Here is a picture I am pretty fond of, from our recent trip to Newport.
A “dramatic-popper” and then a vignette presets in Lightroom followed by Lab Color sharpening in Photoshop combined to create a pleasing result out of an unremarkable shot. Feel free to enlarge and compare the two.
I first came across Trey Ratcliff’s website, Stuck In Customs, about a year ago. Given his huge worldwide following and my general predisposition to travel photography, it is quite surprising that I did not discover his work earlier.
I almost instantly became a fan of HDR photography. Scroll through Trey’s blog or look for examples on the first page of his tutorial and you may just join me in that.
It is all a matter of taste and opinion, of course. Your sensibilities may reject vivid colors that stretch the appearance of “natural” or you may lean towards purity of photography as a capture-the-moment art that disdains enhancements that can be achieved in post-processing.
Me, I love vibrancy and sparkle of colorful pictures, especially when it comes to landscapes. Plus, I am just an amateur photographer with a reasonable but not too advanced DSLR kit – I’d be a fool to rely solely on my skills and my equipment if I wanted good pictures; instead, quite often I have to rescue bad photographs from the trash can by extensively post-processing them.
Here is an example from our recent trip to Newport, RI. I liked the way this street looked under rainy skies but despite my best efforts – or, maybe, because of them – the picture came out horribly underexposed and dull.
I decided to play with it in Lightroom. And yes, I exaggerated some of the colors and had to give the photo a bit of a “painterly” look in order to smooth out the noise that appeared during processing, but I ended up with something that I find rather worthy of not only keeping in my archive but also of putting out there for people to see.
That was not HDR in its most-used form, which involves combining exposure-bracketed images. Capturing images in RAW allows me to work on separate parts of the tonal range without affecting the rest of the photograph – and since I am stretching the tonal range of the original, I am technically creating a more dynamic range which fits the definition of HDR. I found in my experiments that when the scene is lighted evenly, I do not get a significant improvement from combining under- and over-exposed shots into an HDR photograph over what I can accomplish post-processing a single 0EV RAW shot. But when shadows and highlights are prominent (which is most frequently present in expansive landscapes or whenever the clouds or the foliage cast shades on parts of the scene), working with a bracketed set is the shortcut for getting vivid HDR photographs.
Here’s a not so great example. (It is not meant to dazzle, just to illustrate. When I get to the level of being able to dazzle, you will be the first to know.)
This scene attracted me because of the contrast of the bright sunlight on the far shore and menacing clouds practically above me. My cheapo lenses and middling skills combined to create this fairly flat photo.
Via Lightroom and Photoshop, I managed to give the photo quite a bit of pop.
Took me not that long, but long enough so that I decided to leave too dark shadows on the rocks on the left and also to not bother with the ripples in the lower right corner that I found a bit distracting. (Do not forget, this is all RAW processing – the tools at my disposal allow for fairly straight-forward ways to correct these things, I just chose not to do them for the purposes of this exercise.)
When I took the original shot, I also bracketed it with -2EV and +2EV variations of exactly the same scene. Combining the three in Photomatix software using one of the presets immediately presented me with the image below. (Okay, I also straightened the horizon in Photoshop afterwards, but no other enhancements.)
This is certainly an unfinished product yet. I can think of a couple of things I can improve. It may ultimately get me exactly to where I can arrive via further enhancements of the original 0EV RAW file. But it surely gives me a wider room for experimenting (if I chose to do so with the full tonal range of three different-exposure shots) and also jumps closer to my desired outcome in shorter time. Amazing!
You might be able to guess by now what the title of this post is meant to convey.
In the last few months I’ve recaptured my fascination with photography, and I can even imagine posting to this blog once in a while with some of my photo attempts. If you kept my feed in your aggregator or simply made use of clicking through to my posts in the past via Facebook, you certainly will be overjoyed to hear about this revival. Or not. But regardless of your reaction, Trey Ratcliff deserves a lot of credit for reigniting my interest in photography.
So I made it to my vanity goal – this is my 1000th post.
It took me six and a half years, a pace of roughly 3 posts every week. Surprisingly, this is very close to the pace I initially established at the beginning of this endeavor, but obviously well below my peak from late 2007 through mid-2009. Since that peak, my output dwindled to barely noticeable; the last 50 of the thousand took over a year to get through.
