Plaza de España in Seville, Spain

Plaza Espana Blue Hour

Plaza de Espana at Blue Hour

Although this large open square, Plaza de España, may look several hundred years old, it was built relatively recently, 1929, when Seville, Spain hosted the World’s Fair.  Access to this plaza and the huge adjacent gardens is free and it is so large it is never very crowded.  Great local music was being played and echoing around the tiled hallways as I explored this plaza.
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Valencia, Spain Home of Santiago Calatrava

Valencia Oranges at the Train Station

Valencia Oranges at the Valencia Nord Train Station

Valencia, Spain is home of the Valencia orange, many olive groves and birthplace of famed futuristic architect and engineer, Santiago Calatrava.  One of his larger installations is in Valencia, named the City of Arts and Sciences.
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Aloha from Waikiki Beach

Waikiki Eve

Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii must be one of the more popular, well-known beaches in all the world.  Not necessarily the most beautiful, but with all ranges of restaurants and top quality shopping, combined with ease of access from Japan, makes it a top destination for tourists around the world.
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Pearl Harbor – Oahu, Hawaii

USS Arizona Approach

My first visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial on Oahu was about 25 years ago.  What is so striking to me about each visit is the large number of Japanese tourists in attendance.  Many arrive by organized Japanese tour companies.  I would really like to have the ability or nerve to speak to them and learn their impressions and thoughts during their visit to the site of their country’s surprise attack which killed more than 2,500 Americans.  It is certainly an odd twist that anyone who visits Hawaii today quickly realizes the economic vitality of Hawaii clearly depends on the Japanese tourist.
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Northern California

Shasta Rose

All this traveling around and living out of suitcases can get a bit old, as I have stated in previous posts.  Not complaining, mind you, just simple things become bothersome, like your toothpaste is never in the same spot.  Is it in the toiletries bag in the bedroom or are we now staying in a place where it can be kept in the bathroom of all places?  Since coming back from Europe we mostly made a beeline to northern California to do something we have not done in our four years of home-free retirement, mooch off of relatives for a full month!

Thank you for your interest in my photography and retirement travels…..
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Birds & Critters of Key West

Jungle-Iguana-20141030-_ALL7282Driving along the highway and bridges into the Florida Keys, we saw a mess of iguanas.  By the way, a ‘mess’ is the official name for a group of iguanas.  These are not native to Florida and were originally pets turned loose when they got too large and their biting personality became more apparent.  This iguana is fairly brown but some were St Patrick’s Day green.  When I parked and walked back to the ‘mess’ of iguanas, just seeing me from a distance would cause them to scatter, very skittish.  Loud trucks and cars passing nearby were not a concern as that goes on all day, but a tall gray-haired guy with a camera would send them running for the bushes.
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London, England (Last Stop)

Chard BuildingQueen Guards
Having returned the rental car in Cambridge, England we took a train to London and taxi to our VRBO rental.  Initial impression and safety appearance of our street seemed somewhat borderline.  However, the unit was comfortable and stylish and we soon learned there were many restaurants and much activity nearby. We had Indian food for the fifteenth time in Europe.  It is now quite apparent there are not huge variation in Indian food and we certainly have our favorites, but lamb vindaloo and chicken tikka masala is quite consistent across the US and Europe.

When you click on “Continue Reading” a slide show of ten photos will play at the TOP of this article.
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Venice, Italy

Morning Gondolas

The thought of Venice likely conjures up romantic notions of riding in a gondola while being serenaded to familiar Italian songs such as Volare.  The truth of the matter is a bit less romantic, but I would likely come across as a real scrooge by talking it down.  So yes, we did hear many, many a gondolier sing a variety of wonderful songs.  Our balcony overlooked a canal and we watched boat captains skillfully maneuver their beautiful wood power boats, gondolas, delivery boats and the occasional ambulance through the congestion.  All the boat drivers pitch in and pass signals to other boat drivers regarding traffic around blind corners.  We frequently heard the loud call of “Ooui!” which apparently means, “I’m coming around the corner so you had better get out of my way.”

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Isle of Capri and ‘The Blue Grotto’

Island of Capri

Island of Capri

As a side note, big ships and cruises are a bit of a sterile way to see the world.  This is not meant to be derogatory, just one does not have to make decisions or confront the many travel issues one is required to do when traveling on your own.  While cruising one travels in a controlled environment and if they wish can elect to go on a ship-organized shore excursion, again in a controlled environment of an air conditioned bus, a fluent guide and prearranged sites of interest.

For our cruise stop in Naples, Italy we chose to go on our own to the Blue Grotto on the Island of Capri.  The ship did not offer this as a shore excursion.  This is not a difficult adventure, but one must catch three boats and get back to the ship on time.  We are certainly not great world travelers at this point and all of this is still a challenge, dealing with language barriers and getting back to a ship which announces it will leave without us….  So we booked a hydrofoil boat to the town of Capri on the Island of Capri from the Naples harbor.   Unknowingly, we left ourselves just minutes to catch-all the connections.  So here is how the adventure unfolded…  Do not expect any big issues or surprises, as all went very well.  First you see the Island of Capri with steep cliffs, blue waters and brightly colored houses.  The piles of luggage on the boat indicate that many people stay on the Island, so Capri is their home for the next several days.
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Post Processing of a Photo

ORIGINAL Vision of the Scene

ORIGINAL  Scene

The final version of this beach photo totally changed from my original vision.  The brilliant orange sunset lit up the beach in a way no photographer could pass by.  The sky was bright orange as was the reflection in the wet sand.  However, in working with the photograph, the contrast appeared to be tooooo great.  Also, one might wonder what was making the sand so bright and simply think it was an over-saturated photo.  The entire reason for me capturing this photo now seemed to be a problem, so the bright sand was cropped out below.
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