The Fledgling Photographer

A quick little redirection...

2009-05-25T19:26:00.002-05:00

Well, everyone, I've finally moved up in the world and established myself in the real world... for the most part.

http://www.haonavy.com

Yeah, its still a blog, but its quite a bit different. Its still the Fledgling Photographer... same stories. All of it is still there from archives, too...

...just a little fancier and a little more streamlined... and white.

I'm still working a bit ironing the kinks out, but take a look.

Thank you guys for staying tuned for so long. This blog will still be around for a long long time to remind you and redirect people if you haven't updated your bookmarks.

Stay tuned... just here: http://www.haonavy.com
-Noah D.

Still one more year till my time comes...

2009-05-15T21:49:00.003-05:00

I graduated high school in 2004... and I'm still in college. It is kinda what I get for changing schools (3 times) and changing majors (umm... too many to count).

But, had I not taken so long, I don't think I ever would have found and done the things that I do now... and love. And want to do for the rest of my life.

Its really hilarious to me when I get to shoot jobs of specific types of people. But, honestly, I'm not stereotyping at all... but when it comes to shooting a function of business majors (marketing, management, etc.) they act and look... well... like business people!

So what about the other majors? When I get to see a cross-section of my university at a massive event like graduation... I find it really amusing.

Fashion design/merchandising? Absolutely.

Alright, all of that was just pre-game... My boss shot the "official" picture of the hand-shake-diploma-grab thing.

I roamed.

The real thing begins. I think it was something like 601 graduates.

Its also funny to see "graduation shoes." Nursing students all wear red.

With all those black robes, how else can you make yourself an "individual."

...and enough of that.

Okay, one more...

Nursing student? Yep.

Or, just throw up the deuce...

...or just be so happy you're actually graduating.

That'll be me.

The dean of the business department Dr. Burks... and in the background is our university President Dr. Burks...

...yeah? Father and son.

Then, the Alma Mater.

Strangely enough, after four (or five or six) years at this school, hardly anyone knows. Honestly, I wouldn't know it if it were not for the work I did with student publications this year.

But then, within two hours it was all over!

And they all go out...

...to this...

...and this...

...but mostly this...

...because when 7,000 people and 600-something graduates and teachers all pour out of an arena - I guess it must be hard to find one specific person.

Saying goodbye to their friends...

...and teachers that have made a bit of a difference over the past few years.

And lots of family photos...

It'll be fascinating this next year... when I take my turn across that stage. A year from now. You KNOW there will be photos from that. But they'll be from the other side.

Everything is a learning experience.

Everything.

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

What have YOU been doing recently?

2009-05-12T20:24:00.002-05:00

In the midst of rain...

...every day.

And while trying to close down the semester...

...and saying goodbye for the summer.

I tried to grow a plant...

...but its a little browner now... and not much bigger. Oops.

Alright, enough failed plant raisings for a moment.

I shot a ceremony for the Arkansas National Guard...

It was a nice thing.

There were quite few soldiers (like 500) and each and every one was called up on the stage and shook hands with a bunch of officers and the mayor of their hometown.

I followed one company outside in the drizzling rain...

I love to see the stuff before and after the things everybody else sees.

It normally encourages unique photos. I like unique photos.

Sometimes when you hear "look for the unique angle" don't think that just means for you to turn the camera 45degrees to the left or right like half of what's on Flickr these days.

Anyways... moving along.

We also closed the year out with a few organizational parties. Like... the student publications final dinner.

...and Ashton's gonna hurt me.

Olive Garden = perquisites of the job.

But not to brag. Just saying.

So, stay tuned for more.
-Noah D.

It is good to stretch yourself...

2009-05-06T03:43:00.002-05:00

It seems as though I have been shooting a lot of portraits lately... which, honestly, is a great great thing. I love stretching my comfort level with various equipment.

My heart lies with natural, ambient light...

...but I could get used to this flash thing.

I think the select was this one:

My friend Philip needed a portrait for the book jacket of his almost-out photojournalism book on his time he spent in Haiti.

I'm a fan of the cinematographic crop.

I did football portraits the other day, too...

100-something of this:

Also, the incoming Student Association... (I still call it SGA. Is there a difference without the "government" part?) Very simple, semi-corporate photo... minus the corporate duds.

I enjoy the challenge of making all the lighting different. Different light-shaping, different poses, interacting with different people in different ways.

Maybe its because I'm just not good enough to duplicate a set yet... things are able to be random and still look like I know what I'm doing.

Hence the "Fledgling Photographer" continues...

:)

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

David Cook @ HU

2009-05-05T03:49:00.002-05:00

Just a quick slideshow.

Here's the full version: click here.

There is probably plenty I could say about it... but there are far more fun things to talk about.

Concert. Dave Cook. American Idol or something like that... done.

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

The Other Side of a large production...

2009-04-18T21:56:00.004-05:00

For those of you on the cast/crew who wondered, "Why is that dude still here? Does he really need that many photos?" maybe here's a bit of an explanation:

Shooting backstage at a concert is a unique experience. But, shooting backstage during all parts of a production is, what I would honestly call, somewhat of an honor.

I did the studio work for the program recently and truly enjoyed it. I was working with all the lights and equipment and I shot about a hundred standard and full-length portraits that went into the program.

Since I was on staff for that they asked me back to shoot some extra stuff during practices. On top of that my work for the Public Relations department got me in front of the stage, too. This was literally all sides... and I loved it.

Still, the aspect I enjoyed the most was being behind the scenes. I mean, suspension of disbelief aside, a production does not start and end with the performance. Song-and-dance numbers do not just happen like they do in musicals where everyone knows the songs and choreography. And neither do they end with the final bow...

So, here it is. A little look at what happens everywhere else...

And if you'd like to see it a bit larger and no distractions: Click here.

So, I hope you enjoy the new format. It prevents me from posting 50 photos in an epic post. If you didn't notice, you can click the little box in the bottom right and view it at full screen... it just takes a little while to load.

But if you'd like to see the rest of the show - the on-stage part, too - take a look at this link... 1,300-something photos.

Take a look.

Stay tuned for more. There's been so much going on...
-Noah D.

A quiet walk on a spring morning...

2009-04-15T00:21:00.002-05:00

...for everyone except me.

They gave me a golf cart.

(Yep, blow that one up... its kinda cool.)

Yesterday? Gross weather.

Today? Beautiful weather.

My University's golf team was competing in a nearby town. Nearby is an hour away.

Golf is honestly enjoyable to shoot. A little restrictive, but... absolutely enjoyable and relaxing to shoot. Its interesting to be in a place where one single location can make a thousand different photos. Its like 360 degrees of good photos.

And sometimes even vertically, too...

I'm doing these posts backwards, by the way. This is the most recent shoot - only this morning and today. They'll go further back as I get to processing. Lots and lots of photos.

And I feel an epic post coming up...

Stay tuned,
Noah D.

Maybe just a shot or two...

2009-03-24T00:32:00.004-05:00

Not too much to say...

...but a photo from this weekend will speak enough.

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

The absurdly brilliant need to be shared...

2009-03-19T19:03:00.003-05:00

"Our pictures are our footprints. It’s the best way to tell people we were here."

I don't know if many of you have ever noticed the long list of links on the side of the page. They are all blogs or links to photographer sites I feel are significant...

...hence the heading "Significant Links".

Well, if you haven't been following any of them or checking them recently, they're quite brilliant sometimes.

Today there were a couple exceptional ones.

Top-shelf professional photographer Joe McNally: he's written a couple books now and has a National Geographic cover and everything... but today he deviated from his usual wit and posted this gem: >>HERE<<

The last section is exceptional. I mean extraordinary. Usually you see quotes from the great photographers like Robert Capa saying things like "if your photographs aren't good enough you're not close enough" and such like that, but Joe McNally struck a chord with his readers today. Here's the quote:

"Our pictures are our footprints. It’s the best way to tell people we were here."

That one's gonna stick around.

Secondly, PixSylated has a series of "Lessons I Didn't Learn in Photo School". Things that nobody tells anybody else but you just have to learn by doing... and making mistakes... and seeing what actually works.

"Ultimately your career as a photographer, amateur or professional, will be defined by the lives you touch through the images you make."

Yeah, its a little more touchy-feely than the McNally quote, but I kinda see how its true just for the little stuff as I, the Fledgling Photographer that I am, seek to emerge in the world of photojournalism.

I co-taught a class today on photography. It was quite an experience, for as relaxed as a thing that it was... few people, no expectations, no requirements...

But in teaching it, I learned that I still have so much to learn. I'm sitting here looking at thousands and thousands of photographs a week from the likes of a host of Joe McNally's, Burn Magazine, VEWD, MJR, a bunch of wedding photojournalist, The Frame, The Big Picture, and I have accounts with a few of the major wire services just to look at photos that pop up each morning on the wire.

In an attempt to train my mind to "see" photographs I consume myself with images ranging from everything to everything else.

And so this is what I've been doing for almost two full years now... but I learn more each day. I've been shooting for myself more these days. Taking advantage of the press access even when its not required.

Practice is invaluable.

I still dwell on that quote:

"Our pictures are our footprints. It’s the best way to tell people we were here."

Oh, and by the way, I'm going through some photos for my parents from their trip to Italy. My mum took the shot of me above. Good Facebook shot, right?

Well, she also took this:

Go mom.

What else these days? Baseball season. Gets a bit repetitive at times... but it is a terrific chance to practice nano-second decisive moments...

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

Going back to donkeys...

2009-03-17T17:03:00.004-05:00

"Maybe we need a little bit of time where we're walking around with a donkey with pots clanging on the sides..."

(More about that later.)

Exactly one year ago (and even within an hour of this blog post) I took this photo:

Forty grown college kids reverting back to the simple pleasures from childhood - playing in mud. Was it significant that this mud was from the Dead Sea and we were up to our waist in it? I dare say it could have been in the local pond - it was simple fun with absolutely NO technology.

I heard somebody talking about phrases they hate these days. They made references to all the fun little cliches imaginable...

...but to me there is one these days that sticks out above the rest:

"...in these tough economic times..."

Well boy howdy, people... did you drive to school today? Did you have running hot water in your shower? Did you go buy $170 instead of $200 of groceries yesterday because you're "on a budget"?

Maybe we need a little time when things are a bit more difficult. Hey, I don't want to give up my air conditioning and internet on my cell phone any more than the next guy, but would it really be that bad?

Go live in some parts of Europe for a little while. Do without a cell phone and have to take the train or public transit - or perish the thought: WALK - everywhere you go.

I took this photo in Greece a year ago last week. This woman fascinated me because she sat there for hours because she had nothing else to do... so she watched traffic pass.

Oh, wait. I'm pretty sure our parents and grandparents did that quite a bit... and some still do.

Check out this video for a little more comedic spin on things... as well as the quote I referenced in opening this blog:

Take a little time and enjoy something simple today. Nothing lasts forever.

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

There was warm spot on the way home...

2009-03-12T21:13:00.003-05:00

I hate to say it, but there isn't much more dramatic than a fire...

...but lucky for this occasion, it was intentionally set and being used as training for the local volunteer fire departments.

It was 11:30 at night and I was driving through east of Decatur, Ala., and kinda passed by this thing starting up...

After a quick talk to the chief and firefighters, I found this was just a training fire for a building that was going to be demolished to make room for a church expansion...

Sometimes silhouettes are cliche... but... they're quite dramatic, wouldn't you say?

Half of spot news is luck, I am convinced. And it is why I always have a camera with me.

I think I'm caught up with all my photos... I think. Just a few days left for Spring Break...

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

On the way home, I stopped by the NCAA GSC Semi-Finals...

2009-03-11T18:22:00.003-05:00

Well, I was on my way home for Spring Break and I figured I'd stop by the NCAA Gulf South Conference where I had a press pass waiting for me...

...to shoot the semi-finals where my college was playing Arkansas Tech.

It was just a quick stop on the way home.

A few hundred photos later... and I continued on the way home.

There was more fun on the way home, but that'll be for a future blog...

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

Everyone has a need...

2009-03-08T19:35:00.004-05:00

Everyone has a need.

Someone may need to pay his or her rent. Some man may need a red necktie. Some college student may need an internship or job after graduation.

What if it was a 17 year-old kid on a baseball team in a tiny town in central Arkansas? What would he need?

Would he and his team need new shoes and uniforms because the ones they had didn't match?

Would they need new baseballs because the old ones were held together with duct tape?

What if his father had just died after a long bout with cancer?

If it happened to you, would you still have a self-less enough attitude to think of your teammates first and say what WE need instead of 'I'?

Will Staggs, a pitcher for the Pangburn Tiger's high school varsity baseball team...

...did just this.

Yep, he's a real person.

Since his dad got sick, his mother took care of his dad... at a pretty substantial cost in today's time: her job. Last season he had to work to provide for the family. This season his mother made him play baseball instead of working because he loved it so much... and it would be his last season to play.

People should learn from those who tackle great adversity. People who overcome great pain and sorrow in their personal lives but live for the big picture.

Its quite an honorable thing...

...so here are a few photos.

Let them tell the story.

Announcers in Arkansas start a little earlier than the rest of the country.

And a friend of mine was writing the article for the paper that these photos were ordered for.

Sometimes I really enjoy working in Arkansas. Sure you gotta take a thousand menial group photos to get to the jobs like this, but its so worth the wait.

And plus, you never know what you're going to see in Arkansas:

Stay tuned, my friends.
-Noah D.

A three minute shoot for a busy man...

2009-03-06T22:37:00.004-06:00

For almost the past month I have been working on a project.

Each spring, my University hosts a contest between the social clubs (read: fraternities/sororities or Greek organizations). They are given a general theme and they have to come up with a song and dance number using real, pop music with their own lyrics.

Well, I'm simplifying it quite a bit, but its a pretty big deal to all the members of the clubs. Seriously.

These guys and girls are given the better half of a semester to work on their 10 minutes or so of allotted time to be performed 3 times. How hardcore? Like, hours of practicing multiple times a week for months.

On top of that is the main cast of four song and dance performers and their back-up extras. So... its a big deal here.

