28
Oct
2009
Harvest Haul
Ah, time for a bit of a catch up post!
First off, my book Egyptian Dreams, which you may recall is available through Blurb, is entered in a contest at Blurb. I would MUCH appreciate if you could take a few moments to go and vote for it if you have not already done so!
For those who have already voted, thank you so much! For those who haven’t yet, there’s less than 2 weeks, what are you waiting for!?
As long as I’m shamelessly self promoting, I felt like I should point out that there’s currently a special running at Zazzle, another online Print on Demand shop where I host some of my work. It runs through 10/31 and is appropriately 10.31% off any purchase. So, a great time to start or finish your Christmas shopping and save some money on the way. To take advantage of this special, enter the code TRICKORTREAT
at checkout. Here’s all the lovely tiny print for the offer.
* 10.31% of the net sale price will be deducted when the coupon code TRICKORTREAT is applied at checkout. For most products, the net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). For Zazzle Custom Stamps, the net sale price is the difference between the price of the Zazzle Custom Stamps (excluding shipping and taxes) and the face value of the postage. Offer is valid from October 19, 2009 at 12:01am PT through October 31, 2009 at 11:59pm PT. This promotional offer may not combine with any other Zazzle promotional or discount offers.
A little less self-promotion but partially so is reminding everyone that this weekend is Montezuma’s annual Fall Festival, known as the Beaver Creek Festival. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather because I’m told that the 15th annual festival should be a good one! And I will have a booth there – that’s all my self promotion for one post! Here’s a quote from one of the organizers about what to expect this year.
There will be GREAT children’s games, yummy food, cool art, excellent musicians, and worthwhile prizes! Don’t forget the Duck Doodle: $300 would come in handy for Christmas Shopping!
Okay, now for a few photos! I completed editing and uploading photos from my brief stop in Savannah last month. I still have to work on the NYC photos, but at least some progress. Savannah was beautiful and I hope you’ll all enjoy some photos!
Savannah River Sunrise
From my first morning in Savannah, Sunrise on the River near Battery Hamilton. It was a bit subdued by the clouds but pretty nonetheless!
Tybee Light at Dawn
Tybee light was beautiful in the morning and I love the cottage that the lighthouse keeper lived in back in the day. It’s been restored inside. All in all a very well kept monument to the history of the area.
East River Street
I didn’t get a lot of photos of the town itself. Spent so much time out on the coast or on the bus that I never really explored like I’d like to, but this photo from East River Street gives you a bit of a feel.
Cathedral of St. John The Baptist
Savannah’s lovely cathedral – simply gorgeous – be sure to check out the gallery for some interior shots as well!
Moon River
The natural beauty near Savannah actually inspired several Panorama shots. It’s hard to pick just one to show here, but this is Moon River near dusk and the colors were very special!
Angels of Bonaventure
In case you’re unaware the statue on the front of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was photographed in Bonaventure. Not the oldest cemetery in Savannah but a lovely one! The statue from the book had to be moved to protect it but there’s still some incredible statuary there!
Sunset Sea
My last evening in Savannah was back out to Tybee Island where I enjoyed strolling the beach. It was a subdued sky with a lot of clouds, but the colors and light was still pretty perfect. The above is a long exposure shot. I’ll pick one more, but I hope you’ll go check them all out. It’s hard for me to pick out my own favorites never mind yours!
Tybee Blue
One of the last from that evening on Tybee, the sun had sunk down and twilight was almost a solid cast of blue from the sky to the reflecting water on the beach.
For more of Savannah, check out the Savannah gallery.
17
Sep
2009
St Pauls Cathedral
St Paul’s Cathedral is certainly an icon of London. The images of the great dome standing above the smoke of WWII is certainly one that will live in our collective conscious for years to come. Officially the Cathedral Church of Paul the Apostle, the church is at least the 5th St Paul’s to sit on this site. The first according to Bede was built in 604 AD.
