This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Another scanned print. Many of the insects and other small life forms of Costa Rica are terrifying (that bit in The Tropic of Serpents? That was me channeling all the dire warnings I got when I went to Costa Rica), but this one is cute. It disguises itself as a pair of leaves to hide from predators.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The highest pavilion in Fukushu-en, in Naha (Okinawa), stands atop an artificial cave. If you stand at the right spot and look upward, you can see the point of the pavilion’s roof peeking out through the gap.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This is just a random hat on a mannequin in the Museum of London — but I loved the way the various textures caught the light. (As is the case with so many of my “random object” photos.)

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I have no idea why there is a giant sculpture of a severed head at the foot of the Town Hall Tower in Kraków. It’s hollow and big enough to climb inside (if you look closely at the photo, you can see somebody peering out through one of the eye sockets), and it’s one of the more inexplicable bits of public art I’ve ever seen. Dusted with snow, though, it lands in a weird zone between “creepy” and “charming.” 🙂

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I got a remarkable number of good shots out of the Hagia Sophia, considering that I had no idea how to use my camera at the time . . . .

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I don’t actually know whether this is a crow or a raven or what. All I know is that it was perching atop one of the rocks of Stonehenge, and I leapt like a mad thing to get this shot before it flapped away.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I’m not enough of a food photographer to have a really splendid picture appropriate for Thanksgiving, but in lieu of that, I give you this dinner table from the apartments of Napoleon III, in the Louvre.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The miners in the Wieliczka Salt Mine used to descend to their work hanging from slings on a rope. Near the end of your tour of the mine, they have an animatronic setup to show you how it was done.

(Oh, and that lamp? It’s made of salt. Of course.)

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I took this picture in the full knowledge that I was almost exactly replicating a photo taken by my brother and sister-in-law on their trip to Okinawa. But I wanted my own version! I have a thing for sundials, and the cement between the tiles gives the roofs a weirdly stripey look.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This fellow was performing on the street in (I think) Kumarakom, in the Indian state of Kerala. As cheesy as it is, I have to admit that watching somebody actually do the snake-charming thing is pretty awesome.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Too many years have passed since my honeymoon for me to remember the significance of this bit of ruin on the Greek island of Delos. The bright contrast of the poppies, however, remains.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I am much less sentimental for artillery than I am for swords and other such personal weapons . . . but I liked the lion chawing down on this cannon.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I can’t tell if this picture is at all funny without the story behind it.

My husband and I spent a day and a half on Inis Mór, and the morning we woke up there, we decided to go to Dún Dúchathair — the less famous cousin of Dún Aengus. We were told to go along the coast road and then turn right at the sign — well, there was no sign at the coast, but we turned right at the first chance we had, and there was a sign a little ways in. So we follow the road . . .

. . . which turns into a track . . .

. . . which turns into a footpath . . .

. . . which dead-ends at a low stone wall. Which we go around, and at that point we’re lost in the wilds of Inis Mór (note: the island is only about a mile wide). We head on in more or less the same direction we were originally going, hoping to find the fort, and eventually we find this sign: Dún Dúchathair, thataway. Sitting all by its lonesome in the middle of a limestone moonscape.

As I said to my husband, “I hope the lads don’t get drunk of a Saturday night ane come out here to give that sign a spin around its post.”

We went thataway, and we did indeed find the Black Fort, so all was well. But the sign itself still amuses me.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

If I had planned this whole thing better, I would have saved this picture for today. It is the shot that sparked this post, and today is my father’s birthday, so it would have been a nice bit of timing! That post references the light-up at Kiyomizudera, though, and so that is what I give you today. with a cameo appearance by the moon.

Happy birthday, Dad. You are my favorite pusher of drugs expensive new hobbies. 🙂

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This isn’t actually a stave church, but the thing it reminded me of most was the churches in Norway that my mother has pictures of, so my brain insisted on tagging it “that stave church in Zakopane.” Probably because those are basically the only wooden churches I know, other than the New England white clapboard type. Regardless: autumn color, nice vertical framing between the trees, me likey, yes. 🙂

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Some places, you can really only capture from a high vantage point. While we were climbing the tower of the University Church, we got this lovely view into the courtyard of (I think) All Souls College. I’m sure I could have taken some nice photos from within its bounds, but to get the whole thing, you really need to be outside and above.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mostly one goes to Filoli to look at the flowers (which are indeed stupendous in the right season). But there are other bits of beauty there — like this tree branch, utterly carpeted in thick moss.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This hunting horn has absolutely nothing to do with salt mining, but it was in the museum attached to the Wielczka Salt Mine. Which is a separate tour from the one through the mine proper, and only a fraction of the visitors to the site bother with it — but I’m glad my husband and I did.

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

On our way to Kourijima during the Okinawa trip, our group stopped at a roadside restaurant/souvenir area for lunch. The ramen there was unremarkable, but the sculptures were awesome: pieces of driftwood carved into huge, fantastical shapes. One of them was an entire herd of horses, but that picture didn’t turn out as striking, so instead you get a dragon — which is hardly inappropriate for this blog. 🙂

This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Some shots are cliched, but you take them anyway because seriously. This is the inner edge of Santorini — the island which is the edge of a volcanic caldera — and it is every bit as photogenic as travel advertisements would have you believe.