Anyways, I got the job of photographing for the program. I'll have some tearsheets of the program closer to the actual performance (which I think is still almost a month away), but...

The director/producer's name is Dr. Steve Frye. I tell you: he's a super busy but super cool guy. To rescue him from having to use a 5-year-old PR photo, I set up a quickie in the recital hall. Literally... 3 minutes quickie.

This is the outcome:

Very basic setup.

The ambient light was reading around 1/15th @ f/5.6 @ ISO400 and I wanted to kill it, so I spun it up to about 1/100th.

I knew I wanted the shot to be tight, but I also wanted to make the light fall-off fast enough to make it look like a spotlight (director/producer... spotlight... auditorium seats... get it?). So I choked up on the umbrellas a bit (especially the main light to my right) and zoomed the heads to their farthest and got things tight.

The first few shots, Dr. Frye was sitting back very relaxed, but looked a little uncomfortable. And the composition just didn't work very well. It could have been anywhere because his head was too far above the level of the seats and the light fall-off was too great.

All he had to do was lean forward and the photo worked. The lights stayed as they were (main: 1/4 - fill: 1/16) and his hands low balanced the composition nicely.

Well, that's that. I enjoy quick shoots like this. Things that aren't extraordinarily taxing on the mind and body but have good photo outcomes and satisfied clients. Smiles around.

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

No more basketball... I think...

2009-03-06T01:16:00.003-06:00

Not too much to say about photos of the last home basketball game.

I mean, how profound could I really get.

I mean, I guess I could talk about the luck I had catching flashes. But there's nothing really excessively deep about that...

Just really really lucky.

I used the ceiling-mounted strobes for the girl's game...

...but the regular mounted flash for the men's.

But its kinda fun to get creative when the flashy basketball shots and demon red-eyes get a little old.

Trying to tell the story of a basketball game... less basketball... more atmosphere...

Oh, and did I mention this was the first major shoot where I was able to use the newest addition to the family: the venerable AF Nikkor 17-55/2.8. It is a beast.

It was great to get up and close with the crowd.

It was a rowdy crowd.

A photogenic crowd.

And it was fun to have such a range. I didn't change a lens the entire night. And for a little side-job I had to shoot our radio announcers.

I'm kinda sad to see basketball end for the season. I may be shooting the Gulf South Conference finals on Saturday if our guys win tomorrow night. We'll see...

But that remains to be seen.

Care to stay tuned?
-Noah D.

Family. Friends. Film.

2009-03-03T12:09:00.005-06:00

"Whoa, that's old school..." or "Why do you have that?" or "Hey, is that a Leica?"

Its usually what people zero in on first when I'm carrying my Leica M4-P. I've been carrying it on real jobs a lot more frequently these days. Not for any reason in particular...

I mean, I don't think I've had many (if any) published photos from it. But that's usually because I take too long to develop the film.

But I still love everything about it.

The feel.

The grit.

The automatic conversation piece for people.

"You shoot film?" they ask as if that's some alien concept now.

"Yeah," I say as though two other DSLR's hanging on my shoulder aren't enough of an answer, "but just for my fun."

I mainly get my kicks from getting photos back from the lab I forgot I made.

But usually that can be blamed on the inordinate amount of time it took to get them to the lab in the first place.

But it makes me look pretty hardcore to show up with a gallon zip-lock baggie of film.

I just don't tell them it took a few months to accumulate so many.

Yeah, like photos of my family in a fully bloomed rose garden was taken last week...

This color film was bought in Greece last spring. I just finished using the last few rolls.

It was almost sentimental seeing the rolls go to print. "Oh, I remember when I bought you little Fuji 200 in that little seaside town in southeast Greece.

Riiiight...

Its all in the moments. Not in the film.

Family, friends, and film. Good stuff.

I'm a bit behind on some blogs so expect a few more in the next few days.

There was a shoot yesterday that I really have to get through some of this backlog to get to... so... anticipate.

Stay tuned,
-Noah D.

A venerable comedian takes the stage...

2009-02-16T16:46:00.003-06:00

The Jazz Band had played their songs, the pledge of allegiance had been pledged, and the prayer had been prayed.

"I present the American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series speaker...," Dr. Jim Carr, the VP of my university, announced from the podium after reading a lengthy and rather impressive bio: presidential speechwriter, White House economist, actor, comedian, writer, producer...

The auditorium - entirely full and standing room only for the first time in a long while - already was getting to their feet as if it were a rock concert.

"...Ben Stein."

It was quite a cheer.

The hours leading up to the actual speech were the usual: grip-and-grin reception, lots of candids, dinner with the speaker.

While my boss took photos of the hand shake, I did the walk-around thing. Its the usual thing.

Mr. Yarnell was even there. ("Yarnell's" is a semi-mid-west-south ice cream company based nearby. Its pretty good icecream, really.)

Ben Stein was quite the personable man, too. More on that soon.

But he would talk and talk and talk to people. In fact, when the time came for dinner, the organizers started herding people away to take their seats. Mr. Stein waved them back in for more!

So, I didn't bother with the dinner. There's not THAT much to shoot. People eating.

Gee...

I moved on to the auditorium an hour early to make sure I had a seat. It was starting to fill even an hour early. Let me just say, by speech time, it was completely filled...

...and dozens were out in the lobby watching the monitors.

Well, as I was saying, the university jazz band played their set off and on as the crowds entered.

I stood with Mr. Stein and his bodyguard in the wings as the band finished playing. He had some ferocious allergies. I was fighting a cold. We small-talked about our snot.

My sister later asked me why I didn't say something about, "Itchy, allergy eyes? Try clear eyes. Wow..."

(Click here if you need that explained.)

Other than our infirmities, I said that I was taking photos of the crowd because it was one of the largest crowds that had ever gathered for a speaker like this. At least, in the 3.5 years I'd been there...

"Well, I'm quite flattered," he peeked from behind the curtain for a second.

The crowd cheered a little and grew to a roar as he stepped out.

As soon as his bio started to be read by Dr. Carr, he took out his cell phone and began taking photos of the crowd.

One to the upper balcony...

...one down front in the middle...

...one to me.

He was a pretty cool guy.

He spoke of evolution and his movie "Expelled" and social dawinism and eugenics and the moral corruption of society leading to the downfall of empires.

There was quite a bit of Obama-bashing interjected in there (especially during the Q&A following) but he made his point clear and concise.

Most of the students there actually attended because they wanted to, not because they were forced to attend by their teachers.

The MC was one of them. Yep, she had to take notes as I took photos.

And the night finished off in the usual way with the speaker being presented an "Arkansas Traveler" award signed by Governor Beebe.

Considering Ben's wife's family is from Arkansas, the award is a little redundant, but... its just the usual thing.

The book signing followed. The MC sat strategically so she could hop up and get a signature or three before the line got a mile long and the books got sold-out.

But she got it. And she was quite excited.

So, that was Ben Stein...

Dry eyes, allergies, camera phone, tennis shoes and all...

Big shoot winding down this week. It really has been fun, but I can see now why photographers hire an assistant for big shoots!

Stay tuned for that.
-Noah D.

Recognizable faces to everyone...

2009-02-07T13:44:00.005-06:00

I love my job.

I kinda wanted to name this post "Yet another moment brought to you by my absurd job..." but that kind sounded a bit more pretentious than I intended... and it wouldn't fit in the box.

So, I photographed a banquet with Governor Mike Huckabee.

Yeah, as far as presidents or one-time presidential hopefuls go, he was my first in a photographing sort of way.

Half of the 500 or so photos were beforehand where all the few hundred guests were mingling in the lobby of my college's American Heritage Center. Some of the high-rollers were invited to a private reception with Gov.Huckabee upstairs where my boss was shooting grip-and-grins.

The night was dedicated to fund raising for the elementary/high school that is attached to the college. The lobby was full of artwork done by the students and the high school choir sang for all attending.

What an amazing cross-section of "getting-into-it-ness"... top left is probably my favorite. Top right is like, "Nope. Not happening."

There were a quite a few cameras there tonight.

And I had a thought:
as many DSLR's in the world that there are these days, I'm afraid the quality difference between pro-shooters and everyone else is going to narrow. But there's something quite comforting in all of this media convergence that everyone is buzzing about these days. The best are always going to float to the top through all the rest of the mediocre crap out there.

They always have. They always will.

The difference used to be Leica M's and Nikon F's and Canon A's vs. all the little point and shoot Olympus and Fuji's out there that couldn't make images because of the poor quality of equipment. Now, the difference is not equipment quality (even tiny camera phone shots are making news) but the difference will be mere talent and access. Sure, the everyday digi-cam toter can luck out and happen to be somewhere at the right time - remember the photos from the Hudson River . But the average digi-cam toter will never have the access that a pro-shooter has.

Yeah, it may sound a bit condescending, but not everybody can be down on the sideline or on AirForceOne or walking ON the red carpet. Never fret my photo-journalism friends, when it comes to access, the best will be the only ones up close.

But anyways, on to dinner...

It was pretty good. Just the usual catered Aramark food; however, the desert was quite sexy. The program called it a Caramel Apple White Chocolate Trifle. All I know it was a big champagne glass of creamy goodness.

Huckabee was introduced with the usual pomp and circumstance afforded a former presidential runner and state governor.

But he spoke well and was quite personable. And it didn't seem like one of the "speaking tour" type speeches that often come to things like this. He was in his home state with people who had known him for years before he was ever a presidential hopeful.

Right before he left, he pledged $1000 to the school from his own pocket. But, he said they could only keep it if 20 others in the audience matched it.

They made $21,000 in less than a minute. It was quite absurd.

So, this was another moment brought to you by my completely absurd job. Who really cares who it was? I just love doing it.

Anyways. Another thing on Tuesday. Another speaker. And a commercial/studio shoot starts on Tuesday, too. Hmm...

You'll see. Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

"To execute faithfully" or "to faithfully execute"...

2009-01-25T02:15:00.004-06:00

Okay, well, this blog post has nothing to do with the title. I just thought you guys might like to know that split infinitives are not okay. If you don't understand it, don't worry. It doesn't matter.

I just want to show some photos from today...

...and a few days ago.

Yet another reason (or two) never to leave home without at least a digicam in the pocket. These were taken with a Nikon CoolPix P6000. The one with a GPS receiver built in.

But that was the other day. No shoots that day.

Today, I had a shoot. And it was early in the morning in the next town over. And it was cold. But...

...it was paintball. Not so bad, I'd say. Paintball and I go way way back... back to the origins of the sport. Back when there was no such thing as "automatic" paintball guns or "hair triggers" that are shot with two fingers.

I was already getting away from playing when I saw the first inflatable things on a field. We played in the woods - Vietnam style, with camouflage and painted faces - seeking to hunt down the other team. Games lasted hours in huge arenas.

Ahh... those were the days. By the way, there is a paintball in flight on the left side of the frame about knee level. ;)

But that's about all for paintball. I really just needed a group photo.

By the way, all the above were shot with an old AF Nikkor 75-300/4.5-5.6 proving once again... well... not much... but just don't think the older lens is not as good because it is "older."

But, otherwise, school is going again and I'm still shooting...

...cameras, that is.

I've got a project coming up that might require some fancy light-work. Or, well, it doesn't require it, but I may do it because... I want to... and... I practice.

Sometimes, all it takes is a bunch of lights and a remote trigger to practice with. Model for myself.

Coming up soon? I have no idea. Just stay tuned.

-noah d.

Basketball season is upon us...

2009-01-19T12:55:00.002-06:00

Basketball season is upon us.

I really enjoy shooting basketball.

I really wish I was better at it... because my good-to-bad ratio isn't quite as good as I wish it was.

There's a few projects coming up. But for now basketball...

So...

...stay tuned.
~noah d.

A little out of order, but...

2009-01-12T19:43:00.002-06:00

Yeah, I know these photos are a little out of order - the New Years festivities in NYC were last week - but Christmas slash New Years was a bit wild this year...

...do forgive.

But, the camera was out for Christmas as well, even if the blog doesn't reflect that.

Promise.

Christmas was full of all sorts of eating, as usual.

Even as bad as things SEEM to be with the economy, most Americans eat themselves uncomfortable during the Christmas season and even have plenty left over for the canines and felines in our lives, as well...

Okay, okay... too many animal photos...

...well, just one more. Promise. It'll be the last one.

Hmm... I title that one: "The Cat is Not Amused."

Pretty cat, though.

And, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a little grilling, right?

Grilling on the new deck my dad is quite proud of. The old one before was of the miniature variety.

Time with family. Time with my sister.

She just got home after spending 3 months overseas... like I did earlier in the year... but in a different place... but now she's home... we're both home... well, we were.

Mkay, moving on.

So, I also intended to get some film developed, but all my chemistry had crossed over... so, sadly no film. But soon. Promise, soon.

If anyone knows anyone who would like to trade an M8.2 for my M4-P, I'm up for it. Otherwise, its the camera I wish I could shoot all the time. All the time. If my Leica was digital, I really would shoot with it all the time. Jobs. For fun. Everything.

But anyways. I think that is all.

School has returned and my usual routine is starting back up. Group pictures of doom are almost all done for the year and basketball is in full swing. Maybe more on that Thursday if I shoot it. And baseball is just around the corner.

I do hope your 2009 has started well. Stay tuned.
~noah d.

Time passes in the center of the universe...

2009-01-05T14:12:00.004-06:00

Yes, New York City for New Years. Some people would rather be beat...

...but I thought, "I've spent the rest of the year in completely absurd places. So, why not finish the year in an absurd place, too."

Alright...

...done.

Based in a quite nice spot in Harlem...

...we took to the city and did some exploring. By "we" I mean the MC and I, of course.

Sometimes at night...

...sometimes during the day...

...sometimes in between when the street lights come on because the shadows between the buildings darken the streets even if the skyline is still bright.

After all, it was practically Christmas (because Christmas is a quarter of a year nowadays). Besides the mobs around places like Rockafeller Plaza...

...its not too bad to be in the big city at this time of year.

The first time I went to New York back in high school, I didn't even get to see Central Park. Its kinda nice to go back and go wherever I want.

Quite a beautiful day means little weddings all over the park.