Those readers who stuck with me through the latter years will recall that I’ve been dropping enough hints that I was no longer finding blog-writing an enjoyable – or, to be blunt, worthwhile – exercise. I got into blogging when it was a common fad and when I had a somewhat uncommon angle to work. It has now been longer since our return to the States from England than the duration of our entire stay in England, so the angle is long gone. I cannot work up enthusiasm for any other angles. And the fad is clearly on its way out.
Majority of the people whom I got to know on interwebs through their online writings are on a similar curve with respect to their own blogging. A few are ahead of me – they already stopped updating their blogs. Many are mirroring my trajectory down from the peak output, having significantly reduced the frequency of new content. They mostly migrated to Facebook or Twitter, opting for shorthand writing instead of essaying. As far as I can see, only the professionals are continuing strong in the regular blogging department – that is, people who either directly make money from their blogs or who use blogging as cultivating ground for the prospective buyers of their commercially available products. It is needless to point out that those people are significantly more talented than me in the creative writing department.
The long and the short of it, this is the end of the road for my blogging in its current shape. I might get a sudden epiphany of what my new angle could be or I might even wake up one day and feel a renewed vigor to try my hand at writing, but I would not bet much money on it actually happening. I appreciate all the encouragement I received from friends over the years, but in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, a man’s got to know his limitations, and one of mine is: I am only an indifferent writer. If I managed to entertain people or provide a useful insight in the past, it was decidedly not due to any superior wordsmith skills.
So, now, having achieved a symbolic, if meaningless, milestone, I am going to call it.
The existing content will stay in this same place in the short term. I have not yet considered what I will do with the hosting and the domain – since the costs are fairly minimal, I might just keep them intact for the foreseeable future. Comments are being closed off, but I am reachable via email at the link on the sidebar in case any of my old posts triggers a question from someone. And while I do not maintain an overly active presence on social networks, I am reachable there too.
With that, I bid you all good luck and farewell. May you always find interesting reads elsewhere!
In our years of living in London we took a fair amount of day trips to interesting locations in the South East region of England. There are at least a couple dozen places to see within an easy driving distance from London – and here is a handful of my favorites.
The first picture is a side view of the charming Hever Castle, along with a portion of its estate.
The castle itself is quite interesting, but we visited the place several times just for its grounds, complete with beautiful formal gardens and a quiet boating lake.
Next is a shot taken in the gardens of Sissinghurst Castle.
The gardens are the primary attraction themselves, combining orchestrated beauty with serene nature. The castle tower in the background serves as a magnificent elevated viewpoint.
Next is the view onto the English Channel from the ramparts of the Dover Castle.
Dover was one of our first day-trip destinations soon after settling in London. This shot perfectly captures for me the essence of the crisp November day on the coast.
Then, there is Windsor Castle.
It is not Versailles, but it is definitely in the exclusive company of the most impressive royal castles of the Old World.
And here is one of my most favorite places in England – banks of river Cam in Cambridge.
Cambridge is north of London and belongs to East Anglia – a different region from what is known as South East England. But its proximity to London made it accessible to us and we visited on several occasions. It joins Hever Castle as our most frequent day trip destinations around London and the two form perfect bookends to this brief photo-essay.
As much as I prefer to go and visit new places, returning back to something that I love would be a grand occasion. I wonder if I ever get the chance.
Despite all of the attempts the tour-books made to convince me that there is plenty to do and see in Pisa beyond its singular top sight, it remains a one-location city for me after several visits. The fantastic Piazza del Duomo (also colloquially known as Piazza dei Miracoli), the home of the Cathedral, the Baptistery, and the famous Leaning Tower, is one place that I come back to again and again without bothering to see anything else in town.
Here is my favorite view onto the plaza, through the arched gateway in town walls, looking at the exquisite tower shyly peeking from behind the cathedral.
And here is a tower close-up.
The vastness of the square can be recognized in this view, a perspective from the top of the tower.
I have been up there twice. My general love of elevated viewpoints aside, making an extra effort in terms of advance ticket purchase and timed entry is very much worth it when it comes to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Anyone who’s been to Pisa undoubtedly made a photograph of her or himself holding up the Leaning Tower lest it crashes to the ground there and then. Banal, I suppose. And yet strangely symbolic of experiencing the sight of the plaza and of the famous buildings. So, here is one of us making sure the tower keeps standing.
She’s done an excellent job, methinks. We might yet contribute to the tower’s upright state again this year.
There are places that I visited in the past that associate in my memory with a very specific sight or feature.
Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber is a picture-perfect medieval town in Bavaria that owns its remarkable state of preservation to a significant diplomatic effort in the late stages of the Second World War to spare it from a major assault. As I mentioned elsewhere in this series, my childhood was infused with fairly tales (and later, more serious literature) set in medieval Europe, and Rothenburg hits the bulls-eye for me in terms of making those fairy-tale backgrounds come to life.
The gold-plated signs adorning craftsmen boutiques around the city epitomize the feel of the small medieval town for me. When combined with an architectural masterpiece such as one of the city clocktowers, a craftsman’s sign is my perfect favorite sight of Rothenburg.
We have spent a significant amount of time on the Costa Brava over the course of a couple of summers, and know the region quite well. It is also one of the most-photographed locations in our archives, giving me a pretty large selection to choose from for the purposes of this essay.
Here is my hands-down most favorite sight on all of Costa Brava.
It is the view towards the marina from our rented villa in the hills above the town of L’Estartit. I spent long hours on the villa balcony, aided by salchichón and local red wine, alternating reading with gazing onto the sea. (My family would likely be at the beach during that time, but I much prefer quiet repose to beach-going.)
Here is a closer view over town and marina towards the small group of islets called Illes Medes.
I have never actually ventured close to the islands myself, but the rest of the family took journeys around Illes Medes, and we have several excellent close-ups of the rocks. Here is one.
The towns along the coast and also several miles inland are full of typical local architecture and delights. We have a couple of favorites in always stunning and yet amazingly peaceful Pals, or sometimes overcrowded but lively Begur, but step into Peratallada or Ullastret or the historic part of Torroella de Montgri, among others, and you will be infused with the unique Catalan atmosphere. Here is a small selection of sights.
And why not, here is another perspective from the same spot as in the opening shot but at a different time of day.
I did say it was my hands-down favorite, didn’t I?
A bit of a misnomer, the title of this post. While I certainly want to include another country in this series at this point, we have neither spent significant time in Ireland, nor photographed it enough, in order to properly designate destinations or sights as “favorite”.
Nonetheless, Glendalough Valley, within easy driving distance from Dublin, is remarkably scenic and serene, headlined by the medieval monastic site with a famous round tower. Below are a few of my favorite shots taken on our visit there.
Many tour-books call San Gimignano “Manhattan of Tuscany”, on account of a dozen or so surviving medieval towers that form a veritable skyscraper cluster. The towers attract huge crowds of tourists to the town whose ancient core remains attractive and picturesque even when being overrun by sightseeing hordes.
Here is a view to the town from a distance.
There are two towers that stand pretty close to each other and, while they actually differ in size and would not be called remarkable on their own merit, from a number of angles they bear certain resemblance to an erstwhile New York City landmark.
Climbing the tallest of San Gimignano’s towers, Torre Grossa, is highly recommended, especially since it is not as taxing as tower climbs elsewhere. The views over the Tuscan countryside are amazing. Here is one prominently featuring the not-so-twin towers.
This line of houses on the main square, Piazza della Cisterna, is one of my favorite sights in town.
San Gimignano is small, and we visited enough times to be able to explore areas beyond standard tourist routes. On one quiet street, we found a row of doors guarded by sculpted heads. Here is a fragment.
And this is just so unmistakably “Tuscan hill-town” that I like this shot even though there is clearly nothing exceptional about it.
Tuscan towns are among the most-frequently-visited destinations in our travels. That form is set to continue this year.
Unlike in Bruges, we only spent short time in Ghent, a half-day at the tail end of a weekend-long Belgium-centric getaway while living in England. The town certainly deserves more attention. While not as picturesque as Bruges overall, it does offer several superb attractions and more than a few locations worthy of a photograph.
My favorite sight of Ghent is unsurprisingly its central quay, Graslei.
There is something fairy-tale about this view. Maybe, it’s a vestige of my childhood. Having read a lot of Hans-Cristian Andersen tales when I was little, I always imagined European towns to look something like this, gabled houses and all.
As is my custom, I climbed to the top of Ghent’s Belfort to absorb views over town. The perspective onto St Bavo Cathedral is pretty impressive.
Another place to come back to eventually.
I do not count Berlin among my favorite destinations. I am aware of its reputation of a happening and up-and-coming place, and there are certainly more than a handful of attractions worthy of a visit in the German capital, but on balance it fails to project sufficient draw for me. A completely subjective personal opinion, mind you.
