Fall Colors Along the Danube

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melk staircase

A beautiful staircase inside Melk Abbey, oddly enough, located in Melk, Austria.

Many visitors to the Melk Abbey are anxious to see the vast library of over 100,000 books or the castle like structure with 365 windows, one for each day of the year.  Many came to see the golden Fall colors along the Danube.  I came only to see the ornate spiral staircase.  Our tour guide immediately proclaimed photos were not allowed throughout the Abbey, so I was quite worried the entire tour.  It turns out, the staircase is seen after the tour, so photos were thankfully not a problem.

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Ornate Buildings of Prague

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Fred and ginger

These buildings were built to evoke the image of two people dancing, hence their nick name, The Fred and Ginger building.

The Dancing House was originally nicknamed “Fred and Ginger.”  The glass tower leaning inward like a woman in motion and the stone tower standing tall as her partner.  This is one of Prague’s most iconic modern landmarks, standing gracefully on the banks of the Vltava River.  This unique building houses offices, a gallery and a rooftop restaurant, none of which I visited.  I was happy to see it at blue hour from the street.  It was all part of the unique and ornate buildings of Prague. Continue reading →

Greek Islands Mykonos and Santorini

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blood roofs of Santorini

The famous blue roofs of Santorini, Greece.

Santorini was one of the stops on our cruise that I was really interested in visiting.  I had originally hoped we could stay on the island for a few days on our own prior to the cruise.  I pictured it a much more quaint island than it was.  It was mostly packed with tourists waiting in long lines at spots made famous, or infamous, through Instagram and other social venues.  We were one of four large cruise ships invading this tiny island.  Mykonos was more of a pleasant stroll in comparison.  Both islands showed off the beautiful architecture and the white and blue of the Greek Islands.

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Mediterranean Cruise

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The iconic European Vespa scooter.

Wandering about Rhodes, Greece, on our Mediterranean cruise photographing the unique doors was a highlight on this day.  What is this home like inside?  Very few windows and the few there are seem to be boarded up.  Does the home open in the back with a grand terrace or patio?  The pipe flagpole holder is not simply for displaying the Greek flag.  Throughout Europe there are many competitions, cultural festivities, town rivalries and soccer matches, all of which may result in flying a local team or regional flag.

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Athens to Istanbul

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guards

The Greeks have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is located outside of the Greek Parliament and is guarded by the Evzones, a ceremonial assignment within of the Greek Army.

We just were not a good match for either Athens or Istanbul.  I really looked forward to visiting both.  Our several prior trips to Europe were on trans Atlantic one-way cruises. We arrived in Europe refreshed, ready to go and with no jet lag. For this trip we flew to Athens prior to boarding a cruise ship and much of our time there was spent acclimating to the right time zone.  Also, we are not much on going to museums and ancient ruins, which of course is what Athens is all about.  It seemed as if the entire city was tagged with spray paint.  Very, very few attractive painted murals, mostly sloppy tags.

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Alien Egg Factory, Bisti Badlands

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Alien Egg Factory

The overcast, hazy sky with the sun trying to barely peak through provided some nice afternoon light, especially for this ancient scene. It is almost a monochrome, but not B&W.

I had tried to find this Alien Egg Factory over 30 years ago but failed miserably. With the knowledge that I had an excellent outdoor guide with me, Shane Davila,  Shane’s Great Photography Site , I was confident this time would be a success and it was.  Despite my bad back, likely broken rib and constant pain, Shane had me visit this site in an afternoon, evening and the following morning.  He had no sympathy for my aching ribs and continued to take off in a new direction even as I was ready to return  to camp.  (see last week’s tumble)

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Exploring the Bisti Badlands

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Bisti diving boards

There are numerous rock formations we found while exploring the Bisti Badlands that could be named the ‘Diving Boards’. Here are a few photographed at sunrise.

For the next five days, my good photographer friend Shane and I would be exploring the Bisti Badlands together.  Shane’s Photography Website   Because I had been shown around the area during the prior six day photo workshop, I was supposed to now be the guide.  I had planned on this so I was prepared.  I downloaded the Gaia GPS app on my iPhone.  This would allow me to drop electronic bread crumbs along the trail to get us back to some of the sites I had visited previously.

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Alien Throne in Bisti Badlands

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The iconic Alien Throne in Bisti Badlands of New Mexico.

The Alien Throne in Bisti Badlands is likely one of the top three iconic formations in this 45,000 acre area.  The general daily plan for the Muench workshop is to arrive at such an area mid afternoon, providing ample time to explore the surrounding formations.  Basically we are trying to find compositions suitable for sunset and sundown.  It is always very difficult to accurately pre-visualize scenes as they will be at sunset.  This just keeps the workshop participants busy until we are to shoot the Milky Way at about 10:00PM and crawl into your tent dead tired after midnight.

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The Desolate Bisti Badlands of New Mexico

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Bisti Badlands

The term ‘of another world’ really applies to the Bisti Badlands of northern New Mexico.

If you wish to explore this area of New Mexico on your own…. good luck.  I tried to photograph the desolate Badlands on my own twice before and was unsuccessful.  This time my plan was to spend two weeks there.  The first week was to be professionally guided by Muench Photography Workshops and the second week I would be re-exploring some of the same photographic highlights, then branching out to new Bisti locations with a good friend and outdoor adventurer, Shane.   Overall, despite life threatening mishaps, after the workshop, the trip was a great success.

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