To the side of this one was another wedding going on at the same time.

But I think the best photo of our little Central Park walk was taken after the MC got hold of my camera for a little while.

She did the Central Park ducks justice... :)

I have to say, thought, its a little aggravating that the daylight only lasts a few hours in the afternoon. So, as the shadows got long, we took the exploration indoors for a while.

Most of the Museum of Natural History is really really fancy taxidermy, but it does make for quite an amusing random thing to do in the NYC with the MC.

I kinda wanted to see a t-rex in the lobby like in the Night At The Museum movie...

...but I guess a mammoth will suffice.

:)

One of my first fascinations as a young lad was of the dinosaur nature. I would have had a field day with this place about 18 years ago.

But otherwise, it was just nice to walk around the city...

...and see other people walking around the city.

And after-hours Wall Street...

Its kind of absurd to walk around a city like this after walking around big European cities earlier in the year. Sometimes I'm not surprised when I hear people speaking Italian or German because New York files away in my mind as foreign as them. But, it just solidifies my opinion that we are all citizens of the same world... as hippy as THAT sounds.

And, of course, time in New York means sampling the incredible foods available...

But, of course, taking photos all the while...

And the city that never sleeps is rather fun with a high ISO camera, too, because photos are always everywhere.

...day or night.

Oh, and it snowed...

It was so cold out on Jan 1, 2009, that even the dogs had coats...

...and seems that the little guy was a bit impatient...

...but we bundled up, too.

As we wondered down to Battery Park, we came across some wildlife we didn't expect to see...

...which was a little odd.

But we did see things that we DID expect to see.

So, that's a little bit of New York City...

Some skyline and streets...

...and some good times at the department store with the MC. :)

Good times I would not trade for the world.

I still probably owe a blogging annual report, but I just got home...

...so, as always, stay tuned.
~Noah D.

...now that the semesters has ended.

2008-12-21T21:28:00.003-06:00

Though I'm still a little in denial that the semester is actually over, I really wouldn't trade the break for anything.

In the last few days before the break, the pauses between finals allowed for some time to do whatever... including taking some photos for personal enjoyment.

And that's a big deal.

Photos for personal enjoyment are the ones that cause you to learn the most. Instead of taking photos for jobs - which a lot of the time means less experimentation and more "safe" shots - free-time is just for fun and experimentation is part of it.

...or just getting to know a different lens.

;)

No Photoshop for me!

So, I think this Christmas season will be full of some experimentation and...

...there will be spans of time when I just use one specific camera with one specific lens for a long long time.

Its another good way to learn.

But in other news it IS, after all, Christmas.

And on Friday, the significant other and I took to the coldness with cameras...

And, speaking of the significant other, she is quite pretty... wouldn't you say?

If you hear of me referring to the MC... that's her.

So I've talked a little about Christmas, shown some photos, introduced you to the MC, and...

...Oh, and after Christmas I'm going on a little trip. Excited? Yes. You should be. Why? Because its to New York City for New Years.

Ringin' in the New Year in Times Square... or as close as we can get... 20 blocks or so...

That's gonna be crazy! Expect many a photo from that!

Talk soon, my friends. Stay tuned.
~noah d.

My college plays basketball...

2008-12-16T17:17:00.003-06:00

Though the blog posts may not tell it, I have been working a lot these days.

Many of these "work" moments occur as taking photos of groups or functions, not many that are THAT fun... so, I really try to do things that I love to do... like, actually take usable photos instead of snapshots of people at parties.

Wow, I sound like I'm hatin' on some snapshots...

Don't get me wrong, snapshots at functions are where the paying jobs are... but, really, who wants to do that ALL the time just for money? Besides, nobody in my position as the fledgling photographer does it for money... we do it because we love it.

And, besides, this time of the year is a BIT slow. Not many organizations schedule things during the weeks leading up to finals.

But basketball continues!

And basketball is fun to shoot.

At least, I think so.

I was having issues with the lights tonight, but I think I can blame that on the 5D's contact with the remote.

I was also using the D300 with my boss' Nikkor 80-400 VR... which is a pretty sweet lens. It's a little dark on the long end, but it can reach a long long way...

...and see things like this:

Bad call?

But the 80mm end has some great out-of-focus rendering, too...

...even if the zoom ring is a long long way around to zoom from 80mm to 400mm.

But enough of that technical stuff. I just love me some photos...

That's not creepy at all...

Whoa.

So, anyways, I do take photos, believe it or not... and I love doing it.

Its finals week and its icey outside and it hasn't broken 25degreesF all day. My apartment parking lot is a solid sheet of ice.
No, really...

Stay tuned.
~noah d.

Do you have a couple thousand hours to spare?

2008-12-14T14:44:00.004-06:00

A while back, my dad read a book called "This is Your Brain on Music". In the book, the authors cites a whole bunch of studies concerning "mastery" and becoming an "expert" in something.

I've known of this book for quite a while now, but it is just now getting some attention... especially in the arts.

So, it says 10,000 hours...

...it takes 10,000 hours to become an "expert" in something. That's 5 years at a 40-hour work week. Or, 9 years at 3 hours per day.

Its backed up with ridiculous amounts of research (from "experts", of course).

Honestly, its encouraging. But it also means I have to work pretty hard for a few years.

My digital archives go back to 4 Dec 2005. That's not very long. Almost exactly 3 years. But on that day, I took this photo:

Taken with my first digital camera. A Nikon Coolpix L1 digicam. I don't actually know where that camera is now. But with trial and error and a LOT of experimentation I figured out what shutter speeds and apertures do. I mean, I didn't even know that was what they were called at the time, but I knew one of them was a 1-over-some-number and the other one had an f-some-other-number and the f-number went up, the 1-over-number had to come down to make the picture look the same. But if the 1-over-number was smaller, things blurred... so was born the Speed Hands Photo.

A year later, around 4 Dec 2006 (actually 2 Dec, I think), I took this photo:

This photo was taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ50, my second digital camera. I could operate it completely manually like the Canon A1 or Minolta XG-M that I was using, too. This photo, however, was one in a series that I was commissioned for. It was my first commission and first time I was paid to make a photo.

It wasn't the pay that was so great; it was the fact that someone was paying me to do what I loved to do!

Then, a year later on 4 Dec 2007, I was in a completely different world:

I was being paid to take photos on a regular basis by the HU Public Relations department. I was shooting with a Nikon D80 and a couple cheap 2nd-hand lenses, most of which I came to find out later that they had some sort of problem. My 50/1.8 didn't focus to infinity and the 80-200/2.8 had a loose front element. Oops...

And last week on 4 Dec 2008:

I work for two departments on the HU campus and "unofficially" on at least one other. The above photo was taken because I had an order to "we need a photo before the paper goes to print at 4pm and its 2:30." It was to accompany a story about a bunch of people at my school who ride these long skateboards to class. This wasn't the one they chose, but I kinda liked this one...

Now shooting with a Nikon D300, a Canon 5D, and a whole bag of goodies...

...and a Leica M4-P for those film days.

Hmm... I wonder if I've made a dent in that 10,000 hours yet...?

I'm going to keep doing my best. I wonder what kinds of things I'll have done on 4 Dec 2009...

I like to think about it.

Think about it in your own little world.

With that in mind, I'm going to go do some studying. Finals this week. Worried about having a couple dozen internship applications floating around the continental United States for the next month. Who knows where I'll be next summer!

There's something exciting coming up, too, though. No, not Christmas. I've had Christmas all year. Just after Christmas. I'll leave it at that.

Stay tuned,
~noah d.

...but I wasn't there very long.

2008-12-10T13:38:00.011-06:00

Florence was nice.

But Arezzo was just... whoa...

My sister has been living at the Accademia Dell'Arte in Arezzo, Italy, since early September (or was the late August?)... anyways, it was a long time.

So we went to Arezzo to visit her.

We had to wait a little while until she got out of class... so the resident guard dog entertained us.

As for small-town Italy? When you're making a little trek through Italy, you may be tempted to hit all the highlights - Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome - but there is something really incredible about seeing how the REAL Italians live.

Okay, the people in the big cities ARE real Italians... but... if you have a vision of "Italy" instead of "New York Citaly" then get outside the cities. Go an hour or more. Go to Arezzo. Go to Stresa. Go to Assisi. See the ways Italy USED to be...

With quiet pedestrian streets...

...1000-year-old cathedrals...

...and the gargantuan pigeons to go with them...

I'm sure you can stay in a Bed & Breakfast anywhere in Europe... but when you go small-town B&B, there's something to be said about the experience.

Did the proprietors speak ANY english? Nope.
Did we have to do the ring-once-knock-twice thing? Yep.
Was the door unlocked with a skeleton key? Yep.

It was a very wonderful experience, honestly.

Arezzo is so small there is only one touristy shop and most of it is "antique" souvenirs. Yep, pretty darn cool.

The parents were really enjoying themselves. We all got to see Hailey. And we were onward to our final stop...

...Rome.

It was quite enjoyable to take a walk through the Forum again...

...and just turn the corner to see the Coliseum at the end of the street.

A few of you may remember me writing about Trevi Fountain back in April when I visited the first time: when I was there, I did the good ol' throw the coins in the fountain "as a down payment for my return trip to Rome."

Well...

...lets see if I go back for Round 3.

;)

And THAT was the most touristy thing I did the whole time; we definitely saw all the touristy things, but we did well staying away from the black-socks-and-shorts-crowd...

But in mother's constant search for Pashmina scarves that have "Made In Italy" on the tag, we came across this little friend:

Kinda wish my apartment would let me have a cat.

Anyways...

We spent the first day with the Forum and downtown, but we headed to the Coliseum on the morning of the second day.

A little rain never hurt anybody.

And in 2000 years, I'm pretty sure the Coliseum isn't bothered by it much, either.

At times in a torrential downpour, my parents and I left this side of town and took the metro out to...

Vatican City.

The first time I was here, I waited about 15 minutes in the line. We thought we had done good to get there 15min before it opened! Well, this time we took our time and got there at 11am... and didn't stand in a line.

Just as I remembered... I mean, how much could the Vatican really change?

The big ball wasn't spinning today.

And I noticed a little quirk. See if you can see it, too. Look closely:

I don't remember the brontosaurus in the Bible but maybe I wasn't reading close enough.

That was on the ceiling of the Hall of Maps in the Vatican Museum. It MUST be true, right?

Oh, and here's my contribution to this month's edition of "Taking Pictures of Things I'm Not Supposed to be Taking Pictures Of."

Yeah yeah... everybody in the room was doing it. I guess it wasn't against the rules that day.

Photos of the Sistine Chapel aside, it was really cool to see this staircase again.

I think I like the new one. I wonder if they'll let me put it on the next cover, too!

Jokes!

So, by this time of the day, we were all quite famished. And it was raining.

More pizza? Yes.

But we weren't through at the worlds smallest sovereign state...

And I got to see the inside! I had not before. Its a good rainy-day thing to do.

Nuns in the rain. We were in the rain, too. Stand in line for a while to put your stuff through X-ray machines and metal detectors. I'm glad digital cameras are not damaged by X-rays. I went through probably a dozen just during this trip... maybe even more.

By the way, my previous excursion overseas involved a Nikon D80. During that 4 month span I rode it hard and put it up wet quite a few times - even dropping on Mt. Precipice in Nazareth, Israel, and breaking the 18-135mm - and it made it home and is still kicking 75,000 shutter cycles later. Dust storms, rain, snow, extreme cold, all of it... Sure, people in our group came home with their digicams with shattered LCDs and lens extension tubes unable to retract anymore, but the D80 - plastic body and all - definitely can handle being beat photojournalist style.

My D300 this time didn't bat an eye. Rain, snow and cold was about all the "extreme" conditions it had to handle. As for image quality, the D80 is shelved to the D300, but... what do you really expect. Images like:

...in the the high ISO range would have been practically impossible. Little soft? Probably. Still a little dark? Yeah, my bad.

But its kinda cool to be able to set a camera at 800ISO or 1600ISO and let it run. I don't think I took a single photo over 3200ISO the entire trip.

ANYways... nerdy-ness done. Promise.

After a sardine-like ride through the Metro to the Spanish Steps...

...the trip came to an end. All too soon. We flew out of Rome to Newark, NJ, on Saturday after the Thanksgiving rush... but we made it back to Atlanta and finally home about 1am Sunday morning.

At 9am Monday morning I was back in class in Arkansas.

Between classes on Monday, I had a thought: 2 days ago I was looking at the Coliseum as we drove by it on the way to the airport. How small this world really is!?

The Coliseum...

...the aqueducts of Arezzo...

...the Milan Duomo...

...and the flooded streets of Venice...

...they are all closer than you think. No alien planet. Its just a little plane ride across the sea.

Nothing changes the way you see life more than traveling to places that are completely different from anything you've ever seen before. You may have seen gigantic buildings in Big City America, but you won't be able to wrap your head around a 1000-year-old structure built WITHOUT cranes and WITHOUT any computers... done completely by hand and simple machines.

Call me old-fashioned, but that is a testament to the power of the human mind. Not "hey let's see if we can invent something because we're too lazy to do it ourselves"... instead they were thinking "Hey, this is what we have; its not much, but let's do our best."

Yeah, kinda corny, I know... but in a couple hundred years, I'd prefer to be thought of as someone who would have done great things with less instead of taking the easy way out.

Normal posts resume soon. No more overseas travel for now.

Stay tuned,
~noah d.

There are good days and great days...

2008-12-09T00:35:00.004-06:00

I guess you can't have a bad day in Europe...

...well, I guess you can if you're in Greece right now.

But when you wake up to ridiculously cold sleety snow in Venice, Italy...

...that's gonna be a good day!

It was going to be an early morning - we knew that - but we didn't know that when they say, "Snow showers likely" on the weather forecast, they're serious!

And it wasn't just little flurries here and there, it was all-out big flakes of winter-y goodness!

Alright, so you're probably going to see more photos from Venice than any other place on our trip, honestly. But its just so freaking cool!

And then it SNOWS!

While we were waiting for our train out to Florence, I walked around the train station and out in the plaza and took snowy photos...