One sight that I can call a favorite in Berlin is that of the Neptune Fountain, located in a cluster of landmarks around Schlossplatz, with the dome of the Berlin Cathedral in the background.
One of the symbols of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate, also merits inclusion. During our visit in 2005, there was an exhibition commemorating 60 years since the end of the second World War that juxtaposed the ruins of 1945 Berlin landscape with its modern lines. Taken from not the most evocative angle, but still quite powerful.
Reichstag would be another inclusion, but I fail to locate a good picture in our archives. That might be my main reason to consider visiting Berlin again.
Segovia – within an easy day-trip distance from Madrid – is one of those picturesque locations, where every turn around a corner brings you to a great photographic spot. It boasts a few major can’t-miss sights, but it is the often flamboyant house ornamentation on its narrow pedestrian streets that leaves the most lasting impression.
I will start with the iconic sight of Segovia – that of its aqueduct.
The 2,000-years-old masterpiece is one of the best-preserved artifacts of the Roman empire in all of Europe. The old town, with its jumble of roofs and colorful exteriors, starts right by the aqueduct.
Alcázar of Segovia frequently finds its way on the lists of the most striking castles in the world. It is without a doubt impressive.
I especially like the view over the old town from the high towers of the Alcázar.
And then, there are the streets and squares in the city core, lined or surrounded by buildings of mostly uniform height but far from uniform look. Here is a square off busy pedestrian Calle Juderia Vieja.
Walking up the same street, one can enjoy the sight of the exquisite domes of the Cathedral and its belltower, in the framing of stuccoed buildings.
Here are a couple more perspectives of the houses found on Segovia streets.
A gem of a city!
Bath is an elegant city in south-west England, famous for its roman baths (hence, the name of the town) as well as for its Georgian architecture (dating from the 18th century, when England had a succession of kings named George, hence, the moniker). It has a fair share of attractions, impressive sights, and visual delights, from the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, founded all the way back in 7th century and commonly known as Bath Abbey, to the Roman Baths built atop hot springs that were discovered nearly 3000 years ago, to the flowers of the Parade Gardens, to the semi-circular majesty of the Royal Crescent.
Since we combined a stay in Bath with a visit to Stonehenge, even though the latter is located quite some distance from the former, I am including a Stonehenge shot in this post. After all, I do not have much material for a separate “favorites of south-west England” entry, and Stonehenge is too wonderful a sight to be omitted from this series.
This is not a new clip, it’s been around for nearly two years. In fact, I am pretty sure that most of my audience have seen it in the past. But it’s wa-a-a-y cool. And absent any original thought at this here blog, it certainly serves as a an upgrade in terms of entertainment.
Enjoy!
If there was a town that I could fall in love with after a single short visit, Aix was it. I am naturally predisposed to historic places with centuries-old architecture, small, even intimate confines, and atmospheric quality. Aix-en-Provence is all that.
This one shot of a fountain and a cafè on a small square tucked away from motorized traffic perfectly explains what I like about Aix.
There are a few of those in the old part of the town.
Just as there are many streets such as the one below on the left, with street-side restaurants taking up most of the sidewalk. Remarkable edifices, such as the Clock Tower in the shot below on the right, obviously enhance the town’s appearance.
Too bad our visit to Aix had to be limited to only a few hours. The next one will be longer, I’m sure.
It’s hard to avoid using Alhambra as a dominating topic when it comes to Granada. The magnificent palace and fortress complex is a must-see destination for any visitor to Granada. Not surprisingly, some of my most favorite sights of Granada are those found within the walls of Alhambra.
Starting with this view that only hints at architectural magnificence spread across bright and beautiful gardens.
This corner of Alhambra is called the Partal. The five-arched portico is probably the oldest standing part of the complex. Together with the reflective pool in front of it, it is a place to linger at.
Generalife, a private retreat of the Emir located some distance from the main palace is just as visually arresting as the core of Alhambra. The palace may be comparatively subdued in its glory, but the courtyards, the gardens, and the fragments of Moorish ornamentation are none the less magnificent.
Then, there are the vistas. Here is the view of the main Alhambra complex from the terraces of Generalife.
And adjusting your field of view to the right, you can see the white-washed Albaicin on the hill opposite Alhambra, and Sierra Nevada mountains in the background.
My opening statement notwithstanding, it would be unfair to shortchange the Old Town of Granada by focusing only on Alhambra and Generalife. There is plenty of historic architecture, fun narrow alleyways lined by [tourist-oriented] crafts shops, attractive squares and monuments. Here is one of the squares surrounding the Cathedral.
