Favorite pictures
Take a look at the selection of my favorite shots from around the world and click through to my extensive galleries on Flickr.
A postcard from Chicago
DuSable Bridge leading practically into the Tribune Tower is one of the most commonly taken perspectives in Chicago, to a point where it deserves the designation of iconic. My take on it is neither original nor superior to any other photographs of this view. It scores pretty high on my personal scale of “like a
A place in my memory: Lake Como
This picture is comparatively minimalist, imperfectly composed, and not related to any specific occurrence. Rather, it offers a general recollection of tranquility that I have come to associate with the incomparable Lake Como. It should be noted that my only to-date stay on Lake Como occurred at the height of the tourist season. There were
Trees in spring
The entry to our house is guarded by beautiful trees that are incredibly colorful when in bloom. Here are some middling attempts to catch that in photos.
A bit of Philadelphia
One of Kimmy’s volleyball tournaments took place a couple of weeks ago in Philadelphia. I have been to the City of Brotherly Love many times before, but always with a very specific intraday purpose in mind, which limited my photographic exploits. This time around, I gave myself a bigger window to take pictures. In fact,
A place in my memory: Mottingham
Majority of my readers would most likely not know Mottingham. Do you mean Nottingham, of Robin Hood fame?… Native Londoners may recognize the name of the village but give me a quizzical look as to why I would choose to highlight a rather nondescript location instead of one of hundreds of places that are famous
A rainy morning in Dublin
My ambitious schedule on the recent trip to the British Isles left me only the morning of the day of the departure for a stroll around central Dublin. To a certain degree, that was appropriate: Dublin is a pleasant enough town, but it is not generously endowed with can’t-miss sights. Two or three museum visits
Chasing World Heritage: #103 (Brú na Bóinne)
Brú na Bóinne is an archaeological site recognized on the World Heritage list as the largest concentration of megalithic art in Europe. In terms of visual gratification it does not compare at all to the magnificent vistas of places such as the Causeway Coast. And yet, it is the significance of the scientific and construction
A brief look at Manchester, England
My recent trip to the British Isles was centered on a football game. FC Rostov was playing Manchester United in the Europa League playoffs. I have never been a United fan, but their stadium – the Old Trafford, known with a shade of hyperbole as “The Theater of Dreams” – is among the most storied
Chasing World Heritage: #102 (Giant’s Causeway)
I had an unexpected extra free day in Dublin. The weather was gorgeous – spring at its best. By all rights, I should have been exploring the city with my camera. Instead, obsessed World Heritage chaser that I am, I got into a car and drove half the island of Eire to see a unique
Memorable shots: Orava Castle
Wayne Gretzky famously said, You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. He meant hockey, of course, but this adage is wholly applicable to photography. Sometimes a shot taken under conditions where no one can expect a good result comes out pretty well. But it is given a chance to come out well only
A place in my memory: Quebec City
My predilection for landmark photography notwithstanding, I take a fair number of “picturesque detail” shots. They rarely end up among my favorites, precisely because they tend not to clearly associate with a specific place and therefore rarely support a specific memory. But this colorful picture taken in Quartier Petit-Champlain in Quebec City recalls the wonderful
Memorable shots: Torbjørnskjer
This picture is of a small island of Torbjørnskjer near the mouth of Oslofjord where it joins with the North Sea. It represents a departure from my usual style of photo-processing. Taken at dawn from windswept upper deck of the overnight Copenhagen-Oslo ferry, it looked unremarkable in its original form. But softening the focus, along
A place in my memory: Edinburgh
I have reached the end of the stream of photographs from my most recent expeditions, which means that I will be picking up again the loose series of memorable travel shots from my past journeys. There are over a hundred of them in the Lightroom collection that I set aside for this purpose, so you
Linz, Austria
I focused on Vienna and its Christmas markets on my recent trip to Austria, but also took day-trips to explore Graz and Semmering Railway. I also spent a day in Linz, which was probably a bit of an overkill for the overall trip. Don’t get me wrong – Linz is a pretty and pleasant town,
Vienna
I ended my favorite sights vignette of Vienna several years ago with a promise to take hundreds of pictures on my next trip to the city. Such trip came about recently – and I fulfilled that promise to a certain degree. I now have a reasonable amount of good shots from the Austrian capital. And
Chasing World Heritage: #101 (Graz)
Graz’s recognition on the World Heritage list is primarily due to the treasure trove of its architecture in the historic center. It is literally one of those towns whose streets you want to explore over and over again. I started my acquaintance with the town at Schloss Eggenberg, located some distance from the center but
Chasing World Heritage: #100 (Semmering Railway)
Recognized as a masterpiece of civil engineering, Semmering Railway is a 41-km-long stretch of tracks across Alpine landscape. I ended up traversing it twice in both directions on my recent trip to Austria. The way from Vienna to Graz lies over the same tracks, with the speedy train only slowing down on the most challenging
Chasing World Heritage: #99 (Schönbrunn)
Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens, on the World Heritage list as an outstanding example of Baroque architecture and design, should have been #40 on my chronological tracker of visited sites. On the first visit to Vienna, in 2005, it was initially part of the itinerary. But after spending a day exploring all that Alte Burg could
Madrid
You probably recall that I went to Madrid in late October for the expressed purpose of seeing a football match. Of course, I could not miss an opportunity to improve my collection of Madrid photos. So, I walked around the city and looked in to a number of major points of interest. I’ll start not