Thank goodness for a bit of weather sealing on the D300...

Oh, and then we sat on the track somewhere in eastern Italy for more than an hour. It eventually delayed our train 75 minutes at the arrival... but it was mighty worth it.

We were on our way to the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence, Italy, our next stop on the little trip.

Ah, good ol' Florence...

I visited Florence first in February of this year, a second time in late April... and now. It's probably one of my more favorite towns in Italy.

We stayed in the Pension Pendini... which was definitely a testament to the power of off-season travel. Ridiculously cool hotels for the good price. Where?

Our room was on the top floor next to the arch on the right. See? Check it out. Definitely worth it.

Anyways, all these aerial photographs are brought to you by the Dome of the Duomo.

Outside...

...or inside...

...is it falling apart?

I would, too, if I were that old!

My father made the trek up to the top with me. I had not done it before, either.

So, its difficult to appreciate how massive structures like this really are.

I heard once that the Florence Duomo was started before the technology existed to be able to finish the dome.

Now, similar building techniques are still used today. Pretty neat-o, really.

I wondered how they got these dudes up into this little room. Its the little smaller domes on the "shoulders" of the Duomo. Its up these tiny narrow staircases and twisting spirals... they had to have been brought in through the roof. There's no way.

I find it difficult to get a mattress up a straight staircase... I wonder what it was like hauling THOSE dudes up! For a bit of scale? See the ladder?

They kind of look like they're having a conversation... maybe about the ladder...

Moving on...

On to GROM for some mighty-sexy gelato. Its good. Its worth finding.

The Duomo is off to the left of this frame. Literally one block. Like... in sight. And that photo looks crooked. Grrrr...

And so it began to get darker. We took a walk towards the Medici Palace and past the Uffizi to Ponte Vecchio.

All sorts of pretty things there.

And back to one of the main reasons we had come to Italy in the first place:

My sister has been in Arezzo, Italy since late-August or early-September and this was just a little visit to her. She came to see us that night for dinner.

I gotta say, it was pretty cool to be in Florence, Italy, at the foot of the Duomo with my family.

It was quite a unique and memorable experience...

Oh, and the Gates of Paradise were still there, by the way. I'm sure you were worried.

So was the rain that makes such awesome puddles in the cobblestone streets.

See it. Love it. Its Italy.

I should write their tourism slogans, right? ;)

Or just go to sleep now...

...goodnight, my friends. Stay tuned.
~Noah D.

So... I kinda went over there again...

2008-12-07T13:53:00.005-06:00

Most of you know I spent the first 4 months of 2008 overseas...

...well, I also got to spend Thanksgiving there, too.

This time, though, I was not with a bunch of college students backpacking Europe: I was with the parents... um... roller-luggaging through Europe. In a similar fashion to my first trip - train by train and hotel by hotel - we made our way from Milan to Rome with quite a few stops in between.

So, this was round, two...

-----------------------------

We left the ATL on Friday afternoon the week before Thanksgiving... just a bit busy. But not too bad, honestly. All the typical airport photos, of course.

This was something like my 18th or 20th time to fly this year - 3rd flight across an ocean - but for my parents it was their first. 9 hours is a good start to that. To take off almost dark and land just after sunrise the next morning is just a good way to go...

And, landing in a rather familiar place for me: Milan, Italy.

And, as always at the foot of the Duomo, the panhandlers and pigeons were out in force. There must have been a marathon/triathlon thing coming to town because the plaza was full of tents and things, but...

...it was as usual.

It is fun going to places like this a 2nd or 3rd time and being able to not worry about trying to see all the grandiose stuff. I really enjoyed being able to take a walk through and see the little minute details that I might have missed the first time because I was so distracted by the big stuff.

And its always wonderful when the weather cooperates like this...

From the top of the Duomo, the lower Alps were easily visible.

Oh, and it wasn't really too bad cold, either. A bit breezy, but not too bad cold. I guess blame it on the Mediterranean world.

And mother was enjoying herself. It was one of their first experiences with a truly absurd structure like the Milan Duomo.

So that was Milan for the most part. The hotel was nice but a bit far away. And we hadn't slept much in 36 hours... 'tis time for dinner and sleep.

In an effort to get stamps to send the requisite post cards, it requires going into a tobacco shop. In a bold moment, my mum went in to figure out how to ask for them. In an area of Milan outside the major city, we were not in a bilingual section of town... but to make a long story short, she did eventually get them...

...but to find out later, they weren't marked with enough postage to make it to the States... but eventually DID make it there anyway.

They must have taken pity on the silly Americans.

And the next day was a little train to...

...Venice.

One of my favorite images from my first trip to Venice was from the steps of the train station. And here's a new one...

It was a such a good time to be in Europe. The tourist are to a minimum and the hotels are cheap (its the European off-season). So, if you ever want to miss an American holiday like Thanksgiving, that's the ideal time to go to Europe.

Again, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "Places like this just don't exist."

I can just assume what these guys were chatting about... maybe the level of the water?

(((Why might I say such a thing? Well... because within days of us leaving, THIS HAPPENED!)))

But, our days were beautiful there.

Can you tell I'm just a little bit fascinated by this place? It belongs in a movie. Or science fiction. Or in the imagination. Its just weird.

And the 'rents thought so, too. This was the stance most of the time:

And as should they be. Venice really is cool.

Except for the bird people. They love their dirty birds.

Anyways...

Turn around from the pigeon dudes and you'll get:

But I just love the stuff you can't get anywhere in the quick-and-easy-cookie-cutter-nothing-older-than-50-years America that we've established ourselves.

Maybe its a bit harsh to say, but if you look around our "megacities" like New York and L.A. name a building older than 250 years.

Well?

I mean, Venice had already gone through its golden age and was in decline before Christopher Columbus sailed across and met the Native Americans.

I guess its a perspective check in my mind...

Speaking of perspective, Venice at night is nice. Everybody leaves. All the tourists that made day-trips from Florence or Milan or from the cruise ships have all gone away and the real Venetians come out to play.

Pardon the motion blur... handheld at 1/4sec will do it.

So, that was the first couple days.

What's coming up? Um...

Here's a teaser.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

Alright, alright... I'm back.

2008-11-20T15:29:00.002-06:00

So, here The Fledgling Photographer continues...

Since my last post, I've taken tens of thousands of photos. To get caught up from some of that, I may post a couple a day for a while... or I'll just continue from now.

Anyways, the blog is back. And they all rejoiced.

BUT FIRST!

I may be absent for the next week or so because of a little trip... remember my 4-month trip overseas earlier this year (see old blog posts if you're unsure)?

Well, yeah... I'm going back to Italy. So, that'll be the next few things. :) It'll be like old times!

Last weekend, I was in Chicago. I visited some of the worship places of many of the world's major religions. If there is any hope for the future of the world, it is with situations like this:

A Sikh and a protestant Christian sit down on Nov.15 and have a conversation about "differences" after we all attended a Sikh worship service earlier that night. I tell you, my friends, if you ever visit a Sikh place of worship, you'll feel right at home. They are probably some of the most generous, most welcoming people I have ever dealt with.

They treat you like you've always been there. In fact, they fed all 85 students after the services... and not buffet style. They SERVED it as we all sat on the floor and conversed.

I took photos.

It was quite enlightening.

Maybe it should be a requirement for everyone to do this kind of thing...

...the world MIGHT just become a better place.

Stay tuned. The next post will be from overseas... again.
~Noah D.

The angle that refreshes...

2008-09-28T19:20:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 12 Sept 2008
**

Immediately after the new pharmacy students receive their white coats in such a ceremonial manner, they all adjourn to the lobby for a group photo on the big spiral staircase.

There were probably 200 people gathered around with their digicams to get a shot at the group of 60 new students...

...this is where I go hunting for NOT that photo. My boss got it as good as its ever going to be and we don't need two.

So, new angles sometimes mean:

I often give myself a hard time about "finding the new angle" that most haven't thought of before... but I've recently come to the conclusion that it isn't about the "new angle".

Rant warning:
After all, how many millions of people out there with a camera turn the shot up at 45degrees and call it a "style"... or even worse, call it a "new angle"! Look through Flickr... look through Facebook... its honestly what people do! They tilt the camera one way or another and its a new "angle"... as if they're giving us the perspective of someone who wears only one very heavy earring.

Now tell me ONE editor or serious journalist that would run a photo tilted 40degrees...

But, all that said, I still strive to find a new angle. Sometimes, that means climbing up or down and finding it...

...but recently I've learned that its not all about "camera location" as it is about what you're trying to convey - the story you're trying to tell.

This photo will appear in the paper on Friday:

Amongst the 300 or more photos I took that day of the new students receiving their white lab coats, shaking the hand of the Dean, interacting with people during the reception... the photo that will be used and printed thousands of times does not even have the students in focus...

Just goes to show you, keep your eyes open for the things that aren't immediately visible. When you go to approach something "from a new angle" keep in mind the figurative as well as the literal.
Even if it is the little kid who takes his mum's digicam out to the front of the crowd? That, too, evidently makes for a feature shot.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

PS: There are two versions of the photo with the kid. Off the record: I would have picked the other one. (Shhh... don't tell...)

...and doing good things.

2008-09-28T19:19:00.001-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 7 Sept 2008
**

Humanity is rather odd. There are many people in the world who do things to be seen and praised for doing them.

There are people in every profession like this:
There are photographers who take photos for the sole reason for people to pat them on the back and say, "Wow! That's a great photo!"

There are athletes that play sports for the single reason to be idolized by young people.

There are musicians who do their thing only because they want people to ask for their autograph... or they want people to reach onto the stage to be touched by them as if their touch means anything at all.

There are preachers and people in the church who get up and speak with the intention of hearing themselves speak.

Then, there are those who you will never see in the papers. You will never see them in photographs on the AP/Getty/Reuters wire. In fact, they may be completely anonymous...

...and those are the people who I envy.

Before school started, the incoming freshmen arrive a few days early for a program called "New Student Impact." Well, as a photographer for the school, I naturally document as much as possible. Among the little icebreaker sessions and awkward "themed dinners" in the dining hall, the new students also have the opportunity to go out into the community and do a little community service.

Sure, there were the trash picker-uppers and the window washers, but there was also a certain group who went to a group home for mentally handicapped adults... to do anything... anything that needed to be done... or any service that they might be able to fulfill.

This is where I go.

They went there not quite expecting what they would be doing. I mean, what do you really do there?

So, they started outside... just cleaning the grounds and making the patio look nice.

But it wasn't long before they ventured inside.

After all, they were there for anything...

...literally.

Whether it was reorganizing a closet, putting up a curtain, or vacuuming the floor, these guys took to their task without a single reservation.

As the freshmen did a few odd-jobs around the house they talked to the residents... not only talked but played cards, read to them, and discussed their favorite movies.

And these guys and girls were not forced to do it... they weren't required by anyone. It was in a schedule for a certain afternoon, but if they had not shown up, nobody would have known the difference...

...but because they showed up they made a difference.

They made a difference to the residents of that group home.

I would dare say they were missed as soon as they left.

I would also say it is a good thing to be missed when doing things such as this.

Nobody else knew that a dozen 18 and 19 year-olds did what they did one Saturday afternoon. Does it matter? To the residents it does.

It is good to do good for the sake of doing good.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

I forgot to say...

2008-09-28T19:18:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 30 Aug 2008
**

Oh, I was just about to head to bed when I found this photo - I forgot to say anything about it...

...I had even worked it and put it in the "special" folder on my desktop where blog-able photos go.

I was out being adventurous in the foothills of the Ozarks... well, I guess it was in the foothills... or out in the backwoods of Arkansas near the Ozarks...

It was my first full day with the 5D.

And that is all I have to say about that. Too busy these days. Gotta shoot at 11am tomorrow... and tomorrow afternoon sometime... and a bunch on Sunday... and...

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

Back to school... back to school...

2008-09-28T19:17:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINALL POSTED: 22 Aug 2008
**

Not everyone is like me and has moved in and out of college dorm rooms and apartments and across the seas with all worldly possessions in tow... a dozen times.

For some, today was their first day "on their own". And for some parents, it was their first day a child went out from under their roof...

...to begin their college careers.

I was there five years ago.

Its a pretty big step for those young kids.

Its a pretty big step for those parents!

But, I document life. This is a part of life - one of those "top ten life-changing experiences".

Yes, my friends... I'm back at it. You'll be seeing the posts pick up again. I've been here almost a week before the first freshman sets foot on campus... its actually quite fascinating to see it from my perspective.

I'll try to do my best at showing it to you... through my lens.

Like here... where it almost looks like the little brother was put outside with all the rest of the odds and ends.

:)

I love the little details in life.

So, hang on. Busy weekend. Big events. Lots of photos.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

PS: I'm now official shooting cross-platform. Yep, the above picture was taken with a Canon 5D.

"The hills are alive..."

2008-09-28T19:16:00.001-05:00

**
ORIGINALLY POSTED: 6 Aug 2008
**

Yes, just like any photographer attempting to do a good job, one must spend an ample amount of time with the job to make sure he covers all his shots. Plenty of atmosphere... plenty of wide shots... plenty of tight shots... and plenty of those little obscure shots that defy classification.

Well, in the case of this last job, I spent so much time with it I began to almost feel like I belonged there.

As you might have figured out from the title (unless you thought I was talking about a horror movie), the job was to cover a play - Rogers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music".

Spend enough time with musical theater and it is inevitable... you will start to get the songs in your head: only fragments of the songs, of course... so its all the more frustrating.
I saw the entire play from start to finish at least 8 - possibly 9 - times. Or at least the equivalent in additional practices I attended.

Even before the costumes were completed, I was taking photos.

Part of the gig of being in the playbill as "Cast Photographer" includes taking photos for promotional stuff (such as posters and the front of the program) and local papers... as well as the photos of the cast that will appear in the lobby.

In a lighting test outtake, Chris gets comfortable in front of the camera.

But with all the contrived promotional stuff, I still got to do what I like to do best: record some real life stuff. And even though it is "just a play", there are some real-life elements to it.

