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This stands in one of the museum galleries in Malbork Castle, and is likely a relic from the church, awaiting restoration to its previous spot. The lack of hands, while obviously lamentable from a preservation standpoint, makes it especially striking.
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At night there is a rotating beacon atop the Eiffel Tower. Catching it at the right moment to have it pointing at the riverside wing of the Louvre took several attempts, but you know what they say: patience rewards the obsessive perfectionist. đ
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Another splendid piece of amber from the museum in GdaĆsk, Poland. I would not mind having this on my shelf at home!
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This is from a recent trip to Point Lobos in Monterey, California. I liked the condition of the light just then — the overcast sky threaded with light, and the remaining sun glittering off the water while the trees and rocks stood in silhouette.
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I am stupidly proud of how well this shot came out, given the zoom involved and my lack of tripod; I had to brace against something on the far side of the cathedral to get it steady. This is, of course, one of the rose windows of Notre Dame — the north one, I believe — and yes, it is every bit as stunning as I’d been led to hope.
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If memory serves (which it may not), this is an old decoration from the Savoy. It’s definitely something near the end of the Museum of London galleries, when you’re up to the twentieth century, and it’s from some famous landmark like the Savoy; if I have it wrong, please do let me know. Anyway, I loved the effect of the light from above on the raised carvings.
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I took this picture during my recent tour — the one bit of sightseeing I managed the whole trip. This is a flowering tree off the southwest corner of the Salt Lake City Temple, and I don’t know what kind of tree it is; people on Twitter suggested a weeping cherry, but all the photos I could find of such trees showed straight trunks and branches, rather than the taffy-twisted effect this tree had. Any identification would be much appreciated!
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One of the effects from me becoming more interested in photography is, I’ve begun to appreciate details. Point Lobos is a very pretty area in Monterey, and I took many scene-sized pictures there . . . but I also found myself pausing to shoot things like this little line of limpets, clinging to a rock on the shore. A few years ago, I suspect I never would have even noticed them, much less taken this picture.
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Indian temples are very frustrating things to photograph, because the decoration on them isn’t done in discrete blocks: it’s an ongoing mass of things, friezes like this one banding the exterior, sculptures rubbing shoulders with elaborately carved columns — basically no square foot left plain. I suspect this frieze depicts military glory, since there appears to be someone crouching beneath the hooves of that horse, but as you can see the top edge has rather been damaged.
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I don’t actually know the name of this church, which is a pity. It’s somewhere in Zakopane, or at least that general region; we weren’t able to go in, so this photo is taken through a window in the door. The woodworking is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the warmth it creates.
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I rather suspect this relief decoration is new, because it is not nearly weathered enough to have been there for more than maybe a hundred years or so. But I imagine it’s intended to be the type of carving that might have adorned the place in the past; given how much care they’re taking with restoring the building, it may even be a direct reproduction. It was next to the entrance, and I thought it was quite cool; then I walked inside and discovered it was only a tiny, greyscale taste of the glory within. đ
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The Victoria and Albert Museum has a splendid collection of Japanese netsuke: little carved figures used to secure boxes or other such things to the obi. I have a number of shots of them, but this one is my favorite, because of the way he towers over the others.
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Apparently you can take the archaeologist out of the field, but you can’t take the field out of the archaeologist. While wandering down to the short of the Thames near Tower Bridge, I discovered several bones amidst the gravel: a vertebra or two, bits of some long bones I couldn’t ID. I have no idea what they were from, though (because I am the sort of person I am) it did cross my mind that they were of vaguely the right size to be human. Anyway, although I rarely “stage” my shots, in this case I piled the bones up in an artistic manner and took this photo. Like you do.
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I posted a shot of Fushimi Inari before, showing one of the galleries of torii arches. This is a detail shot from another arch further on — a fairly recent addition, judging by the glossiness of the paint. You can see the ends of another behind it, giving you another sense of just how closely packed they can get.
If memory serves, by the way, this shot is also the one that inspired this post while I was in Japan. Being able to control your camera is nice.
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I got several good photos of Notre Dame the night we wandered around staying up way too late — well, as good as I could get with an old Leica and no tripod — but the framing of this one is hands-down my favorite. Finding a suitable gap between the wooden kiosks that line the bank of the Seine wasn’t easy, though!
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I have no idea why there’s a building named for King Arthur in GdaĆsk. Artus Court was apparently a big social center for merchants back in the city’s medieval and Renaissance heyday; nowadays it’s a museum, and one of the upstairs rooms is dedicated to vaguely Arthurian stuff (read: weapons, armor, and tents a la a medieval tournament), complete with this Round Table. (With, um, a Tudor rose in the middle. Go figure.)
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Sadly, I have no pictures that are particularly well-suited to Cinco de Mayo. Instead, here’s one from the House of the Vestals in the Roman Forum. Very little remains of the structure or its statues, but the flowers, I think, make up for it.
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These sculptures were displayed along an exterior wall in (I think) Gion, along with an adorable open-mouthed frog to which you were asked to feed 100 yen if you took photos. (Of course I fed the frog.) The faces were kinda creepy, but also kinda cool, especially at night.
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I don’t often take photos of people, partly because my eye tends more toward the places I’ve traveled to visit, but partly because I’m not as good at capturing them. (My father, for the record, has developed a fair knack for it.) This one, however, turned out delightfully well. That’s a friend of mine looking utterly picturesque in a field of daisies, in the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
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I’m fairly certain this is a replica of the Boxer of Quirinal, not the original, but it was still cool to see. I had seen a picture of this statue shortly before making the trip (because I was looking for images of a cestus), so coming across it in the Ashmolean was a pleasant surprise.
