travel Archives - Page 3 of 51

October 2, 2019October 1, 2019

Spanish Nights

This scene is typical among the towns of Spain. In particular, this is in Lloret de Mar along the Catalonian coast.

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Spanish Nights — A night scene in Catalonia

These types of street scenes are a favorite of mine because they convey a nightlife ambiance. I take photos like this by using a high ISO, (in this case, 2000), and a low f-stop, (in this case, 2.8). That combination allows picture taking as though it was daylight. Granted, I do post-processing to get the look I’m after – painterly is a word that describes this type of treatment.

more night photography

We stayed in Lloret de Mar on our first day of vacation. It’s a little over an hour from Barcelona airport and is an excellent way to decompress from an all-night flight. And, because the body clock was on North American time, it was easy to stay up late and get these scenes, despite the lack of sleep.

October 1, 2019September 30, 2019

La Grande-Motte

What do you get when an architect designs a city? A collection of eccentric-looking buildings along the Mediterranean.

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La Grande-Motte is a French beachside resort town. Spain has dozens of these that attract their French neighbors. However, someone got smart and built this town in France about fifty years ago. Now there are many beach towns along the French Mediterranean, and no need to cross into Spain for a holiday.

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Not that there is anything wrong with Spanish beach towns. Before I took this, I was in Lloret de Mar, which is just outside of Barcelona, and it was just as fun, and just as full of French tourists.

September 30, 2019September 29, 2019

Torre de Collserola

This tower is one of the first things you see in Barcelona. However, in my case, it took me by surprise.

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Torre de Collserola — Overlooking Barcelona in the rain – click to purchase

It was raining, so I had it in my mind to drive up the mountain and visit the Sagrat Cor church. However, the clouds created a thick blanket of fog, and it was difficult to see more than a hundred feet. As I stood outside the church, the clouds began to thin, and the tower appeared rather dramatically.

Here is a close-up view that T took with the telephoto lens fully extended. The tenth level is the observation deck, according to Wikipedia.

Smugglers Beach

I snapped a picture of some houses on Paradise Island. These are not just any houses, but I’m no name-dropper, so I’ll leave it at that.

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Smugglers Beach — The tip of Paradise Island in Nassau

It’s always fun to look at these fancy houses. But honestly, if I lived in one and tour boats motored by every day, it might lose some of its allure. Nevertheless, it’s not a problem I expect to have soon.

full-size image here

Paradise Island in Nassau is where The Atlantis resort is. Except for a few houses, it’s mostly resorts, timeshares, and a golf course. It’s a fun place to visit, and having a home here is just for that, to visit once in a while.

August 21, 2019August 19, 2019

Urban Beach

Here is another image I took on the beach in Barcelona. I photoshopped out most of the people, and believe me; there were a lot.

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We stayed at the hotel in one of the tall buildings for a couple of days before a cruise. Walking up and down the beach is entertaining, especially with all the outdoor restaurants and bars. There are so many it’s hard to choose.

beach gallery

Nevertheless, the heat forced us into the shade of a bistro that served icy pitchers of Sangria. And there we sat the rest of the day, savoring the flavors, recovering from jet lag and enjoying the sights and sounds.

August 8, 2019August 7, 2019

Cool W

This is a fashionable hotel at the end of the beach in Barcelona. It’s a cool beach with a cool hotel and cool people walking cool dogs.

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Cool W — The W Hotel on the beach in Barcelona

It’s so cool that I was starting to feel a little self-conscious. But I know that’s silly because the people in Barcelona are not so pretentious. They just have that way about them that seems fashionable to me.

Boat Life

These marinas are cities within cities. People in them live semi-nomadic lives and form communities; coming and going with the wind.

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The marina in Barcelona reminds me of similar ones close to home. I’m heading back and have been looking at my photos from there. Marinas are enormous along the Mediterranean. We have many in Florida, but I think they are generally not as big as the ones in Europe. Maybe boat life is more prevalent there.

more boats in the gallery

Anyway, I know an American teacher who leads on-line courses remotely from her boat in Spain or Italy, depending on the season. No house required; have a boat, laptop, and internet connection; and the world is your oyster.

July 31, 2019July 29, 2019

Multnomah Falls

No trip to the Portland area is complete without visiting Multnomah Falls. Here is a lie; there was nobody here when I took this shot.

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In fact, to get this, I had to elbow my way through layers of Instagrammers holding phones aloft with their backs to the falls. I should have known better, it was July 4th, but I went anyway. I Photoshoped all the people off the bridge except for one. In the end, this edit is not far from the scene I imagined in my head.

see the European gallery

If I did have the place to myself, I would have taken more shots, but I like this shot, so maybe that would have been a waste. Anyhow, when I go back, even if it’s winter, I’ll come early to try my luck again. But it’s all good; I ended up hiking to the top to see even more waterfalls and a lot fewer people. It ended up being an excellent day, for Instagram and me.

July 30, 2019July 29, 2019

Gate at Dusk

I took this about five years ago on one of my visits back to where I grew up. But as they say, home is where the heart is.

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Gate at Dusk — The Golden Gate bridge from Point Lobos in San Francisco

Never in a million years would I have imagined I’d end up in Florida. But here I am, and the longer I’m out here, the more I need to go back to the Pacific for little trips to recharge. Maybe I miss the mountains and evergreens which we don’t have in the sunshine state.

more images from San Francisco

This image is my favorite from that trip, but I waited until now to process it. For whatever reason, it needed to age like a good California wine.

July 16, 2019July 16, 2019

Huckleberry Lane

Driving up Highway 126 along the McKinzie River, the temptation is to pull off at every little bridge or vista. On one near Fin Rock, I found this lonely lane.

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Huckleberry Lane — A utility road through the forest in Oregon

I’ve heard so much about the forests in the Pacific Northwest, and seeing them for myself was worth the trip. An old utility road through the forest is an invitation to explore. It was blocked off, so maybe it’s better I didn’t drive it in my little rental car.

more forests in the gallery

I imagine that, like the Mangroves of the tropics, these conifers constitute a significant source of CO2 sequestration for our planet. Not only that, the forests are the habitat for mycelium which we are just now discovering can lead to cures for pollution and disease. (Check out this website for more on that!) Let’s hope these forests remain protected as vigorously as our Florida mangroves.