Kayla and Chris Harper played Maria and the Captain. Yes, they share the same last name... because they're married. And if you don't know the story of "The Sound of Music"... well, too bad, because they end up together in the end.

See? There are cool little stories in the background of just about everything.

Speaking of cool stories, there are even stories with the props seen in this production. For instance, this Flag of the Third Reich:

This is not only a real Nazi flag from World War II, it flew aboard one of the most famous German battleships of all time the Admiral Graf Spee. The Admiral Graf Spee was sunk off the coast of South America in the Battle of the River Plate. After many of its officers and crew hid in South America, a certain officer befriended a local missionary there. As the missionary prepared to come back home some time after the war, the officer gave the missionary the flag that flew aboard the ship... mostly to get rid of any more evidence that he was connected to the Nazi's to avoid being found by the war-crimes tribunals that were searching for the rest of the crew in South America.

That missionary brought the flag back to America. Almost half a century later, here it is: the flag of the Admiral Graf Spee.

It doesn't get much more authentic than that, my friend.

There is no end to the little interpersonal details that begin to emerge from hanging around and photographing a huge and diverse cast like the one that appeared in this big production.

And you must put in the time. Sure, you can sit and get snapshots of the performance, but that's the view everyone sees! What is unique about that!?

Even the soccer mom with a digicam can get a shot from the audience - she just has to buy a ticket.

It is the week before where I prefer to be...

...when the bugs are still being worked out of the sound and lighting systems.

The cast was rather large - like 50 nuns or something...

A stage manager acts as a nun herder as they wait for their cue.

And not only nuns, but there are dozens of lead rolls, too!

I love pictures that are able to convey some sort of story:

I wonder if it is hot in the nun's costumes in August?

I think that answers it.

Because someone once said something about the world being a stage and all of us are the players... and my job is to document it.

And though we may not have any catchy music to get stuck on our brains...

...nor do we have any wireless microphones need their batteries changed during early practices...

...no grand endings riding off into the sunset...

...or the mountains.

But it is sometimes fun to just suspend belief. Yeah, its a play, but there's real stuff going on behind the scenes. That's where I want to be.

And when it was all over, it was so fascinating: I had spent so much time with the cast and crew that it was hard not to feel a little sad for them singing "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye" the last time and see the tears filling the eyes of the cast members. That wasn't acting... that's the real thing.

And the final bow...

They put quite a lot of their summer into this play. They did a spectacular job. I have seen quite a few plays from Broadway and the Fox Theatre and the Orpheum... and it was hard to believe these people weren't at all professional.

Anyways, so that explains my absence as of late.

I'm also back to working on editing photos from my 4 months overseas.

Why? you may ask...

...you'll see!

;)

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

A "moving wall" sort of seems like an oxymoron...

2008-09-28T19:14:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 15 July 2008
**

I've seen quite a few walls recently:

The Wall... (Wailing Wall, Western Wall)

...the Berlin Wall...

...or just a lot of pretty walls that hold up pretty buildings.

A few years back, I visited the Vietnam Memorial in D.C., and that was yet another wall. It didn't hold up anything, nor did it keep anything out... but much like the Western Wall many go there to remember.

This time, the wall came to us.

Something that some might consider a contradiction in terms, the "Moving Wall" has been on tour in the southeast this summer.
No, its not the real deal, of course. In fact, the thing is substantially scaled down to half the size of the original and built from a sort of composite metal/plastic substance supported from behind.

Anyways, it is definitely a nice gesture and, even for a town as small as mine, was well attended - at least enough to get the grass browned and marred from foot-traffic.

Quite serendipitously, we came upon the closing ceremonies yesterday (Monday) just in time to see it before it moved on.

Our mayor spoke...

...which, like many of these sort of things, is a speech of "thank you and thank you and thank you" - after all, re-election is coming up in November. Who can blame him?

And a guy I graduated with played taps...

...he works for the sheriff's office now.

I can only imagine how hot he must have been.

As cheesy as it may sound to some who have seen the REAL wall - which, might I add, is an extremely moving experience - it is a mighty nice gesture for those who are unable to ever see the real thing...

...like the older couple that approached me right after the ceremony. She asked me about my camera: I can geek out about cameras like the best of them, but who wants to talk about stuff like THAT when I have a chance to talk about something far more important.

I found out they had lost a nephew in the Vietnam War...

Darwin Shelton was killed by friendly fire three weeks after he landed in Vietnam. He had grown up in my hometown, but had moved away shortly before the military got him for service.

Then I come to find out this couple knew my family well. She graduated high school with my grandmother and he knew my uncle and grandfather well.

Small world...

...but then again, we are in my little town. It is a small world all of its own.

So, the "Moving Wall" on a hot Monday afternoon in July...

...that is all.

~Noah D.

Someday it may be important that I pressed the shutter...

2008-09-28T19:12:00.007-05:00

**
ORIGINALLY POST: 7 July 2008
**

Sometimes when you don't develop film for a while, it is easy to forget what was on the rolls you took. In this case, it was quite a surprise...

...a couple rolls from before I left for my travels overseas...

...and more importantly - a lost roll from Israel!

But, alas, there is an inherent problem with living in the southeast in the summer.

Its hot.

Really hot.

So hot, in fact, that my tap water doesn't get below 76ºF - even at night... and that's a problem when a guy wants to develop some film. For the most part, it is the same thing that makes it so much fun. But, take the calculations for change in temperature with pushing 400 up a stop or two... and you've got a great mess on your hands!

But that's not why I'm writing now...

Still, I must admit, it wasn't until afterward that I figured out how much difference a few degrees can make... and that means I ruined some film...

...but what I DID get was a few great surprises that reminded me of the joys of doing things "old school"... developing film in a bathroom at night like some of the early masters.

(Only read this section if you're as much of a nerd as I.)
I honestly considered putting ice in my D-76 soup to try to cool it down four or five degrees, but if you've ever taken college chemistry, you'll learn that the "heat of change" of two substances tends to be rather abrupt then levels back out to whatever the ambient temperature is at a fairly regular rate.

Without going into too much scientific detail, the greatest problem comes if you change the temperature with ice then try to develop film something like Ilford HP5+ 400 pushed to 800 in D-76 mixed at 1:1 for 16 minutes at 20ºC (68ºF). Well, if the temperature of the room is also 73ºF, you have a very narrow window at 68ºF before the temperature rises up high enough for temperature compensation.

So, needless to say, things get messy. I sat with a thermometer, a pad of paper, and the temperature compensation chart from the Ilford website before each process began.

Not all were successes...

...but some weren't so bad.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, how about some photos!?

Hearkening back to the day I attended the torch ceremony in Athens, Greece, I was surprised to see this roll come off the spool. It had images from Israel and Greece.

Ironically enough, almost none of the Chinese people there that day were actually from China. I heard a number that only a handful were permitted to make the trip and all the rest were refugees living in Athens in a semi-Chinatown.

That was fun...

...but even more incredible were the couple rolls from before Christmas. I was still at school...

...and it truly reminds me why I do what I do: it is important.

At a gathering before Christmas, my friends and I all got together for the first time since we graduate high school 4 years ago. Sitting there just taking few photos like this...

...I thought about how little of this we're going to remember in the years to come.

It won't be easy to forget the gathering itself; but it will be difficult to remember the little glances caught across the room in a quiet moment between myself and a good good friend.

Just like everyone always says, "We'll always be in touch!" around graduation time, who actually does for more than a few years.

I have friends scattered from Kentucky...

...to New York City...

...and Colorado, California, and who knows where else!

We will all remember that time we saw the Olympic flame passed to the host country...

...but I bet you the following hours with good friends in the Plaka coffee shop will soon pass from your memory.

Its okay, though. I'm not being hard on human forgetfulness.

But it is about the connection...

...usually made with the eyes...

...for however brief a time...

...but just long enough to make the photo.

Maybe that is why photographers hate losing a roll of film. It is 12 or 24 or 36 moments in time that can never be retrieved... never be re-lived.

Like this one...

...so dark its impossible to tell, but this is a lecture by National Geographic's Steve McCurry and one of the "unpublished" photos of the Afghan Girl.

I don't pretend to make such iconic photographs yet, but that was a perfect example of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment". Mr. McCurry mentioned him quite a few times as one of his "favorite photographers" that he learned so much from.

Moments in time...

...an aspect of video that is one of its downfalls: it may tell the story just as well, but when all means of playing said video fail, the photograph will remain.

Its the dangers of digital photography, too! When the computers crash, harddrives fail, CD's and DVD's break down... the real print will remain.

It is a testament to human frailty...

...find a video or some digital 1's and 0's in a drawer in a hundred years and tell me who this man was.

But because it is a print in silver, it will live on longer than any of us.

Am I being melodramatic?

Possibly.

But that's why I do this: it is important.

Someday, it may be important that I pressed the shutter at exactly that moment.

For instance:

Grandma's cooking. I don't have to "just remember"... I can see it.

Many of you may have been unaware about something that happened while I was overseas. I did not write about it here; I'd hate to be depressing in such a place.

...but let me just show you this:

The last photograph of my grandfather before he died... while I was in Europe. No, I wasn't able to come home for the funeral. But this photograph survives. Oddly enough, its on film. Real film. A man living in the 21st century having his final photo taken on film.

Iconic photograph? No. But extremely important, nevertheless.

Things like this are why I press the shutter. It is why I do what I do and strive to be fairly decent at it.

So, all in all, you'll almost never regret taking a photograph, but you'll often regret it if you don't.

Go out.

Take some photos...

...because someday it may be important to someone that photo exists.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

A week with the greats...

2008-09-28T19:12:00.006-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 24 June 2008
**

I never turn down an opportunity to learn something new - especially when it comes to photography... so, when my boss mentioned something about me coming along to the UPAA (University Photographer Association of America) 2008 Summer Symposium it did not take too much to persuade me.

And that was even before I learned who would be making an appearance!

But first, a few stories...

The UPAA symposium was held at Auburn University this year and it drew university photographers from all over the world - even as far as Australia, I think - and brought them all (about 80 of them) to learn and share their knowledge with the rest.

This, of course, includes classes and seminars as well as keynote speakers. Also, a print competition and a shoot-out sponsored by Nikon where the grand prize is a Nikon D300 and the amazing 17-55/2.8 - so, the stakes are pretty high. They also award their University Photographer of the Year a new Canon 40D. The UPAA Photographer of the Year is chosen based on points as voted on by all the other members over the course of the entire year... the most consistently good photographer usually comes out with this honor.

Anyways... on for the story.

For the Nikon shoot-out, we were dropped off at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta...

...and given 3 or 4 hours to wander around with a theme in mind - the theme picked by the Nikon rep was "the Pause that Refreshes". Yep, pretty obscure... but that keeps everyone creative.

I just wandered around the aquarium for a few hours and enjoyed myself... I actually find them interesting, but I've been to too many of them. So, really, I wandered around in the dimness taking photos.

But then again, I don't usually haul around an entire bag of lenses either. So, I took advantage of the fact...

The 80-200/2.8 is getting a little lazy these days... I think the front element may be getting loose after being drug around Europe and the Middle East for 4 months.

Ah, digicams...

Speaking of digicams, I took up residence here for about 20min and just waited for photos to come my way...

One of the things our first speaker (Dave Martin, a photographer and editor from the Associated Press) talked about was being patient as a photographer. So, I figured I'd try it out...

...and, as it turned out, some of my favorite images came from that 20min sitting on that bench under this bubble...

...including the image that I was going to turn in for the Nikon shoot-out:

That's my take on "the pause that refreshes"... however, as a student member of the UPAA, I wasn't going to be able to compete in the Nikon shootout. This just let me compare myself to the things the pros shot.

No, I shant answer that aloud.

One addition to my bag, though, was my boss' 12-24/4.

I could REALLY get used to that thing... f/4 is a liiiiiittle dark for me, but made for some completely unique images. And, while I'm on the subject of wide angle, I got to play with the Nikon 10.5/2.8 ultra-wide prime a few days prior...

...which was absolutely ridiculous. I don't think I could justify spending almost US$700 for a lens that is kind of a gimmick. Yes, those beams on the ceiling WERE straight. It would take a while to get used to it, but I think it would be fun to play with... after I figured out how to NOT get my feet in every frame - seeing almost 180º on a single image takes some getting used to.

But I digress...

That night, a fellow shooter thought it would be a GREAT idea to get up at the crack of dawn and go drive out into the country and just take photos of whatever we find. It took me a while to realize he was talking about meeting at 5am... and he was serious!

So we did.

Jeff (my boss), Joe, and myself threw our lens bags in the car at 5:10am and went to driving. It wasn't long before the "golden hour" began, but first... we found a train...

...yes, my friends... ANYTHING we found, we shot.

This stop yielded only a few shots of blurry train cars for me, but Jeff fared better.

Oh, and then the "golden hour" began...

Gotta love lens flare...

...great big sensor dust spots.

But then we kept going down the road until we found Tuskegee, Alabama... just waking up to the early morning hours.

I would have given a small appendage for a neutral density filter, but oh well...

It is moments like these when I wonder what passers-by are thinking...

...a guy on his knees shooting through a fence at a house at 7 o'clock in the morning.

;)

Tuskegee, Alabama, is a rather old town south of Auburn where historical buildings like these...

...are found everywhere.

And old buildings need to be renovated sometimes and worked on...

As I got out of the car, my boss had already headed out on his own down the street. I turned to Joe and said, "How much you want to bet Jeff is going to figure out a way to get on that boom-lift before we leave?"

"Nah..." Joe said - he had no faith.

Take this as foreshadowing what is to come:

"Hey! Isn't that the back side of the clock face!?" you ask.

In fact, it is.

Quite serendipitously, a paint crew pulled up a few minutes before and saw us taking photos all over the square.
"What are you guys doing?" one of them inquired.
Jeff explained that we were attending a symposium in Auburn and we were just out enjoying the countryside morning and taking photos as we went.
"What you REALLY need to do is go up to the clock-tower! There's great views from up there!"

It wasn't long before we were being ushered upstairs by one of the painters and the bailiff to unlock the storage closet where the stairs began.

...and wound up to the first floor of the clock tower where the drive mechanism sat.

