June 9, 2010 by brian.

April made for a great time to visit Amicalola Falls.  The web pages are ready, and in addition to them, a slide show you may view is available.  If you click on the link, it may open in your browser but may not automatically play.  I suggest that you right-click on the link and select Download, to place it on your PC.  After the download completes, double-click on the file and it should play in full screen mode.  After you give your permission for the file to play in full scree, the slide show will begin.

The web pages are done and available here.

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April 5, 2010 by brian.

About 2 weeks ago, a group of us flew from Atlanta to Rome, Italy.  We left on Wednesday, arrived on Thursday, and rode 2 trains to Sorrento, Italy where we stayed for 3 nights.  Day 1 is the trip and arrival in Sorrento.  For day 2, we hopped on a ferry to the island of Capri, where we took a smaller boat to the blue grotto.  It was very cool.  The dark cave and the glowing blue water made capturing photographs difficult.  Upon our return to port, we rode the funicular up the mountain, enjoyed what Capri had to offer, and then returned to Sorrento on the ferry.  Traveling to Pompeii on day 3 by train, we strolled through the city while listening to a Rick Steves audio tour.  I am in the process of creating a web gallery for the remaining days.  Stay tuned for further developments …

Day 3 lead us to Pompeii.  We saw a market area with depictions of what vendors would be selling there,  castings of people caught in the ash, cafe areas, a brothel with more depictions of services available, and a bakery.  Back in Sorrento as we walked through the streets with vendors we saw a couple of them selling tomatoes (without the smooth outsides) and very large lemons that are used to make limoncello (a liqueur).  We also wound up having a lemon cake dessert with frosting almost daily.  It became affectionately known as a ‘lemon boob’.

Our return to Rome on day 4 was by ferry instead of by train.  After checking in at the hotel, we walked around to see some of the sites.  One of them was Trevi Fountain, where I captured a few photographs, with my Olympus point and shoot camera, for a panorama .  Another was the Spanish Steps, which also had a fountain.  All of the walking left us parched so we stopped for refreshment, which is where I saw an older MINI. We went to an area that had restaurants around a plaza and in the plaza were vendors with items for sale, like paintings.  As night approached our travels lead us to the Pantheon, where we spent a little while before retiring for the night.

I added two panoramas from Pompeii that were captured with my DSLR.  The first one is near the center meeting area and shows Vesuvius in the background.  The second one is a view from just outside of the area that you have to pay to enter.

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August 5, 2009 by brian.

Last week I went on a trip to Greece with friends.  We flew to Athens, Greece on Tuesday, overnight, arriving on Wednesday.  After we checked in at the hotel, we made our way to ruins which were visible from the hotel.  That made for a long day, so after dinner we eventually made our way to the hotel intent on getting a good night’s sleep before we took a ferry the next day to Naxos.  You may view photographs from the first day here.

On Day 2, we checked out of the hotel and rode a train to the docks where we boarded the ferry to Naxos.  On arriving there, we were picked up and driven to the B&B.  Lunch (and working off lunch) was the next order of business.  The dock area had a nice place to watch the sunset, although it was a tad breezy. The photographs for day 2 are now here.

Day 3 started with breakfast at our B&B followed by a walk into town to rent scooters.  Once we rented the scooters and started across the island, I kept thinking about the brown landscape before us.  We did come across green patches, but I mostly remember the brown grass.  After dropping off the scooters and walking back to the dock area,we found a rooftop to watch the sunset.  Day 3 photographs are here.

On Saturday, Day 4, we checked out of our B&B and were transported to the dock to catch the ferry to Santorini.  The web page of photographs is not yet ready, but I did manage to make a group of photographs into couple of panoramas.  Click on each photograph below for a new window or tab with the full size photograph.  When it appears, you may have to move your mouse over the photograph and click on it to enlarge it to full size.  The first one is a view from the back of the B&B.  The second one is a view from the dock looking back towards the town.

The web page with photographs from Day 4 is now up.  You will find them here.  In other news, I recreated the 3 other days. The single images are larger.

Day 5 was a full day on Santorini.  I was up almost early so I walked around taking photographs of the surrounding area.  It turns out we were under the flight path for flights taking off from the airport.  Later in the morning we were on our way to Fira, one of the larger towns.  From there it was on a bus for a couple of stops.  We got off and walked back to Fira.  In Fira again, we took a bus to Oia, which was known for the sunsets.  After walking around Oia for a while, we found a restaurant where we’d be able to watch the sunset.  The evening colors made for some wonderful photographs.  Have a look here for all of these photographs.