Crossing Over
This photo was taken from the pedestrian bridge that connects Bankside with the City of London. It’s taken at a very shallow depth of field in order to accomplish the dreamy feel of this image. The only thing in focus at all is the dome and the mass of humanity before it become little more than a blur. This church was built after the last was destroyed by the great fire in 1666. The fire leveled the city but remarkably took no human life. The fire shaped everything about the city we know today, built in stone to lower the risk of fire consuming it. The dome was a point of much debate. The architect, the renowned Sir Christopher Wren was determined that the new St Paul’s would have a dome like St. Peter’s in Rome. Several iterations of the design were rejected before Wren decided not to show any more models to the public for criticism. When it was completed in 1708, some loved it, some hated it, and others couldn’t care either way. Today it’s hard to imagine the sky line of the old city without it.
Old And New
Another view of St. Paul’s From Bankside. The view is much changed since WWII. The buildings adjacent to the Thames were destroyed in the war and newer generations of buildings have grown up between the River and the cathedral. And more recently, the millennium bridge was built as a pedestrian walkway to connect the City of London with Bankside on opposite sides of the River Thames. London as a city has never gotten stuck in a particular style. As a growing metropolis, new and exciting architecture is always fighting for space beside the classics. Much as the classics, these are sometimes met with mixed reactions. When the Millennium bridge was completed in 2000, there was a noticeable wobble and the bridge was closed, repaired and reopened in 2002. This led to its nickname The Wobbly Bridge.
Iconic St Paul's
Another black and white image of St. Paul’s. The depth of field and processing was intended to provide a little of the feel of the old images of St. Paul’s amidst the smoke from the Blitz of WWII.
To see more of London and Great Britain, please check out my Britain Prints Gallery.
15
Sep
2009
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge (informally Cambridge University) is the second oldest university in the English speaking world. It was established in 1209 and consists of 31 colleges dotted around the landscape of modern Cambridge.
Kings From The Cam
The Backs is the view of the colleges from the River Cam. The chapel on the right is quintessential Cambridge. This Chapel is both the symbol of Kings and the logo of the city council of Cambridge. Although locally the college is simply referred to as Kings, this is King’s College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge. Established in 1441 by Henry VI, the gothic styled chapel took a hundred years to complete.
Kings
This is the street side view of Kings – you can really feel that gorgeous gothic style in this black and white print. The exterior height of the chapel is 94 feet tall and the interior ceiling contains the largest fan vaulting in the world.
Emma
This college is known as “Emma” locally – it is Emmanuel College. It was established in 1584 and intended to be a place of religious training for puritans. It’s scope has broadened over the years, but it had strong ties to the Puritans of New England. In fact, Harvard University was named for an alumni of Emma, John Harvard. The baroque building in the center is the chapel and was designed by the renowned English architect, Sir Christopher Wren in 1677. The care of the lawn here is apparent down to the little green garden tractor you’ll see waiting parked in front of the chapel!
This is only a taste of Cambridge. It would easily take days to document all the colleges never mind the rest of the architecture in this city. I hope I get the opportunity to some day. To see more of England and the UK, please check out my Britain Prints Gallery.
13
Sep
2009
Around Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is well known as the home of the University of Cambridge. The heritage of the area is ancient, having been the site of habitation since well into pre-history. It was occupied in Roman times as Duroliponte. In Saxon times, it was Grantebrycge. The name of the place continued to mutate through the ages, becoming Grentabrige or Cantebrigge with the river at the heart of it becoming known as the Granta. Eventually, the name became Cambridge, and just the part of the River in Cambridge became the River Cam. Even today, north of Cambridge, it’s still the River Granta.
Punting On The Cam
This photo was taken while punting on the River Cam. Punting is simply gliding on the River in a flat wooden boat while someone propels it with a long stick pushed against the river bottom. I say simply because it can be very amusing to watch an amateur try it and since boats can be rented without pilot, you can do this yourself. My London Walks group gladly allowed someone else to do the piloting. The views on the river are pretty gorgeous. As pretty as Cambridge is, there’s no doubt some of the best of the architecture is reserved for what they call The Backs. This view is most likely one of the many colleges that form Cambridge but I’m not sure which one. Loved the lone duck in this one. He had been attempting to solicit food from us.
