think this week’s handsome boy has a lot of Darwin’s looks, you are right. It almost caused us not to choose him, but we’re lucky enough that he chose us to be his human companions.
Here’s a look at this handsome boy…
Stuff on the Couch
When Stuff hangs with me in my office area, he loves to sit on the couch, so he can keep an eye on what I am doing. He always is on the lookout for a potential treat that might come his way.
Stuff has had a rough week, as on Wednesday he lost control of his hind legs and was in a lot of pain. We took him to the Veterinary ER that evening and got him at least a bit more comfortable until we could see a specialist on Thursday morning. An MRI revealed a bulging disk in his spine, which was repaired surgically on Thursday afternoon. As Stuff had all the feeling in his legs, he has a good prognosis to recover and get full control of his legs again after sufficient time for healing and careful recovery. He is still with the specialist at the moment, but we were told that we can bring him home tomorrow, which is great news!
During this entire ordeal, Stuff has been nothing but the loving dog that he always is; regardless of the pain, he seems to understand that all of us are trying to take care of him and make him feel all better again.
A simple iPhone photo taken in winter 2015, showcasing lovely sunlight.
After last week’s installment of iPhone Friday with a panoramic view of Temples and Towers in Zion National Park, we’re going for something really simple! Just a simple iPhone shot from the winter of 2015 with some rather lovely sunlight.
Here’s that view…
Winter Sun
Of course smartphone technology has advanced a tremendous amount over the past 10 years and a lot of the artifacts in this image won’t show up any more. Getting a Raw Max image from the iPhone 16 Pro Max delivers incredible results and fidelity.
Enjoy your smartphones and be sure to take photos!
Memories of a day spent at the port of Rotterdam with aunt Marlies, featuring ‘de Ballentent’
It’s been an intense day today, so a little tardy in getting my post on-line. In this one I’m going back to June of 2011, as I was sauntering along the port of Rotterdam with my aunt Marlies. We were simply enjoying the sights and company, as we were taking in some of the classic locales of the city of Rotterdam, one of which is featured in this post.
Here’s that classic ‘kroeg’ along the Parkkade…
De Ballentent
This establishment is named De Ballentent, which was established just after World War II at this location on the edge of Het Park, which was noted in a Travel Tuesday post a while back. First of all, the name ‘Ballentent’ is what we call a fair attraction where one throws balls at objects for prizes. Also, this establishment is what in Dutch we would call a ‘kroeg’ or a pub in English. It’s one of those places where people sit down, have a drink and chat with each other.
Time to revisit the Mediterranean, reflecting on a 2017 trip to Tuscany’s and the hamlet of Colordesoli. We did find our gelato in the neighboring town of Chiusdino!
We’re staying around the Mediterranean after last week’s excursion to Scotland in our Wednesday Window installment.
Chiusdino Streetview
During our trip to Italy in 2017, we stayed in a small town in Tuscany, named Colordesoli. When I say small, the town of Colordesoli has about 17 residents and is in the municipality of Chiusdino. This photo is from our first day’s exploration, as we needed some gelato, because we’re in Italy. Sauntering around Chiusdino we found a Gelateria and experienced our first bit of charm of the Tuscan hills. It’s just amazing there!
This is my mid-week contribution to the Monday Window thread, a creation of Ludwig Keck. To read more about Ludwig, check this page.
Reminiscence of a work trip to Israel and getting to visit Apollonia National Park. A great location with stunning views.
After last week’s visit to wonderful Scotland in our installment of Travel Tuesday, it’s another opportunity to visit a warmer climate. This week’s photo goes back just over 9 years, when I had just started working for Red Hat. My first work trip took me to the warmth of the Mediterranean coast in Israel.
Here’s a photo from that visit…
Apollonia National Park
As I was staying in Herzliya and had some time on my first day, I walked up to Apollonia National Park, which is just up the coast. This site has been occupied from around the Persian period (500 BCE) and prospered during Roman rule. The remains of a Roman villa were excavated in 1980.
During the Crusader period, a fort was constructed, the remains of which are still evident across the entire site. It’s a great location and with the gorgeous blue Mediterranean Sea, you just can’t go wrong.
Our focus is on the Infrared light spectrum, featuring an image from a May post-torrential rain event in the Northeastern US.
Welcome back to another episode, as we focus on the Infrared part of the light spectrum once again. As I was going through a couple of images over the weekend, I figured I’d take another look at some of the shots that I had captured during post-torrential rain time in May of this year. You may remember that there was an incredible amount of water in both rivers and waterfalls for that time of year in the Northeastern US.
Here’s another bit of raging water…
The Connecticut
The normally rather tranquil Connecticut river rages in this view in Turner’s Falls, Massachusetts. As a matter of fact, I have walked about a hundred yards into the river without getting my feet wet to a spot that is somewhere in the center of this image.
This photo was captured using my Canon EOS 5D MkIII, converted to cut off at 720nm by Kolari. Adobe Camera Raw was used with a CLiR White Balance profile for the camera. In Photoshop, I used my Pink-Blue channel mixer and hue/saturation presets that I have developed over time. Vibrance was used to create a bit of extra pop to the pink and blue tones.
On a pleasant Sunday, let’s take a look back at Bryce Canyon and the magnificent Natural Bridge.
As we’re enjoying another lovely Sunday, I thought it might be nice to process one of the many landscape images that are still in my backlog (almost feels like I should project manage this backlog 🙂 ). This is from last November’s visit to Utah and Nevada, where Zion, Bryce Canyon and Valley of Fire were the featured parks.
Here’s a sunny view for today…
Natural Bridge
This feature is along the wonderful drive that goes to so many great vistas. Its name is Natural Bridge, even though this is not a bridge, but rather an arch. Shooting into the sun for this one, I went for a bracketed sequence to increase the overall dynamic range.
Our first feature in this series highlights Darwin, our first Cardigan Welsh Corgi, who was our perfect ambassador to the breed.
Over the years I have photographed a lot of dogs competing in agility and also in relaxed settings, such as an occasional portrait. This has led to a collection of well over 300,000 photos, among which there have been some memorable ones. Over the next year or so, I’ll do some more work on creating a greatest hits list from this collection, which I’ll feature on Saturdays.
Here’s the inaugural contribution with a photo from 2009…
Darwin
Darwin was our first Cardigan Welsh Corgi, aptly named Llanbryn’s Theory of Evolution. We first met Darwin when he was about 6 months old, when he ran to me for protection from the pack of aunts who liked to chase him around. After an eleven hour ride home (with stops) with us, Darwin was introduced to our mutt, Tonka, who loved him right away.Darwin wasn’t so sure, about Tonka, as she was more than twice his size. They became best friends!
Darwin gained his confidence through my wife training him in agility and herding. He was our perfect introduction to the Cardigan Welsh Corgi breed, as he was forgiving of our mistakes and had an inner toughness combined with being a truly lovely companion.