We spent most of Day 6 on Santorini.  Our first stop was a winery where we took a tour and then sampled their 3 wines; 2 whites and a reddish dessert wine.  The dessert wine was pretty tasty and definitely sweet.  We next intended to take a bus to Fira to eat at a recommended restaurant, however finding the bus was quite a different matter.  Apparently no matter which side of the road the bus stop is on, it serves both sides of the road.  Who knew?  After we had lunch in Fira we hopped a bus to the town closest to our hotel.  After the bus dropped us off, we checked out a little grocery store, just because we could.  From there we walked along the black sand beach until we reached the bar / restaurant close to the hotel.  One last beverage before we were taken to the airport for the flight back to Athens.  Day 6 photographs are here.

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February 23, 2009 by brian.

While I was in New Jersey with Courtney and Regan, Courtney thought it would be a good chance to go to New York City to show Regan some of the sights.  Her cousin, Bridget,went with us and showed us which trains to use to get there and back, as well as guiding us around NYC.

We parked a few blocks from mom’s house, took a train to Secaucus, another one into New York, walked to Grand Central Station and Times Square, took a subway back to Penn Station, and boarded our train back to New Jersey.  The photos, using my trusty point and shoot, are here.  You will see the Empire State building, the girls approaching Grand Central Station, inside Grand Central, Times Square, the return trip showing Giants stadium and the start of the new stadium, and shots from the window on the plane back to Atlanta.

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October 2, 2007 by brian.

This may have been my only opportunity to capture the golden aspen trees. Although the news has said the color should last for another couple of weeks, maybe even into mid-October, I’ve also heard there are trees that have already dropped their leaves. I guess you just either have to find out for yourself by driving up there, or have a look here to see my photographs of the colors along Guanella Pass.

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September 15, 2007 by brian.

During our visit to Virginia, I was told about an old railroad bridge. We managed to get over there to capture some photographs before heading over for the crab feast. Jennifer sent me an article about the bridge being closed. Good thing we were able to get there before they closed it! Here are my photographs.

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August 27, 2007 by brian.

Courtney, Addison, and I went out to the east coast for a week, 8/15 - 8/22. During this whirlwind trip, we visited New Jersey (including going down the shore to Seaside Heights), Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We went to Virginia to see my cousin Rod and his family. Going crabbing is one of the memories I share with Rod. On our last day there, he picked up a bunch of live crabs, cooked them up, and we feasted on them before heading out to go to Pennsylvania. Yum!

In PA, we stayed near Lancaster, which is Amish country. Arriving around 6 PM, we checked into the hotel and decided to go to Hershey. The rain was horrendous! It was difficult seeing even with the windshield wipers going full speed. Fortunately the rain let up a little so we didn’t get too soaked going between the car and Hershey Chocolate World. The next day, we drove back to NJ after a little shopping.

Some of the photos from the entire trip may be viewed here.

I think you’ll be able to tell the photos are in groups. The first group is from the flight into Newark airport where you can see the NYC skyline and the Statue of Liberty. Next up is a group of photos from Seaside Heights, NJ. Those are followed by some photos where trees have literally grown into a fence. Seeing is believing! A farm across from the house where we stayed in Virginia is in the next group. An Amish buggy is followed by a group of flower close ups.

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June 9, 2007 by brian.

On Wednesday, Addison and I traveled through RMNP and Trail Ridge Road. Our timing was excellent as we managed to catch the cold front that was destined for the front range, encountering high winds and precipitation. Someone up there called what we saw ‘popcorn snow’. It was not hail at all (ok, one out of every 50 snow puffs was a stinging piece of hail), but puffs of snow that just seemed to explode upon contact without any force. You may view some of the photographs here.

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March 5, 2007 by brian.

The Radisson hotel is very close to NYSW’s Passaic Junction rail yard. We had to drive over one of the tracks frequently during our trips from the hotel.

After it snowed on one of the days, I went there to capture some photographs. The web page is here and the slide show is here.

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March 4, 2007 by brian.

While we were in New Jersey recently, I managed to capture some photographs from the ‘balcony’ of our room at the Radisson Hotel in Saddle Brook. NYC is only around 10 miles from here. Click here for the web pages. And click here for the PDF slideshow.

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