Streets of Cambridge
This is another little slice of Cambridge, a fairly typical street view of this storied city. Gorgeous architecture from across the centuries. And a ubiquitous bicycle! Cambridge has the highest level of bicycle use in the UK, with over 25% of residents using a bicycle to commute. This photo for me really reflects what you’d gather of Cambridge from your average day trip.
Fields Of The Lost
Now, my fellow Americans can feel free to tell me if this was my personal ignorance or not, but I had never heard of the American Cemetery near Cambridge. One of our early stops, this is the place of burial for over 3,000 members of the American forces who died during WWII. There’s also a memorial wall with the names of the missing and a chapel. As most war memorials tend to be, it’s both a sobering and beautiful place with row upon row of white crosses in a park like setting.
For more prints from England and the rest of the UK, please visit my Britain Gallery.
3
Sep
2009
City of Bath
Among many stops on my Haggis Tour wander to and from Cornwall was the City of Bath. I was quite looking forward to seeing the old Roman Baths that give the modern city its name, but I knew very little else about the city. What I learned was that the night and half day we were there was not nearly enough and I intend to return one day.
Sulis Minerva
First of course, I have to get in a little detail about the history of Bath. Back in the days when the ancient Romans occupied Britannia, Bath was the site of one of their outposts, Aquae Sulis (the waters of Sul). But the history of the site reaches back in time further than the Romans, it was a holy site to the Britons. They felt the healing waters of the natural springs here were the work of their goddess, Sul. Sul represented the boundary between the worlds. The Romans liked to incorporate the local deities into their pantheon and they felt that Sul was the equivalent of their Minerva. Thus, they dedicated the site to Sulis Minerva. This head is the remnants of a beautiful Roman statue that would have once stood in the temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva at what we now know as Bath. The baths themselves are still present and if you are even an armchair archaeologist/historian, you’ll enjoy getting to see the inner workings of the Roman baths (which still hold water), but everything pretty much above ground level at the baths is a Victorian re-imagining of what would have been there so I was only mildly interested in photographing it. Still, an amazing site to visit for a few hours, but not all there is to Bath!
Shopping on Pulteney Bridge
Bath is known for it’s Georgian Architecture. It’s the time period when Bath became the place to be among the affluent and the city really boomed. And I have to say again, that I really didn’t have sufficient time to really capture it all, but this is one shot I really liked from Pulteney Bridge. This bridge over the River Avon is one of four like it in the world where shops fully line both sides of the bridge. Built in 1773, there have been alterations over the years, but restoration of the facades was completed in 1951 and this is a grade 1 listed building with English Heritage.
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Another must see if you only have a little bit of time in Bath is Bath Abbey. Although the site started life as a Benedictine Monastery, today it is an Anglican parish church – quite a grand one though! It’s style is perpendicular Gothic, owing to the last major constructions done on the building in the 16th century. It’s been restored since but the style from that period remains. Ths church is widely known for its elaborate fan vaulting in the ceilings in the nave (although it’s a Victorian restoration of what was originally there in the 1600’s). This photo was shot in the particularly dreary early morning hours on the day we left Bath. Still, it gives a lot to the drama in this photo that you would never have gotten on a beautiful clear day.
Bath Abbey
One more photo of that gorgeous old Abbey. This one was taken at dusk as darkness was descending and they had turned on the lights on the outside of the Abbey. There’s obvious distortion because this was taken with what’s known as a Fish eye lens – it’s ultra wide angle but also due to its shape produces a very exaggerated field of view. I try to use it sparingly, but sometime you can produce some really beautiful images like this one with it.
For more photos of England and the rest of the United Kingdom, be sure to check out my Britain Prints!
