Photo of the Day: South Haven Lighthouse

The day after Christmas, my dad and I took the kids out to the pier in South Haven, MI. Because of the winter storm a few days before with really high winds, everything on the water was totally frozen. Even though I walked all the way down the frozen pier to get up-close pictures of the lighthouse. This one, shot from a distance was my favorite.

This was taken with my Sony Cybershot 7.2MP

Photo of the Day: Light and Shadow

There are only a couple of more days left in The Month of the Dead, so I wanted to post this picture while there was still time. I will likely try to round out the rest of the month tomorrow with the pictures that I also took at St. Paul's Episcopal Cemetery. In the meantime, the above is my contribution for today.

I took this last summer at the country's smallest battlefield cemetery-- Fort Stevens National Battlefield Cemetery. There are 40 Union graves there, and it is one of the few where they are all identified. This cemetery is actually around the corner (and a few blocks down the street) from our house, and so is what's left of the battlefield. The battlefield site is the only one where the Commander in Chief (re: President Abraham Lincoln) was present for the battle. Union forces were desperately trying to defend Washington, DC, and as was custom at the time, old Abe wanted to watch. From the letters that he wrote later, they say that supposedly he was almost killed, but mesmerized by the scene.

Sony CyberShot 7.2MP, Digital Format

Photo of the Day - The Road Less Traveled

As I mentioned in my previous 'Photo of the Day' post, I recently went on a hike to Catoctin Mountain National Park with my Dad while he was in town. I told him before we went, that we were on a "photog mission." That is, I really wanted to take some fresh shots so that I could post them here. One of my favorite shots is what I call, the 'Trail Shot.' I find that I take these kinds of shots whereever I go. It doesn't always have to be a hiking trail, but it could be a road, a narrow passage, or even a cute alley tucked away behind some tall buildings. This shot, I really like because you can follow the length of the un-blazed trail as far as the eye can see. I love the way the light and shadow are scattered, but still manage to pick up the lush greens, bright yellows, oranges, and rich browns along the trail.

I don't know why I'm so drawn to shots like this, but nevertheless, I am. Whenever I shoot one of these, a single line of Robert Frost scrolls through my brain, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

Here is the rest of the poem for you to enjoy:

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

by Robert Frost

Sony Cybershot 7.2 MP, digital format

Photo of the Day - Parliament

As I've mentioned previously, my activities in Budapest consisted mainly of wandering around in the freezing cold taking pictures while my hands and fingers, ungloved so as to work the camera, got frostbite. No, seriously it really was not that cold, but it was cold enough to necessitate a long sleeve shirt, a very heavy sweater, thick scarf, long wool coat, hat, and gloves.

One of my favorite buildings in Budapest is their Parliament. It is one of the most lavish creations I've seen in a while and I took about a million (small exaggeration) pictures of it. The best views of the building were actually from the Buda side of the Danube. If you stood on an overlook in the Castle district you could see the entire building in all it's domed and spired glory.



And, thanks to the folks at Snapfish, I managed to create a print of the above photo that reminds me of the type of postcard you can buy that's an old picture. It's the sepia tone and the fuzzy white border that does it but still, neat.



Budapest is one of those cities that looks "right" in black and white or sepia. It's age seems to be more comfortable with those romantic tones than it does in color.

Pentax 35 mm film

Photo of the Day - A Walk in the Woods

Chimney Rock, Catoctin Mountain National Park

Last weekend, my Dad came for a visit. I thought it might be a great opportunity to show him some of the things that I really like to do. One of those things is visiting National Parks. Deciding that I wanted to hit up a park that I hadn't visited yet, I made plans to go to a stretch of the Appalachian Trail: Catoctin Mountain National Park. The park is located about 15 miles away from Gettysburg on the Maryland side of the Mason-Dixon line. Visiting this park turned out to be my best idea for the whole weekend because not only did we take a 3 hour hike up the mountain to see (and shoot) some beautiful scenery together, but we also visited two apple orchards where they unbelieveably had no donuts, and also Gettysburg National Battlefield Park where it turns out, my Dad has wanted to visit since he was a kid.


I'm going to be sharing a number of these shots in the next few weeks, because I have many that turned out very well. In the meantime, here are a couple more just to whet your pallette for something autumnal:

Moss and Leaves, Catoctin Mountain

Pumpkin Pyramid, Catoctin Mountain Apple Orchard; Thurston, MD

Sony Cybershot 7.2MP, Digital Format

Photo of the day - Buddha Heads

On my way home from India I took a too-brief stop in Thailand. On some friends' recommendations I made a point to visit Aythaya which is a short train ride outside of Bangkok. They promised that since I could not make the trip to Ancor Wat in Cambodia, the ruins at Aythaya would would be a similar experience. And right they were! There will be more on said ruins later but today's photo is a this grouping of Buddha statue heads.


There are signs all over the ruins instructing you to not substitute your head for Buddha's (like the face cut-outs at fairs and amusement parks). There were statues aplenty missing their heads but this was one of the few groupings of heads that I found. I loved the look of them sitting there with such serene faces as though they knew that they were missing their bodies but were ok with it.

Pentax 35mm film camera

Photo of the Day - T-Rex

A few months ago, I went with my niece and nephew to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. The museum always has lots of different exhibitions in the museum, and not only is it fun for kids, but it's an opportunity for adults to be kids too! This particular day, they had 'handlers' out with different bugs for the public to touch and feel. My niece was giddy about the stick bug that danced across her palm, and my nephew was totally freaked out by the green caterpiller that crawled around his fingers.



To me, the coolest part of the whole day was the pre-historic section of the museum. My sister and I marveled over the petrified trillobites, and talked about finding them in our backyard in Michigan as kids. And then...we saw him. The King of all the Dinosaurs-- the Tyrannosaurus Rex! The look on the kids' faces as their glances went up, and up, and up examining his sharp teeth and short little arms was amazing! The shot above is what we saw.



Sony Cybershot 7.2MP, digital format

Andrea's Photo of the Day

I took this photo last March-ish when I was in Serbia. Kalemegdan, a large fortress that was first the stronghold of the Turks when they ruled the area, then of the Austrian when they ousted the Turks, is now a large park in the Serbian capital Belgrade. I was fortunate enough to spend several months working in Belgrade and wandered around Kalemegdan quite often. The park includes walkways, restaurants, two churches (both Serbian Orthodox), a small amusement park with rides for children, and the Belgrade zoo. A lot of the original wall surrounding the fortress (pictured) still stands and interestingly enough, the government is actively rebuilding the fortress walls and possibly eventually the entire fortress itself.

I did not have much to do on my down time and weeknds so I wandered around and took a lot of pictures, most of them actually in Kalemegdan. I was attempting creative shots all over the city and I think I actually managed something nice in this one.

Digital format, Kodak EasyShare Z710 7.1MP

Lauren's Photo of the Day

I love this photo. It was taken in Ollantaytambo, Peru. The city is a site of Incan ruins about 75km from Cusco. I took this picture just before I climbed the ruins. I watched as this aymara girl struggled with the mule up and down the rocky streets of the town. I captured this shot as the mule was stopping to take a drink from the ancient irrigation canals in the city, he was not to be bothered by the girl who had to sit on the ledge just to get leverage to pull him further. I love the movement in this shot.

digital format; Sony Cybershot W80 7.2MP