Other than having a computerized back-up, the drive mechanism was assembled by the Seth Thomas Clock Company in 1906 and still runs after 102 years of service.

The next floor houses the clock faces and transmission that turns the hands of the four clock faces together:

Four gears. Four faces. Its truly amazing to me that a machine can still be running like this after 102 years of slowly turning the faces of these four clocks... day after day after day.

It kind of puts more depth to it if you think about it. Considering this is a clock... which tells time... its the only thing that outlasts us all... and this one has outlasted an entire century of history: two World Wars, a dozen presidents, entire generations come and gone... and this clock still sits here ticking away.

Above the transmission is the actual bell:

...and that's as far as you could go.

With only a few minutes to spare before the bell would be striking 8am - and we had no desire to be in the bell tower at THAT point - we made our way back down to the street and headed back to Auburn University...

...then, as if this morning would never end, we happened upon the historical Tuskegee Airfield where the famous Tuskegee Airmen trained and were based.

Google it if you don't know the history.

But then we made it back to Auburn at long last... we had been shooting for over 3.5 hours and it was only 8:45.

As for the rest of the symposium, we heard from Sports Illustrated's Bob Rosato as he came to us directly from Boston after shooting the championship game between the Lakers and the Celtics. In fact, he had to reschedule from Tuesday because of that game.

So, we heard from Michael Grecco, a Canon Explorer of Light.

If you see his images, you'll know that he is not just any photographer. Of course, his work is extremely produced, but there is a saving grace: he uses no Photoshop to manipulate the color or feel of an image. All the wild lighting arrangements are real... Even if you're like me and prefer available light, he's worth checking out - he's a mighty talented guy.

And the biggie - to me - was the great Steve McCurry from National Geographic. His portrait of the Afghan Girl is arguably one of the most famous images in all of NG's archives.

His stories were fascinating to me... and though I had only had a few hours of sleep the night before, I was riveted.

I do apologize: no photos from meeting him yet because I had the Leica M4-P. My Nikon was being cleaned by the service guy they brought in for us.

I'll be developing those rolls soon, I promise. I've taken quite a few. And there's at least a shot or two that I can't wait to see...

:)

So that was that. My first major conference in the "real world" of photography. Its really exciting, I assure you, to be finally getting somewhere in all this education and everything.

This Fall is going to be just amazing! I'm doing something I love and I can't wait to do it! Whether its climbing up into the top of a clock tower in Tuskegee, Alabama, or walking through the ruins of Rome or listening to old photographers sharing war stories, I'm trying to make the most and best of every situation that comes my way. So it seems the same rules always apply just as they did in Europe: whatever happens its going to be good.

~Noah D.

There is somewhere sunny all the time...

2008-09-28T19:11:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 18 June 2008
**

Whether you take that as being profound or just kinda, "Well, duh," it is true. Although it is late at night in Jerusalem right now, when the sun rises tomorrow morning (only a few hours from now) it will be a sunny day.

"What the heck are you talking about!?" you ask. Yeah, I even ask myself that from time to time...

But...

At long last, the film scans from Israel:

Street photography is what I enjoy more than any other genre. To go out with a little, inconspicuous film body with a short prime lens... that is where I am challenged and find the most satisfaction in my personal work. No long zooms - that's hunting squirrels with a bazooka.

Whether it is a peaceful moment in a quiet seaside hotel by the Sea of Galilee...

...or the bustling afternoon streets during Purim.

I love to go out and capture the side of life that I won't have any reason to remember in 10 or 15 or 20 years down the road... or even next year, for that matter!

I'll remember...

...when I visited the Western Wall on Shabbat before Purim.

I'll remember the droves of Jewish youth singing and dancing and praying...

...but I won't remember the walk through the Old City at dusk as we followed a number of Jewish men on their way to the Wall.

I'll remember our instructor Avner, of course...

...as he gave us the history and purpose and meaning behind the Wall.

But I will be hard pressed to remember the walk back through the Old City long after the night fell and the yellow glow of the street lamps was the only thing lighting our path...

There will be no way to remember the food that night...

...but we will remember that it was enjoyable to be with our friends.

That is why I photograph: to remember the little details in life that often times go unnoticed...

("πιστη" = "faith")

...or the big details in life that overshadow us all.

Just some remnant memories from Israel. That's all.

~Noah D.

-----------------------
(all with Leica M4-P w/ Cosina Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton - B&W was either Ilford HP5 400 or Fuji Neopan 400 and the color was Fuji Superia 200)

Return to normal life...

2008-09-28T19:10:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 17 June 2008
**

Now that I've been home a month, things have returned to normalcy...

...and normal - for me, at least - is a little summer job I've had since I graduated high school 4 years ago: I was a program director at a YMCA summer camp. Well, now that real life has set in, I am unable to do that anymore.

That doesn't mean the fun has to stop!

Some of the more fun people I know still work there and any chance to hang out with them... I'm there!

And when my old boss emailed me with the "will you be available...?" - I said, "Of course."

This year, they asked me back to help out with the very beginning of the camp season - before any of the campers get there. So, really its a few friends and I getting to catch up.

My gravitation, since I was a wee lad, has been to the water. I've grown up swimming since elementary school, and now that I'm older, extends into the realm of powerboats... and that's where they needed my help again this year.

I go out on brand new Malibu wakeboard boats and teach fun people to do fun things. How good can it get?

Many of the guys and girls this year have never driven a boat before in their lives, but there's no way better to learn it than to just get out there and do it! The camp leases 4 sparkling new boats and turns 18-19-20-year-olds loose with them... and my little bit of semi-helpful tips in basic driving and parking is what they get.

But never fear... during my 3 years there, we never had a major accident involving a boat. Isn't that nice? Yes, I think so...

...don't these faces just scream, "I'm having fun!"?

The staff tends to enjoy these days because they get to play a little bit with the toys... just checking them out... making sure they're safe for the kids.

But anyways...

Lisa checks the placement of her riders in the wake.

That was this past weekend.

I'm at Auburn University in steamy South Alabama this week learning some crazy new stuff about documentary photojournalism in the university setting... those images soon!

Be good.
~Noah D.

Here at the end of all things...

2008-09-28T19:09:00.003-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 16 June 2008
**

So, what began with me stepping on a little plane in Birmingham, Alabama, on 15 January 2008...

...to meet up with 45 fellow student travelers in Detroit, Michigan...

...to move to Greece for a semester abroad...

...culminated in 18 days of an extensive sojourn through much of Europe with 4 other companions... then down to 2... then 1...

...and then ending with myself landing back in Birmingham, Alabama, 109 days later.

It was quite a trip. The best it could be.

First, I'm going to share just a few things I've learned while spending time abroad for 4 months. Second, I'm going to include a few stats about the trip that some of you may (or may not) care to know... but I'm going to include them anyway.
Now, some of you may have different opinions, but I'm just going to answer some of my most-asked questions as well as mention a few things that I have observed while a person spends a long time in foreign lands. If you disagree, please comment and explain - I definitely want to hear your side of the story...

...that's what this entire experience has been about: seeing the "other" side of the story.

So, here we go:

Q: What is the single most important thing you've learned?
A: I think this is my favorite question. In fact, it provokes the most profound thoughts and it seems the most profound people have been the ones asking.
I believe the single thing that will have the most impact on my life as a member of the human race is simply this: We are ALL in this world together. We all connect. We all share a common thread. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, brown, red, yellow, or purple... it doesn't matter if you believe in God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, or Zeus... it doesn't matter if you wear a suit, a turban, or nothing at all... it doesn't matter if you vote Democrat, Republican, or Socialist... it doesn't even matter what continent you live on... in the grand scheme of things, we all live here together. Every life is valuable and every person is someone's son or daughter or father or mother or sibling.

Q: What was your favorite place you visited? Why?
A: Easy: Israel. Probably Jerusalem, if I had to be more specific. I believe the Old City represents an extremely unique way of life. The people who occupy their respective quarters have developed a way to live together with their own religions and with the religions of their neighbors. Though they may not agree with their neighbor's choice they do respect them for their choice. I saw Jews shopping in the Muslim market and Christians eating at the Jewish restaurants beside his Muslim friend and his veiled wife. I ask you: what part of that shows any animosity toward the other? These people have learned to live with their religion instead of dying with it. Too often I think our civilization gets that confused.

(A market in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem, Israel.)

Q: Did you ever feel like you were in danger?
A: No. I spent a good deal of time in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, and all that time I never once felt "unsafe". Granted, we were accompanied by heavily armed escorts in Egypt - which was probably the most dangerous of the places. Yep, believe it or not, Israel was even safe to walk around in many places at night.
GASP! "You mean they weren't blowing everything up over there!?" says the average person. No, they're not blowing up everything over there. Those are extremely remote, extremely fanatical individuals who do things like that.
Of course, you see the Toyota pickups mounted with heavy machine guns or hauling around guys toting AK-47's, but that is just part of things in some places.

(An armed guard on the Nile boat.)

Q: Is there a lot of poverty over there?
A: Poverty? Where!? Sure, there are places like the outskirts of Cairo where the standard of living is pretty low, but for the most part the places I was exposed to were not THAT bad. The Bedouins - some of whom continue to be traditional nomadic shepherds - have struck a balance with the technologically driven world and just continue to do their thing they've done for thousands of years.
To be completely honest: Amman, Jordan, is literally THRIVING right now. Their money trades almost even with the Euro, their housing market is one of the best in the world, and I think there are more huge SUV's there than in the States these days.
Nevertheless, the poorest people are extremely noticeable. Most of the time, they are the beggars and cripples that sit on the street corners with their cups in front of their amputated limbs. Some people in my group would feel awkward around them and not know how to act... and that goes to show you how sheltered our children are these days. Yes, even the college age.

Q: Was everything expensive over there?
A: Yes and no. Europe was expensive. The Middle East wasn't as bad. The most expensive it got was probably Paris or London. The cheapest it got was - by far - Prague. Cairo was a close second, in my opinion. Athens is about in the middle if you stay out of the touristy areas and Jerusalem would come in slightly more expensive than that. I had the most problems in Italy figuring out if I was getting ripped off or not because sometimes their "Italian" leather would be the absolutely cheapest quality but sell for the same as the real stuff. But the biggest problem with Italy is their tendency to have really expensive entrance fees to things: everything 10Euro or 8Euro really adds up fast.
Bottom line: the US Dollar really sucks these days.

Q: Do the people in Europe hate Americans?
A: Okay, the problem that most Europeans have with US citizens is not with the people themselves - its with the US government. For the most part, the people there easily separate a country's citizens from its government - a thing I wish we, as US citizens, could do for other countries.
Many people abroad really despise the US government these days because of its horrible foreign policy. Why? Because what sense does it make for some book-educated diplomat (or president) from the United States to fly eight timezones over to a country to mediate a peace deal between two countries where he doesn't speak the language but they DO speak the same language... all while the US is involved in a war they can't end in a neighboring country. See why it is so hard for the US government to be taken seriously?
By the way, you can't say "American" and just mean "people from the USA". If you say "American" you are lumping all of the States, Canada, Mexico, etc., together into a single collective "American".
HOWEVER: there were a few times abroad when you meet someone that has that "certain tone" and you either claim you are from Canada (which most Europeans don't mind at all) or "the country south of Canada" (which is not so much of a lie as it is taking advantage of the fact "the country south of Canada" is - oddly enough - linguistically confusing to most non-native speakers and all they hear is "blah blah blah Canada" and everything is fine anyway.
If you are abroad and you're not a blazing "stupid American tourist" with your American flag t-shirts and white tennis shoes and baseball cap... its always better to blend.

Q: So give me some numbers!
A: Just because some people actually ask... solely between January 15 and May 2, 2008:

I flew 14 times on 8 major airlines on 4 continents.

(Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Athens, Greece, via Amsterdam.)
I set foot in 16 countries and visited every one of their capital cities - except for one (Turkey).

(The Reichstag - Berlin, Germany.)

Add up all of the cities I've been to and you'll come out at 63 (I don't think I missed any). 63 cities that I either stayed in, spent some time exploring, studied there, or at least got a little taste of during my travels.
And this 63 includes the 24 that I visited while I was traveling by train through Western (and some of Eastern) Europe.

I thought about trying to figure out how many languages I have been bombarded by, but that would be a futile effort. The areas in which I traveled are some of the most culturally diverse and linguistically varied in the world. There are at least a dozen major languages in the Balkan countries alone.
In fact, from the time I left Detroit on January 15, I did not speak to a native English speaker - except the occasional tourist and the members of my group - until I landed in Dublin on April 29.

(The front gate of the Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich - "Work Makes One Free")

During the last few weeks during my whirlwind tour of Europe, I was on an average of three different trains per day; furthermore, on three separate occasions, I was in three different countries in one 24 hour period.

(A hi-speed ICE train in Frankfurt, Germany.)

Q: How many photos did you take?
A: My camera wrapped around DSC9999 to DSC0001 three times.

Q: So, how was it?
A: I get this question more than any other because it is the easiest to ask - however, its the hardest to answer. What sort of adjectives can I use to describe 4 months of exposure to this much of a percentage of the rest of the world? How many times can I say, "Oh, it was great!" and really mean, "It was something I'll remember for the rest of my life!"?

How does a traveler put his distant sojourns into a few words that the average "busy person" would care to hear before getting that glassed-over look that sometimes occurs when you go too in-depth about a vacation? How do you say, "It changed my life." and make it sound real?

But, then again, I have. These dozens and dozens of blog posts and thousand pictures have been my attempt at saying, "This is what I saw - and this is why I'm different because of it."