The next shot is not just a favorite sight but veritably a favorite photograph. It is the church of Santa Ana that stands in the corner of the vast square that is called Plaza Nueva in one half and Plaza Santa Ana in another. I am fond of this shot because it required minimal post-processing while coming out really sharp and dramatic.
The torrential downpour started just a few minutes after this shot was taken.
I’ll end this Granada essay with a nod to a can’t-miss activity. While churros con chocolate can be found all over Spain, the ones we had in Granada on several occasions are the best we ever had. On the main square of the Old Town, Bib-Rambla, there is an eponymous cafè to which we returned several times over the years solely for the purpose of ordering their churros. Here’s a shot of Becky enjoying the treat on one such occasion.
Great city, good times!
It defies explanation, but on my half a dozen visits to Siena I never managed a good photographic shot of its famous main square, Piazza del Campo. I have plenty of shots taken on the square, but none that would relay the magnificence of its enclosed shell-shaped expanse. Inexcusable, really.
At least the main edifices located on the Piazza, the palace and the exquisite bell-tower, feature prominently in our photo archives.
Although it might entail a period of waiting in line, I highly recommend attempting to climb to the top of the tower. Even forgetting my natural inclination to explore the highest viewpoint at any locale, the rooftop views from Torre del Mangia are simply magnificent.
Siena’s Cathedral is among the most ornate and exuberant ones in Christendom. Here’s a fragment of its façade.
Despite being a significant tourist destination in its own right, Siena happens to be a living city, with plenty of regular life going on in the historic city center as a quiet contrast to the hustle and bustle of main tourist sights. Many a street view such as the one below can be found in various parts of the city core.
And, of course, after Il Palio is run, the winning contrada colors dominate major city arteries. These are the colors of Bruco (caterpillar). We happened to be in Siena right after its last victory in 2008.
A return visit to Siena (and Tuscany as a whole) is already planned for next year, soon after the Palio is held. I wonder which colors will greet us.
Kimmy finds ways to make her little sister occupied – why not make a short video together?
As I am limping towards a milestone of 1000 posts (still over a dozen to go), I realize how many obvious topics come up around me every day that I could use as blog fodder. And yet, as has been painfully obvious for quite some time now, I just cannot work up much interest for doing this writing thing. Too many other things in my life demand attention.
There was Sandy. Posting my own local pictures of fallen trees, damaged houses, blocked roads, or remarking that we came through relatively unscathed, or recounting our delightful impromptu weekend getaway to the DC area that we would not have taken if not for lack of electricity in our house – I could make a whole week of posts out of that. A month, more like.
There was the election. Although I long ago forsworn any political discourse on these premises, this year’s ballot marked a significant occasion for my eldest child: Her first trip to the voting booth. Just that by itself should have given birth to at least one blog post. The slightly amusing laid-back set-up of the voting precinct in our backwater suburbia could well be another.
There was the Nor’easter. Tons of snow, more damage to the trees, more power outages just a week after the famous perfect storm – perfect inroads to some diatribe about upcoming apocalypse.
There is Cryptonomicon. I’ve been struggling with it for a couple of months now – not in terms of finding it hard to read, but in terms of finding time to read, period. It touches on seemingly every intellectual subject known to humankind and I have quite a few thoughts on those. A whole recurring category of deep thoughts, veritably.
And yet, I can’t force myself to spend time on composing any of those. I am likely beyond the point of no return for reviving my erstwhile blogging output.
It’s probably to the best.
We went to Cologne – or Köln, in German – for two short occasions, every time with a specific goal in mind. The first, an intraday stop on a big journey around Germany, was solely to explore the famed Cologne Cathedral, one of the most impressive Gothic churches in the world. The second consisted of a weekend of browsing Christmas markets that abound in the city.
It is no surprise then, that my favorite sight of the city combines the reasons for those two trips. Here is the view of the Cathedral towering above the market on the square if front of it.
Following significant destruction during the Second World War, the town has been rebuilt with a notable lack of impressive architecture. The Cathedral, however, is not the only architectural marvel in town. Cologne also boasts twelve Romanesque churches around Aldstadt, its Old Town area. They customarily provide winning background to perspectives along various streets, such as the one below, presided by the Church of St Aposteln.
Even in places that are not major destinations on their own, I can always find something fascinating. That’s what makes travel such a passion of mine.