This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
If memory serves, this is a set of boards taken from the wall of an eighteenth-century prison. I have to say: the quality of graffiti has declined remarkably over the last two centuries . . . .
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
We recently went up to Sausalito in the North Bay to celebrate my mother’s birthday, and stayed in a hotel that was just off the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge: a prime spot to catch it in the warm light of evening.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
In honor of Worldcon starting today in London, here’s a place I’ve recommended to many friends of mine: the Natural History Museum, aka the Victorians’ cathedral to St. Darwin. This broad shot doesn’t really convey it, but the place is decorated within an inch of its life, with animals carved on columns and stair posts, the ceiling panels painted with botanical images. If you’re in London, it’s absolutely worth at least walking through the front door just to gape.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
If you go to Okinawa, Shuri-jou is one of the top sites you’re likely to visit: a castle dating back to the Kingdom of Ryukyu, before the islands were made part of Japan. (Well, the reconstruction thereof. Like most things in Okinawa, it got bombed to oblivion in World War II.) The style of it is highly unusual, being strongly influenced by China, but also kind of its own thing.
No, I have no idea why the courtyard is stripey. π
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
I think of this kind of interlace as a Celtic thing, so I’m not sure why it’s to be found at the very tip-top of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. Well-decorated with graffiti, of course . . . but there’s a point at which that stops actually feeling like defacement to me, and starts feeling like part of the site’s history.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
When we were in Zakopane, a mountain village in Poland, one of the places we stopped was a model country house with a sculptor’s workshop attached (wooden sculpture being a thing Zakopane is known for). I have a special fondness for this sort of thing: not a staged museum exhibit, but the actual detritus of a craftsman at work.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The bridges over the Seine have become a site for the “love padlock,” put there by couples who then throw the key into the river. This particular bridge is almost completely covered in them, and some enterprising soul came along and did a bit of graffiti across the locks themselves — making for a nice juxtaposition of medieval and modern.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Not to be confused with a sled. π
The roses were not yet properly in bloom at Filoli — we were there in tulip season — but this one rosebud had caught a bit of water in its opening petal, which made for a nice little detail shot.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This isn’t the most visually striking photo I’ve ever taken, but I count it among my five-star shots anyway. The mountain you see in the distance is Vesuvius, and the foreground is the ruins of the Temple of Apollo in Pompeii. I’ve had a minor obsession with Pompeii since I was ten, so the chance to go there in person was really the opportunity of a lifetime.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
My trip to England and France last fall was the Trip of Gargoyles. (I’m only sad that the towers of Notre Dame were closed by a strike while we were in Paris, robbing me of a chance to photograph the gargoyles there.) This one is on the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford, and seems to have something very important to say . . . .
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Since I have set a new speed record for editing photos from a trip, it seems appropriate to start this week off with an image from my recent week in Okinawa. Naminoue-gu is quite literally the “Shrine Above the Waves” — perched on a cliff overlooking one of the beaches in Naha. As dramatic settings for a religious structure go, this may be the best one I’ve ever seen.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
I previously posted a smaller shot from this same day, but I’m equally fond of its wider cousin, especially since I caught the French flag partly extended.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
I can’t remember what deities or such this is supposed to depict, but it’s one of the Roman fragments on display at the museum in Bath. As is the case with many of my favorite shots, I love the lighting on this one.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Bells and stained glass windows are two things I have a soft spot for. The chance to get both of them in one image? Priceless. π
(This shot, for reference, is from Malbork Castle in Poland.)
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You’d never guess it to look at this shot, but I was standing on the edge of a parking lot when I took it. We were nearly done with our time at Point Lobos, but I saw this tree out on the rocks, with the sunset behind, and just had to stop to capture it.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
When this posts, I will be on my way back from a week and a half long karate seminar in Okinawa. It seems a good day for this shot of Kinkakuji, the famous temple in Kyoto that is quite literally plated in gold. (There’s another one that was supposed to be plated in silver — Ginkakuji — but that one’s still just wood.) It’s kind of a refrackulous place, but undeniably photogenic.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Colosseum is one of those buildings that’s difficult to photograph, because it’s just too big. Picking one edge of it and focusing on that turned out better than any of my whole-site shots.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The next time I take a picture like this one, I’ll have an easier time of it.
Hawaii was one of the last trips I took before I was in the habit of using Lightroom to edit my photos, which means I didn’t plan for the editing process in taking the shot. Which means I took about twenty-seven of these shots, trying to get one where the horizon was actually level — that wake you see is from the ferry I was riding in, so I kept being rolled in one direction or the other. In the future I can just take a wider shot without worrying as much about the framing, and then straighten it out in post.
I have survived training! Most of it, anyway; maybe all. It’s unclear whether there will be more training on Kouri Island, which is where we’re going for the next couple of days. The schedule originally said yes, but the final version said no, and we’ve been told not to bring bo or sai or even gi. So if we are going to do more karate, it’ll be in swimsuits on the beach. Which would not be a bad thing . . .
Apart from the fact that I ended up learning kusanku yesterday (a kata I’m not supposed to know for another year or so, which involves dropping to a one-legged crouch three times and is absolute murder on your right quadricep and glutes), I think I’m in pretty good shape. Ankle isn’t bothering me much, though it was a bit bad on the first day — I think I blame the plane flight. Okinawa is hot and humid, but so far not as bad as it could have been. I’ve experimented with continuous shooting for stuff that’s moving (traditional Okinawan dancers; adorable ducklings), and therefore have vast quantities of photos to wade through and cull. I would try to make a more interesting post out of this, but my brain appears to have been chopped up for chanpuru. π
I should eat breakfast. And pack for Kourijima. Yeah.
This work by https://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
I think I’d been to Nanzenji before, on my previous trip to Japan, but I wasn’t as much of a photographer then; I didn’t pay attention to small details, and wouldn’t have been able to control my camera to get the short depth of field I have here. It’s nice to know what you’re doing . . . .
