Steve from Mendocino
Morning view east toward Mendocino village from the headlands.
On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Mendocino Village – second setPost + Comments (14)
by WaterGirl| 14 Comments
This post is in: Mendocino, On The Road, Photo Blogging
Morning view east toward Mendocino village from the headlands.
On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Mendocino Village – second setPost + Comments (14)
by WaterGirl| 12 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
I managed to convince my fellow photographer Hami to join me on another hike in Griffith Park, this time up to Beacon Hill. We’ve visited Beacon Hill on “On The Road” in the past (October 9, 2017) and it is one of my favorite views of downtown Los Angeles. The hill sits at the eastern edge of Griffith Park and used to have a beacon (hence the name) on the top to guide pilots flying into Glendale’s Grand Central Air Terminal. While lower in elevation than other peaks in the park, the hill’s location so far east affords a nice view of downtown with Silver Lake off to the side.
My intent on this hike up to Beacon Hill was twofold, one to get some night shots and to get some panoramas for a “Little Planet” type of photo. All of my shots from Beacon Hill in the past were daytime shots since it is not visited as often as other parts in the park and I was hesitant of hiking back down in the dark by myself.
Over the summer I’d purchased a device to automate shooting panorama shots, the Capsule 360. It takes care of rotating the camera via an app on my cellphone. I used this device to create the moving timelapse a few months ago of the sunset at Palos Verdes. I shot 3 panoramas, one in golden hour, one at blue hour and finally one after dark. Only the first of these 3 turned worked.
I tried to shot multiple narrow view shots with multiple panorama rows, this was a mistake with the changing light as the sun was setting resulting in color differences, I also failed to account for longer shutter speeds when it got dark in the app leading to a good photo and a one shot while the device was moving the camera. The one other problem I noticed when we got to the top of the hill is that the brush around the hill has grown a bit since I last visited which made getting a clean shot of a 360° panorama impossible. I ended up producing a full 360° “Little Planet” photo as well as one for the Glendale view and the downtown LA view.
Downtown LA at sunset.
On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – The Little Planet of Beacon HillPost + Comments (12)
by WaterGirl| 11 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
Sicily, given its strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea, has a long, overlapping history of Greeks, Romans, Turks, Normans. During our short stay, we skimmed only a fraction of this history. After the olive harvest, we headed south to Siracusa.
We’d met a young Italian couple while on Sangat Island (in the Philippines) who told us where to stay and which beaches to visit. Our modest hotel was just across the bridge from the Island of Ortygia, the amazing historical center of Siracusa—full of crooked alleyways… Not shown in the photos below—we toured its catacombs, archaeological museum, two subterranean Jewish baths hidden & abandoned in 1492, during the purge by Spanish edict. Also, a hidden tunnel system connecting the churches and used as a bomb shelter during WWII—complete with graffiti from that time.
View southwest from the Necropolis of Pantalica, looking into the stream valley of the Anapo River. The necropolis contains thousands of rock-cut chamber tombs dating from the thirteenth to seventh centuries BC.
On The Road – way2blue – Siracusa / Ortygia, SicilyPost + Comments (11)
by WaterGirl| 28 Comments
This post is in: Albatrossity, On The Road, Photo Blogging
I thought I had run out of subjects for the Winter Birds in Flyover Country series, but it turns out I had a few more opportunities to get out and see birds this week, so here’s another. One of those opportunities came up after we had a few days of snow and heavy overcast, when it was getting pretty boring to stay inside and just watch the feeders (although I did get my first COVID vaccine shot on one of those days, so that wasn’t boring!). It was still overcast, but the snow reflected a lot of light, and so I got a bunch of what is known in the portraiture biz as “high-key”, aka nearly shadowless, portraits of some of our local birds. Hope you enjoy them!
This one might be my favorite of the batch. American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) in the sunflower patch.
On The Road – Albatrossity – Winter in Flyover Country 4Post + Comments (28)
by WaterGirl| 26 Comments
This post is in: Albatrossity, On The Road, Photo Blogging
Hey everybody. I want to let you know that this will be our last On the Road After Dark for awhile. After months of more submissions than I could have imagined, there are no more After Dark submissions in the queue. If at some point we start getting so many submissions again that there is significant lag time between submission and posting date, then we can certainly bring back After Dark.
I know a lot of you look forward to seeing these in the evening, and we have had some truly lovely posts since we started the After Dark series in July. Perhaps we’ll decide to have a special Springtime in Paris series – if there are any Paris pictures we haven’t seen – and then pause again until we get backed up or until something special comes along.
If you have enjoyed the After Dark series, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. In the meantime, I hope you will continue to submit posts for the On The Road morning edition.
On the Road: Week of Feb 8 (5 am)
Albatrossity
way2blue
?BillinGlendaleCA
Steve from Mendocino
ChasM
? And now, back to randy khan! I want to extend a big thank you for sharing your trip to Venice with us!
These photos are from our last day in Venice, after the tour was over. We wandered around for hours on the main island, doing some shopping and eating our last genuine Italian meal.
Let’s start with another bridge. There will be two more.
On The Road – randy khan – Venice and Environs, Part 10Post + Comments (26)
by WaterGirl| 16 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
I was in Moscow in March 2013. As I mentioned in an earlier OTR, I was there with my friend Natasha and stayed at the apartment of her mother’s friend. I explored a lot of Moscow on my own, as well as with Natasha, her family, and my hostess. Since I could read Cyrillic and knew a little Russian, I got around fairly well on my own. There are a few signs in English in the central area, but not as much in the outskirts. The Metro is great; you pay once when you enter the system and can go anywhere that connects to it.
The Moscow Metro opened its first stations in 1935. The stations built under Stalin were lavishly decorated with artworks and prize-winning architecture; palaces for the people as one architect said. Naturally, the Socialist Realism style predominates, but Art Nouveau and Art Deco are also represented. My source for the history and art of the stations is Moscow Metro Guide Book, which I picked up at Dom Knigi, Moscow’s largest bookstore. I haven’t found an online source for it, but you can find more information about the Moscow Metro on many sites. There are guided tours that hit the high points; I think they would be worthwhile to check out if you are in Moscow.
ТЕАТРАЛьНАЯ The Teatralnaya station opens onto Moscow’s theater district, including the famous Bolshoi Theater. The walls are decorated with bas-reliefs of dancers and musicians in the national costumes of various peoples of the USSR.
On The Road – Origuy – Moscow Metro StationsPost + Comments (16)
by WaterGirl| 21 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
This is our second side trip, to Aquileia, an important Roman town and a center of Christian religious life starting in the early 4th century C.E. We mostly were there to see the mosaics, which were much different – and older than – the mosaics in Ravenna.
The first stop on the way to Aquileia was at a genuine Palladian villa. It had all of the characteristics you’d expect, not just the windows but the porticos, columns, etc. – the whole deal. It’s officially called Villa Foscari, after the people who built it, but it’s known as Villa Malcontenta.
On The Road – randy khan – Venice and Environs, Part 9Post + Comments (21)