Q: Any advice for a future traveler?
A: Absolutely.
-Do everything you can as often as you can do it. You'll never regret taking that extra day trip, even if you don't think you'll have the time.
-Do NOT, under any circumstances, make decisions based solely on your money situation. It will drastically decrease the quality of your trip and it will put a damper on the trip for any companions you may have.
-Eat real food. Eat real food from the locations where you may find yourself. On multiple occasions, I found myself shelling out up to 20Euro for a meal... but I'll never regret doing that. Ever. If you opt to eat granola bars and peanut butter for your three square meals, you're missing out on a major part of traveling abroad.
-Pack efficiently. For the final 17 or 18 days I was in Europe, I packed a pro-size D-SLR body, four lenses (including an 80-200/2.8!), 6 complete sets of clothes, toiletries, a 15-inch Titanium Powerbook, and a Lacie ruggedized external hard drive in a LowePro CompuRover AW. Departing Athens, it weighed 13.1kg (or 28.8lbs). Yes, that's pretty heavy, but it was compact and efficient. Most people think hiking backpacks are a good idea; however, its true you can fit more stuff in because they expand, but they'll easily max 15 or 16 kilograms and are bulky and VERY easy to pickpocket - all the pockets on hiking backpacks are designed to be "easy access".
-Its a mighty good idea to drop off your bag at the Luggage Storage at the train stations to explore a city and then go back and get it when you're done. I find it annoying, but slightly amusing, that some people actually opt to haul around a 15kg backpack to save the 5Euro for the train station luggage storage.
-Be flexible. Its a good idea to plan your trip by location order and NOT day by day. Make a loose outline of the places you'd like to visit in the order you're going to try to visit them. This may make some more anal-retentive people gasp for air, but honestly - if you miss a train or if a train comes late and you miss a connection or a flight, don't you think you'll be far more stressed? Roll with the punches and be flexible and you will enjoy the trip all the more.
-I used a Blackberry 8830 WorldPhone with Verizon/Vodaphone service to stay in touch overseas. I was in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea between Rhodes and Mykonos and STILL had usable service. I applaud you, my sweet little Blackberry.
-Go buy a dozen extra memory cards for your camera. You will ALWAYS need another one and prices on SD and CF cards overseas are usually twice what you'll get them on Adorama or Calumet. I had eight 2GB and two 1GB.
-Go to your favorite book store and check out all the "Do Europe on a Budget" books. There are dozens of them, so look through them and pick the one that has the highest quality maps and the most information displayed on them.
-Don't be stupid. "Stupid" can be defined as "doing things without thinking it through". Someone I know planned on heading out and staying with some people he/she met randomly on the street. That is just not using common sense. That is stupid.
-See some of the tourist things, but DEFINITELY go off the beaten path and see what else the city/country has to offer. Such as Kutna Hora outside Prague: who's ever heard of that? But isn't it so cool!?

(The Kutna Hora Ossuary houses 40,000 human skeletons: 1hr outside Prague.)

Q: Where will you go from here?
A: I don't know. And doesn't that make life fun to live?

There are so many things to share with so many stories to tell. There is no way to share 4 months on a dozen posts of a silly blog and a little over a thousand photos.

Thank you. All of you who have kept up with my travels and added your support through emails or even simple comments on this blog. It has been a heck of a crazy ride...

...and I guess this is where I should put something like "The End" or "And that's the way the cookie crumbles" or some sort of silly remark symbolizing some sort of end to these things... but it isn't over. Things are not ending. And the cookie is still good and gooey and warm from the oven!

Soon, you'll be seeing me return to real life. In fact, things are already in the works. Tomorrow (Monday, June 16) I leave for a week-long conference for University Photographers. This will be my first year and I'm mighty excited. DEFINITELY stay tuned for that because I get to learn from the best - Steve McCurrey (National Geographic), Michael Grecco (Canon Explorer of Light), and
Bob Rosato (Sports Illustrated).

Stay on for that! And in the Fall? Oh... I don't even want to spoil the fun! Let me just say, the assignments shall flow like milk and honey.

:)

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

Taking a last walk on foreign soil...

2008-09-28T19:08:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINALLY POSTED: 9 June 2008
**

Of course, the British Museum was not my only stop in London - that really WOULD be nerdy... and slightly sad.

We left the British Museum with plenty of the day (and the next) left to burn.

With the Underground, nothing is very far away in London.

Although it was cold, although it was rainy, although it was generally a pretty gross day to be outside, we were in London... and when in London for the first time, you go out and see London.

Yes, you even brave skies like this...

...and take out the camera to get it on film.

In the world of hopelessly photogenic things, the London Eye has been one of photography's clichés since it was constructed. It really is mighty cool to see, albeit I expected it to be larger.

So, to pay homage to all those millions of photographers who have tried in vain to make an "artistic" image of a giant ferris wheel:

Yep, just about as artistic as the next one... and I even left some edge clutter in there down at the bottom - since that's how the usual "artistic" photograph turns out. Do I sound cynical of the hopeless and hapless millions of people out there who make valiant attempts at making images of objects captured by a billion other tourists and then try to pass it off as art by zooming in to a detail (like above) or tilting it 45 degrees for a "fresh new angle"?

In fact, I am. Let's rant for a moment, shall we?

Actually, let's not - I'll save that for another day. ;)

Phew! Crisis averted!

Moving on...

Even at wide angle, I almost had to stand in the busy street to get all of Westminster Abbey in the frame.

Yep, it's really really huge. Its difficult to impress me with a church building these days, but this one probably pushes close to the top of the list. Not just in architecture - that's not THAT impressive - but by the sheer amount of history contained within its walls.

Most of the major monarchs from most of England's history are interred (or commemorated) here as well as an immense number of "famous names". Sir Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Geoffrey Chaucer, George F. Handel, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Watt, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Edmund Spencer... the list goes on and on...

Standing there in the presence of the greatest minds of the English-speaking world is a mighty cool thing to do. They may be concentrated in libraries of books around the world, but in this one place their mortal bodies are brought together so everyone who visits can pay their respects.

Many apologies, but no photography was allowed.

William Shakespeare is not buried there (he is buried at Stratford-upon-Avon) but there is a monument to him there. And speaking of Shakespeare:

The reconstructed Globe Theater. Shockingly enough, the tickets are absurdly cheap - only 5pounds for the floor - but it is open-air and today was probably a horrible day to stand in the rain and watch King Lear.

So we moved on. It was easy to see James Bond's MI-6 down the Thames River from the parliament building, but rain was coming in a torrent at that point and I wasn't going to destroy the D80 for a hazy shot of that.

Not far from the London Bridge was this little boat:

I think I remember it being Sir Frances Drake's ship, but I may be mistaken.

And, by the way, the London Bridge looks depressingly like almost every other concrete bridge in the world... mainly because it is just like every other concrete bridge in the world. In fact, it wasn't even capable of making a good photo...

...and THIS is NOT the London Bridge:

No, my silly friends, this is the Tower Bridge.

"Well, of course its the Tower Bridge," says my European friends. You'd be surprised to know how many people don't know.

"Next you're going to tell me this isn't Big Ben."

You're right... its not. This is the Palace of Westminster Clock Tower. Big Ben is the bell inside it.

Isn't learning fun?

Here's another little educational bit:

Everything in Europe is covered by scaffolding right now.

Its true! Its the metal plague... even the Tower of London can't escape its grasp.

I mean, its not enough that they just put scaffolding around an entire tower... they cover it in plastic, too, so it doesn't even resemble the original structure. I mean, what could they possibly need to cover it up like that? Are the workers working in the nude!?

Okay, I'm done.

And actually the Tower of London is mighty expensive to visit and highly touristy - two things that equal "not worth it". And it was STILL raining. And we'd walked all the way from Westminster Abbey, across the Waterloo Bridge, by the Tate Modern, the Globe Theater, the Millennium Bridge, and all that stuff around the London Bridge... back across the Tower Bridge and to the Tower of London...

...in the rain.

Ahh... to be a traveler...

...and if you didn't already know this either: the Tower of London is actually within a castle.

My two companions - Bethany and Melissa - and I headed back to Hyde Park where our hostel was. I had fish and chips at a local pub and they had a granola bar at the room.

Whatever...

That was the end of Day One in London - as far as tourism went, I'd say. That night was the Chelsey vs. Manchester United football (American soccer) game. It was pouring down rain outside... and strangely enough - so it was at the game.

I thought it mighty cool that the same storm rained on us as it did at that game. It was a pretty good game, too!

------------------------------------------------------------

When I woke at 7:30am on Day Two of London, I soon realized that it was my last time to sleep in a European bed...

...scary thought though: it would be almost 48 hours till I would see another one.

More pigeons in the lawn by Buckingham Palace.

Did you know: pigeons were originally imported to America as food for poor people?

Yeah, I wouldn't eat one if you cooked it with an incinerator. You really would get the plague.

And then on to a HUGE crowd at Buckingham Palace. I don't know why.

Surely this isn't all just for the changing of the fuzzy hatted ones.

It was difficult to find a good spot for some attendees...

(I threw this into B&W with my usual 2-step Photoshop recipe.)

I was astounded at the amount of people. I don't even think most of them knew what they were looking at or looking for.

When I see this, it reminds me of aliens or snails with eye-stalks. How good can these eye-stalk shots really be?

So, I opted not for standing back at the back with this in my face, nor did I resign to adding a big-bodied DSLR to the eye-stalk forest... I just took to using the people's elbow and getting to the fence.

For a shot at:

Sorry, England - I'm not up on my royalty these days. Who might this be? He had escorts... so, I thought he might be somebody.

Anyways, it was quite a bit of a to-do - parade, honor guard, band, stopping traffic with horses...

...but being the sojourner, it was time to move on and take our final little stroll through a foreign land.

Even the pigeons stroll...

The wayfaring pigeons of Trafalgar Square. And Trafalgar Square doing what it does best...

...demonstrations and political rallies.

You might recall me coming upon this little group a long time ago when I was in Florence back on Leap Year Weekend.

The Communist and/or Socialist Parties are mighty active in London and this is one of their favorite hang-outs.

Even the rain didn't dampen their spirited rants. But some people don't care about all that political stuff and just want to stay high and dry and have a good day.

And now the time had come to begin our sequence of departure. It was only moments after this that Bethany left Melissa and I for a plane to Amsterdam - and then back home to the States.

Melissa and I took our time getting to Heathrow airport. That's the only way to do it - its a long long way from central London. Before that, spent many hours in Starbucks at the Kings Cross station.

And I assure you, there is a HUGE gap of time here not covered by photos...

We waited until it was almost dark, then saw the sun set from the train car window on the way to Heathrow. Melissa and I conversed about back home: some things like 'what our hometowns are like' or 'little quirks about our families'. All the time, we had a few people with us on the train... they were our captive audience. In fact, they just sat there in silence and listened attentively to our conversation. It didn't bother us, we were hours from leaving after 108 days overseas.

That's when we began our long night in the Heathrow airport. Melissa's plane left at 8am from Terminal 4. It was a long night, needless to say. I slept maybe 3 hours in one hour spurts.

Early on the morning of the 109th day abroad, Melissa and I parted ways. She got on her flight while I remained in London for only a few more hours before my flight from Gatwick.

I met a few other friends in the Gatwick airport from my semester in Greece... we asked each other the menial "How was it?" - "Good." but nobody really went into any detail. Well over half of the people I've talked to spent the night in some airport - whether it was Gatwick or another Heathrow terminal or Paris or Rome or Amsterdam - they all were ready for their own beds.

But such is traveling...

There was a few of my friends from Greece on the flight...

...and after a short 8hr flight across the Atlantic to Detroit, I didn't see them again after customs.

So, then there was one.

It was just me.

I had returned.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.

PS: "What else could there be?" you ask. I'll be doing a final blog post relating to my experiences abroad.
But don't think the Fledgling Photographer ends here! By no means! And don't think the photos from the travels end, either! I still have rolls of film from as far back as Israel left to show!

And not only that, there are exciting things happening that I'll be sharing soon. The journey is not complete! No, not by a long shot! So really... stay tuned and see what comes!!

Tying up the loose ends...

2008-09-28T19:07:00.001-05:00

**
ORIGINALLY POSTED: 7 June 2008
**

Some of you may read this fairly regularly. Those who do may have come to notice a pattern in my travels. Even a pattern in the way I write concerning certain things: I love to connect things.

I connected the dots of the Obelisk that stands in front of the Louvre in Paris across the thousands of miles to the Luxor Temple in Egypt. Things like this means a lot to me...

...well, as you also may have noticed, my journeys are also beginning to draw to a close.

So, I had some final tying up of loose ends to do. Where else to do it but here?

This is the British Museum in - you guessed it - my final stop in almost 4 months overseas...

...London, England.

There may be some of you thinking, "Another museum!? This kid is SUCH a nerd!"

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have done it, either... if it didn't have such things in it that tie so much of history together. Like, the reason why we know so much about the ancient Egyptians and their culture - by being able to decode the hieroglyphics that cover everything. That would be this:

...the Rosetta Stone. One of only a handful of objects the Egyptians want back in Cairo, the Rosetta Stone was the key that unlocked hieroglyphic writings. We saw a duplicate of the stone in the Cairo Museum and were taught about it there... but this was the real thing.

See?

Now, think back... think ALL the way back to one of the first blogs from Europe - the one concerning the Acropolis. There was the porch of the Erechtheion with 6 Caryatids holding up the roof. Here a flashback for you:

Well, these that stand here are copies, placed there after the originals were taken to ensure their preservation. All but one is in the Acropolis Museum - that wasn't open while we were there because the new building wasn't completed yet. So, needless to say, we were unable to see the 5 that are still in Greece.

The other one is here. Right here:

There's another loose end.

And that also brings me to a bit of a rant that I've been promising you for weeks. Back in the 1800's there were no real laws in Greece to prevent people from taking artifacts out of the country. Well, a rich guy from England went to Greece to the Acropolis and started to do some excavations. His real name was Thomas Bruce - but now he's (in)famously known as Lord Elgin.

During his excavations, he began to collect some of the carvings and friezes from the front and sides of the Parthenon. At first he only collected the ones that had fallen down when the Parthenon exploded (yes, it really exploded - but that's another story). That's all well and good, but he didn't stop there. He decided that he wanted the REST of the pieces to complete the puzzle.

So what did he do?

Yes, he sent his men to chisel off the rest of them from the Parthenon. Yep, literally stripped them completely off...

...until he had the entire set.

...and then he didn't stop there. He took all the carvings from Parthenon - inside AND out - as well as ALL of the existing pieces to both front and back pediments!

