Tag: iphone

iPhone Friday

In this episode, we’re looking at some ancient graffiti in the tomb of Ramses IV in the Valley of the Kings

Yes, folks, this Friday’s post is another one from Egypt, as there are a lot of iPhone shots from that trip. In the previous Egypt-based post of iPhone Friday from May 16, 2025, we visited Luxor Temple, which was stunning. This week, I’m taking you back to the Valley of the Kings, where we were in another iPhone Friday from May 9, 2025.

Here’s a view from the entrance part of another tomb…

Ancient Graffiti

This is the entrance of the tomb of Ramses IV in the Valley of the Kings. What caught my attention here is the graffiti that we see to the right of the cartouche of Ramses. To my somewhat trained eye, it appears to be a Coptic text, which does challenge me to see if I can translate it.

Of course, if you have Coptic skills…please share!

iPhone Friday

A moment at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, one of my favorite local spots for appreciating nature.

After last week’s image from our trip to Egypt this year, it’s time for a photo that is a little closer to home. As a matter of fact, it’s just the next town over! New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill is among my top choices for a nice day of visiting, taking in Nature’s beauty and grounding myself.

Here’s a capture from last year February…

Quiet Beauty

This statue always draws my attention, where she stands among the wonderful plants with that stare into the far distance. With hair looking like it has grapes braided in and a facial expression of deep contemplation, I can’t help but wonder what she might be thinking.

iPhone Friday

In this installment we focus on Luxor Temple at night, a unique atmosphere created by dusk and darkness.

It feels like an eternity since I last posted an image from our amazing vacation in Egypt this year. Of course, time is relative, as the true eternity belongs to antiquity. This time I’m going back to one of the early stops in our travels, the stunning city of Luxor.

Here’s a lovely view…

Luxor Temple at Night

Getting to visit this temple complex at night is a privilege. The dusk and darker times provide an additional element of mystery and impressive atmosphere. In this view, we’re looking back at one of the colonnades toward Abu Haggag Mosque. This mosque is part of the temple complex.

iPhone Friday

This week’s edition revisits a trip to Egypt, highlighting the usefulness of smartphones for capturing interior shots in low light, especially in crowded tombs.

For this week’s edition, I’m taking you back to this year’s trip to Egypt. As I’ve mentioned, a good smartphone can be really useful for getting interior shots, where the lighting might not be ideal. Especially, when you’re in a crowded tomb, such as the case here, it’s a good shortcut over taking the time for a proper exposure with a ‘real’ camera.

Here’s a look inside one of the tombs…

Toward the Afterlife

In this lovely scene we witness part of the preparation for the Afterlife, done with appropriate tenderness. Of course, it’s always good for the pharaoh to get some assistance on the way and have a good relationship with Osiris.

I’m curious how many among you can identify the pharaoh, whose tomb this is. Of course, you could just read the cartouche, or you may have visited it yourself.

iPhone Friday

Sometimes all it takes is stopping by the side of the road to appreciate the stunning desert landscapes and warm light just before sunset.

This week’s edition takes me back to February of 2023, when I spent some quality time in Valley of Fire state park in Nevada. Arriving from the East coast at Las Vegas airport, I hopped in my rental car and drove toward Overton to check into my hotel. As it was still early in the day, it was exploration time!

Here’s one of the roadside vistas…

Desert Vista

As you can see, there is great landscape just about everywhere in this area, as I literally pull to the side of the road to take in this view. As it was January 31, sunset was on the early side, which made for wonderful, warm light across the desert floor.

Just another great moment to take in the view! Enjoy!

iPhone Friday

Let’s go back to a photo from a 2017 trip to Rome, specifically a classic shot outside the Colosseum.

As I looked for an image to use for this week’s installment, I came across some shots from our trip to Rome in 2017. The amusing part is that I was almost misled by the Mac OS Photo app, as it bundled my photos shot with my Fuji camera with my iPhone shots. Of course, metadata saved me!

So here’s a view in Rome…

Roma Classica

Of course, this is a classic tourist shot outside the Colosseum. What I like about this image is the sense of scale as there are people visible on the second level on the left in the image.

This also reminds me to go back through all of these vacation images to put together a more consistent set of posts about these locales. In the mean time take a look at a post from 2017, ‘A Walk across the Forum – pt.3‘which happens to be my most successful post ever thanks to WordPress highlighting it.

Monday Moment

A look at “Driftwood Convergence”, an image that continues to draw me in, despite its flaws.

Over the past week or so, I’ve revisited some of my beach-themed images, which has been a lot of fun. So when I thought about today’s post, I decided to go with another beach image, albeit it an iPhone shot.

Let’s take a look…

Driftwood Convergence

Even though I see technical issues with this shot (Sun is blown out), I still like the overall composition effect, every time I see it. The convergence of driftwood, ocean, horizon and cloud cover just pull me in. Add to that the details of the shells on the log and I still like it.

For this post, I made some adjustments to the image, as I reduced the amount of color in the clouds quite a bit and also took out some of the exposure in that area. Overall I like the effect of the blue transition from water to clouds this way a bit better.

iPhone Friday

Today we feature a photo from Sunset Point overlook in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, showcasing its breathtaking beauty.

There are many opportunities to get some great smartphone photos. As I mentioned in last week’s post, interior conditions can work really well. My other reason for using my iPhone is to remember the exact location where I take a shot. Today is one of those shots, which came out better than I expected.

Let’s take a look at this image…

Sunset Point

The location here is at Sunset Point overlook in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah (please support our National Park Rangers!). The location is just gorgeous and inspiring.

iPhone Friday

A moment at Dendera with Nut, the sky goddess, preparing to swallow the Aten, symbolizing her daily ritual in Egyptian mythology.

While in Egypt I took a significant amount of photographs with my iPhone 16 Pro Max. There are 2 simple reasons for this: lower light performance is easier to manage than with most cameras and RAW Max! The ability to shoot and not lose to compression is magnificent, as it gives much more post-processing freedom.

Here is one of the shots…

Nut in Hathor’s Temple

In this image we see Nut, goddess of the sky, heavens and stars, getting ready to swallow the Aten. In Egyptian mythology Nut swallows the sun-god at the end of every day and gives birth to him each morning.

I’ll do a more complete post or two on the Dendera Temple Complex, as it is a magnificent site and we got to spend some quality time here.

iPhone Friday – Egypt

As we return from the grand Egyptian vacation, a highlight from the Grand Egyptian Museum.

As we came back home rather late last night (or early this morning) from our Egyptian vacation, a quick iPhone Friday post. During our last day in Cairo we spent a little bit of time at the Grand Egyptian Museum, aka the GEM. At this time, the full museum is not open yet, but even so, it is a truly stunning museum.

Here’s one quick photo from the GEM…

Akhenaten

Of course, we know this pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty for two things in particular. His establishment of a monotheistic religion of the Aten, or Sun Disk is the first. Although, he might be best known for his queen, Nefertiti, whose beauty has captured the imagination of many across the ages. Her bust can be seen in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

As the first establisher of monotheism, Akhenaten made many enemies among the priest class, which got him to be almost lost to history. Upon his death, his monuments were dismantled, destroyed or hidden, and polytheistic practices were restored.