Jewelry Shop

When I go out for a walk with my camera, I am always drawn to nice light, nice colors, and nice textures. I was in Hoi An in Vietnam...it is a charming little town that was one of the few places in not bombed during the war. The buildings in the old town are just filled with character and great textures...a great place for photography!

I am now in Hong Kong, and pre-scheduled this post...will be back on Monday!!

Have a great weekend!!

Beijing Airport

I could probably do an entire series on Asian Airports...they are just so cool!!

The Great Wall of China

I only had two hours up at the great wall. We left early in the morning, and it was cold. When we got to the wall, we were the only tourists there...we had the entire wall to ourselves...that was great...the other great thing is that the sun came out. With the sun and the exercise, I was warm for the first time on my trip to China...

A Very Cool Sculpture Thingy

Sorry for the title...I did a google search to see if I could find the name of this sculpture, but couldn't find anything...Any of you out there know the name of this sculpture?

I had people waiting for me in the van while I ran out to take some photos...as I was literally running from the "Bird's Nest" back to the van, I ran into this sculpture...I quickly set up my tripod (you can see my reflection in the lower right), and fired away 5 shots, and then picked up my camera, and ran back to the van...

Traveling with non-photographers can be frustrating as "they just don't understand"...ha ha...BUT, it was very COLD....so, I can understand why my friends didn't want to wait for Scotty "to get the shot" while standing outside freezing to death...at least I got the shot!!

A Real Aston Martin

I am not really into taking photos of cars...I am not really into cars either...but, when I was walking down the streets of Taipei, I had to say, "wow" when I saw two Aston Martin's sitting in a show room. I asked the guy if I could take some photos...he obliged. I am a big James Bond fan, and who could forget James Bond driving an Aston Martin in Goldfinger...

This car will set you back about 350 grand....and the one in the background is three times that price...whoa...sure would be nice to be rich!

The Baseball Stadium in Taipei

Taiwan is famous for its Little Baseball Teams...they just love Baseball in Taiwan.

Apparently, this baseball bat and balls are new to the stadium...

The Glowing Lanterns In Taiwan

I had only one day to cruise around Taipei with my buddies, Robb Sloan and Gene Magill. The temples were all decorated with these golden lanterns for Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the tiger, and these lanterns have those "Tiger" colors...

The Kid's Table At The Hong Kong Airport

The airports in Asia are one notch above their counterparts in the rest of the world...they are all into this new look of....uh....something....not sure how to describe it...lots of rafters, glass, and cool ceilings...the food courts are getting better and better, and the areas for kids to hang out just didn't exist when I was a kid...I still think the airport in Singapore is the KING of airports, but the others in big Asian cities are almost in the same league...except for Jakarta, of course...which still ranks up there in the "boring" category...

The Water Cube

Ok, this HAS to be one of the coolest buildings in the world...

I remember seeing it on TV when the Summer Olympics was in full swing, and I remember thinking, "I gotta get a photo of that place someday". Well, dreams DO come true...there it is...the WATER CUBE in Beijing...

The Olympic Stadium in Beijing

So, I am back from my trip. Today is my birthday as well...I don't really like birthdays anymore...they seem to come and go faster and faster as I get older...

I was on 10 different airplanes the past 10 days...flew to Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Saigon, and Hoi An in Vietnam before returning late last night to Jakarta. I took over a thousand photos, so I will be featuring some from my whirlwind trip the next couple of weeks.

I got out for a couple of hours one night in Beijing...I wanted photos of the "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube" at night. It was REALLY cold, but I walked around with my tripod, and got some cool shots...this is the front entrance to the "Bird's Nest"...

Archive #6...From Last Year's "Jamie Trip"

This was from last year's trip to China...this year, we are in Vietnam...which is where I am now...I return to Jakarta tomorrow with hopefully some new cool photos from my trip...

Archive #5...My First HDR Photo of my House

This is an HDR Panoramic photo of my house...it was actually one of my first attempts at HDR photography...

I am presently in Beijing...will fly to Saigon tomorrow for our Annual "Jamie Trip"....

Have a great weekend, and I will see you on Tuesday...one more archived photo on Monday...

Archive #4...Zebras in Namibia

This shot took me some time...I had to wait for just the right moment when all 6 zebras had their heads down drinking...moments after I took the shot, a lion came into the scene and scared all the zebras away...

Archive #3...Driftwood On The Beach

One of my favorite places in the world...Pulau Kri in West Papua...

Archive #2...Underwater Papua

One of my favorite Clown Fish shots from Papua...

Archive #1...Nepal

I am in Taiwan at the moment, but have scheduled posts for this week from the archives...

This one from the trek to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal a couple of years ago...

Headed On Another Trip

I will be hitting the archives for the next week...I will be away from computers for 9 days on a trip to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam...looking forward to the trip, so will schedule some blog posts now for next week with some shots from the past...maybe you have seen some of these before, but if you are new to this blog, the photos will be new to you too...

See ya with some fresh new photos the day before my birthday...February 16th...!!

A Nice View From The Brooklyn Bridge

This is about half-way across the Brooklyn Bridge...the wind was howling and bitterly cold, but the view was worth the walk...

The Dairy Queen at Virginia Beach

I took a little walk one day by myself down the strip of Virginia Beach a couple of days after New Year's...it was very cold, and there was not a soul around...it was actually very peaceful. This Dairy Queen sat all by itself in the cold...not many people want an ice cream cone when it is freezing outside...

This photo is obviously an HDR...5 exposures, blended in Photomatix, and then worked over in Photoshop....the final version was about 14 layers...

Another Rugby Shot

I liked the way this one came out after a bit of post-processing...ok, more than a "bit" of processing...trying for the real "gritty" look...

Don't ya just love the expressions?...they are high school kids, but I wouldn't mess with dem...

Thinking and Then Re-thinking About The Leica M9

For the past few months, well since September, I have been thinking and dreaming of owning the new Leica M9. I have so much Nikon gear that I drag around with me, and it is heavy. The idea of carrying a nice small, compact camera and lens that has image quality better than anything I can get with my current equipment, is very attractive. However, it has its trade-offs....one, it is bloody expensive...7 thousand dollars for just the body, and then Leica glass is at least another couple of grand for their cheaper lenses...two, I would be giving up auto focus (not such a terrible thing)... three, no more zoom lenses...and four, say good-bye to sports and nature photography. The latter has me re-thinking my decision to switch over to Leica. I just spent the weekend shooting sports, and frankly, I had a blast doing it...it was really fun and challenging...and usually not my thing to shoot as I prefer landscapes and non-moving objects. Since I am not a rich guy, if I want the Leica, I would have to sell most of my current equipment to have enough money...so both systems really is not an option...I am back to just keeping what I have despite the weight...but who knows, in a week, I will change my mind again...probably my next trip will convince me to change my mind when I am lugging my big bag and tripod around some third-world country...that always does the trick....

Anyway, off to my photo of the day....another shot from this past weekend's rugby tournament. This is one of my former students, and I am sure he will want a nice big print of this photo...