...leaving the Parthenon completely stripped of its adornments.

Okay, I'm sure you may be having a bit of a difficulty putting the pieces together. So here you go: this is the flashback to visualize... here's the real Parthenon:

Enlarge it and take a look along the top. Whoa! Looks familiar, right!? This one on the Parthenon is a copy... of the one Lord Elgin took off. Oh yeah, and all those carvings there on the front? Copies, too.

And here's the kicker - see how there is an inner ring of columns and there's an empty face on the stone at the top? Possibly a space that something once plugged into? Where are the things that used to fill this still-empty space?

Right here:

Its taking decades of more time to repair the damage that Lord Elgin did by stripping the Parthenon of its original carvings. Of course, the originals would not be left up there on the pediment indefinitely, but at least the Greek restorers would have unrestricted access to them...

...but right now, the Parthenon looks a little naked to me... knowing what its supposed to look like. The Greeks are exceptionally bitter toward the British Museum for this...

Kick my cat or steal the Parthenon marbles... both are pretty horrible sins.

In an effort to tie up even more loose ends, the Parthenon Marbles are probably at the top of the list for me. Spend a few months in a country with people with as much pride in their history as the Greeks and you'll start to see...

...just to beat the dead horse, here's the Parthenon copy:

...and the original:

There's just something wrong here.

Other than my pun... beat a dead horse... a horse... get it?

Mmhmm...

Alright... moving on...

So, if you've been counting, I've seen the Pyramids, the Lighthouse at Alexandria (the location, at least), the Statues of Zeus at Olympia (where it was constructed and where it sat in the temple), the Colossus of Rhodes (the location), and the Temple of Diana at Ephesus... that's 5 of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

Well, here's the remaining pieces of my #6 - the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos.

Then again, I didn't actually go to Halikarnassos for this one - so I guess I'll have to count this as a half... instead of 6 of the 7, we'll say 5.5 of 7. Someday I'll get back over to Turkey and see what's left - mostly the foundation and scattered ruins.

;)

And don't worry, these were done a little bit more legit. They weren't chiseled off, thank goodness.

What haven't I seen? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon will remain elusive to me, I fear. They are for everyone... nobody really knows where they were. I guess the ruins of Babylon in the southern reaches of Baghdad, Iraq, would be as close as I could get.

But that probably won't be happening anytime soon.

So, 5.5 of the 7 ain't bad at all for 4 months in the Mediterranean World. That ties up a pretty major loose end for me... it closes my chapter on the 7 Wonders.

BOO!!!

Did I scare you?

Alright, nevermind... just looking for a segue there and I opted for the abrupt...

We studied this little guy:

But otherwise, the British Museum contained a bunch of other stuff that was significant - but not quite significant to me. There's an exhibition of early Jackson Pollack works (before he got a bit crazy) and a comparison or two to sketches of Michaelangelo.

But on our way out, we passed a the huge clear donation box. I forgot to mention, the British Museum is completely free. So, we looked for a moment in the donation box and saw US dollars, British pound, Euro, Swiss Francs, and even Czech Korunas - all of which I also had on me - so I went through my wallets and tried to find something nobody had donated yet (that could be see in the box, at least).

Well, that's my Jordanian Dinar at the bottom right.

I wonder if that seems spiteful...

But, if they bother to exchange it, they'll see the Jordanian Dinar would be far better to use than the US dollars in there! Yep, it trades almost even with the Euro! Hooray for strong Middle East economies!

;)

As far as some things go, the British Museum closed a massive part of my travels abroad. There would be no more new discoveries now; neither would there be any more "need to see" things.

As irked as I feel about the Parthenon Marbles, I left the British Museum feeling a strange sense of completion and accomplishment. It was as if all the pieces of the puzzle had now been found and I could begin fitting the pieces together in my mind...

...and in my photos.

I don't see these things in my imagination or in my books anymore; I see these in my photos and in my memory.

Its getting rather late now and I think I've come to a good stopping point. There is still more of London to see. Promise, I went somewhere other than the British Museum.

That WOULD be nerdy of me...

Stay tuned.
~Noah D.

"Quay" is pronounced "kay"... by the way...

2008-09-28T19:06:00.001-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 2 June 2008
**

Let me just start by telling you how weird it feels to be in an English-speaking country after being surrounded by all sorts of languages EXCEPT English for 4 months...

...after a short stop in Brussels, Belgium, my two companions and I were swept off across the English Channel.

"Hey, where was that post!?" someone might ask. Okay, so Brussels was extraordinarily rainy and I was only there a few hours... that equals bad photos - not worth a blog.

Across the English Channel we flew on the tiny airline Aer Lingus. So small, in fact, we had to look VERY hard to find their single check-in line in the Brussels airport. Then, if that doesn't give it away...

...Dublin is mighty pretty this time of year.

And as I said in the first line, we were in our first fully English-speaking country in the better part of 4 months. In fact, we got accustomed to just talking out-loud about subjects that no normal person would talk about out-loud in public. But, all that aside, it was literally exciting to simply tell the cab driver our destination verbally and not having to write it down.

Furthermore, we talked to him the entire 20min drive. That's when I was corrected as to the correct pronunciation of "quay". And checking in? We could talk to the receptionist! Yep, you don't appreciate being able to communicate until it is extremely difficult.

We stayed at Abigail's Hostel on Aston Quay less than a block from the O'Connell Bridge. Its in an amazing location as backs up against the Temple Bar. Okay, let me clarify something: the Temple Bar is NOT a "bar" in the classical sense. There are pubs there (and there's even one called "The Temple Bar" but it is just the major pedestrian street where everyone gathers in the late afternoons and night. There are shops and pubs and hotels and even Hard Rock Cafe - Dublin, but its very similar to Beale Street in Memphis or Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Anyways, morning comes and it was a mighty fine day to be outside.

The city along the River Liffey under blue skies and fluffy clouds, what could be better?

My companions and I decided to do Dublin as fast as possible because we had ANOTHER flight that night to our final destination in Europe. So, we decided to join a hop-on-hop-off bus tour through the city. This, my friends, is the perfect way to do a large European city if you don't have very much time and can't drive.

The bus ticket was 6.50Euro and it lasted all day. The way it works: when you get on the first of these special double-decker buses and you can get off at any of the stops and 10 minutes later, another bus will come to the same stop. So, you can get on and off these buses all day. The line is the same and it takes you to all the major stops.

Also, the bus driver constantly gives information about the area from the driver seat.

Well, the first stop of this tour was Dublin's famous center for higher education: Trinity College.

Or more appropriately: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin. No, really, that's its "real" name.

Why is it notable?

Well, mainly it has some REALLY famous alumni. I noticed not long ago that my college has a wall of "notable alumni". But I GUARANTEE it doesn't have any names on it like the ones Trinity College can boast.

Literary greats such as Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, and Jonathan Swift are immortalized on these pedestals, as well as Dracula writer Bram Stoker, who grew up just a block or two away on Kildare Street.

Other than for the point of being random, I almost left this photo out of the blog. However, if you look to the top left corner of the photograph, there is a bronze sphere. I did not notice this at the time I was there, but when I was going through these, I noticed it.

I did a little digging and found out that these sculptures - identical to the one in the Vatican Museums that I had seen earlier - are a set of five. I didn't get a good shot of this one, but this is the one in the Vatican a week prior:

They are called "Sphere Within Sphere" by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro and now I've (rather accidentally) seen the two European ones. I wonder how hard it will be to see the others... the rest are in the States.

Anyways, I digress...

As I mentioned Kildare Street a moment ago, the National Museum and Art Gallery is on Kildare Street. For a free museum, its mighty nice. I've seen better Egyptian sections, but I VERY much enjoyed their main attraction: the Bog Bodies. These naturally-mummified corpses were preserved in a peat bog for thousands and thousands of years until peat harvesters uncovered them a few years ago.

Sorry, no photos in the Museum, but they were definitely very cool. Even though the bodies were slightly mutilated by the compression of the peat moss (not to mention whatever killed them in the first place) it was easy to see their original hair color, nails, and even fingerprints! Not bad for thousands of years old!

Well, if you ever venture to Dublin, you mighty run across Miss Molly, Dublin's favorite "working girl"...

...yep, its a statue to... yep, "working girls".

Moving on...

Much of Dublin is covered with towers such as the clock tower in the Upper Courtyard near Dublin Castle.

...or the well-known St. Patrick's Cathedral down the street:

But of COURSE it would be covered with scaffolding! What major landmark in Europe isn't?

Look close and you'll see these little dudes near the doors of St. Patrick's:

Only slightly creepy.

But, if you spend any time in Dublin, you'll soon realize it is heavily industrialized and literally covered in construction - as you can see by the absurd number of cranes on the skyline - more than any other city I'd seen thus far.

Now for a little story: on the hop-on-hop-off bus near Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced "jail), I had to sit near the back of the lower level of the double-decker bus. Since the back of the lower level doesn't even have a window, I decided to move to the only other open seat - beside a girl about my age in the front seat.

Well, since I didn't want to be excessively awkward for sitting there (and since it'd been a while since I actually could talk to anyone on the street) we began a little small-talk conversation. She was a student from Australia (such a freaking cool accent for a girl!) and she was in the UK by herself for a few weeks touring around.

It was only a few minutes to the Kilmainham Gaol, so we were unable to talk very long; however, it was already mid-afternoon and our flight out of the Dublin airport was rapidly approaching (not to mention my other two companions were literally starving), so when she asked if I was going to visit the Kilmainham Gaol... It was VERY tempting, so my goodbye to her was reluctant, but I wished her safe travels and stayed on the bus.

She nodded with an "Aww, that's too bad" and left the bus with a thank you to the driver and a little wave to me.

Seconds later, out of nowhere, the bus driver turned around to me and said, "Wow, my friend. Thot was a reeeeeealy silly thing you did there! Reeeeely silly! And yuu were givin' it yur best, too!"
"Well, our flight is coming up and my companions want to get something to eat before...," I replied.
"Loook," he pointed to the door of the Gaol, "she's turned arund and she's'a waitin' to see if yur gonna come. Yuu know yuu want to!"
"But..."
"But nuthin'! It is 3Euro to get into the Gaol and I will give yuu 3Euro to get off this bus!"

Nevertheless, I had to stay on.

"Yuur bein' reeeeal silly, my friend. Reeel silly!" he shook his head turning back around to continue on his route.

All this time, Bethany and Melissa were rolling with laughter. They had seen the entire exchange from the time I sat down with the Australian girl and were thoroughly enjoying the whole thing.

We stayed on a few more stops after that until we were back to the restaurant, but he turned a couple times and laughed and said, "Wow, that was silly!"
I would just smile and shrug, "You can't win them all."

Before we got to our final stop, the bus driver turned to me and said, "Yanno, if yuu were stayin' anuther night, I'd'd take yuu and yur friends out and get yuu to prove to me yur not as silly as I think yuu are right now. And I'm serious 'bout that, too!"

Now I've had a lot of exchanges with locals in 4 months of travels like this, but this one was one of my most memorable.

So, needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Dublin. How much fun would it be to hang out with a local Dubliner and see THAT side of Dublin!? Alright... gotta go back...

But the only little pub we saw was the place we ate lunch. Whoa... branching into the experimental street photography...

...taken through one of those angled windows of the pub.

And then to another airport terminal...

...and the random photography as we play the waiting game...

...waiting for a flight with British Airways.

And it was a much longer wait than we expected. It was delayed 30min or so...

...darn...

...I could have had time at the Kilmainham Gaol... for free.

Silly me...

;)

Stay tuned. Only a couple left!
~Noah D.

In the spirit of things these days...

2008-09-28T19:04:00.004-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 29 May 2008
**

Not often you go to a place that overwhelms you - if you stay inside the States, that is.

Jerusalem was overwhelming. It was unimaginably cool. Many have asked me now, "What was your favorite place in the 4 months abroad?" I'll say Israel... or more specifically: Jerusalem.

But they rarely ask me, "What was #2?"

I would say... this was it.

...the Normandy coast.

It is a sobering thought, if you put things in perspective: the image above, for instance. Click on it. Enlarge it as big as it'll go. Then think about what it would have been like as a young man of around 19 or 20 or 21 - about my age - coming up over this cliff (directly behind me in this photograph)... and seeing this and the machine guns on either side.

My day had begun in the hostel I mentioned from my previous Paris blog.

This is Bayeux... just about 3 miles from the beaches of the province of Normandy in northern France. The cathedral that dominates the skyline of this sleepy town is known as Notre-Dame. Yep, there is more than one... or two... or three. In fact, there are bunches of them scattered throughout France and other French-language influence places. Yes, even the ones scattered throughout the States... and EVEN as far as Vietnam! Lots of Notre-Dame's.

The previous night, I met some fellow traveling students at the hostel. Their names were Kate, Stephan, and Rich. Kate and Stephan were from Germany - Köln and Berlin, respectively, and Rich was from England. Restless from a hard week of studying in their school in Paris, they wanted to go do something... so they only thing there really was to do was going off to the dark beaches.

So we did. We piled into their little sub-compact Peugeot and headed off to the beaches. It took a while, but we found a place just east of Omaha Beach where you could drive a car all the way to the shore. Needless to say it was pitch black, but it was sort of a cool experience. You could see, in the light from the dim headlights, the outline of a small bunker on the side of the cliff.

By that time, it was getting mighty late for a Sunday night and literally everything was closed... except a single diner down a one-way street in the middle of town. Using their amazing multi-lingual skills (they all spoke English, French, and German - and Kate spoke Italian) we had a little meal and headed back to the hostel. I wish I would have gotten contact information on them, but I left too early the next morning for ANYONE to be awake.

I left the hostel at 5:30am. I had quite a morning ahead of me and a long way to go.

But, it isn't far to the beaches. In fact, you can't miss the spires above the horizon.

Through the narrow passages and alleys between these sleepy little towns, not even the schoolchildren were up and going yet.

Back in the States, its a rare day that I would see two times per day when the shadows were long... but in Europe, I was growing very accustomed to it.

Then...

From the moment I saw the first bunker there on the side of the road, I was overwhelmed.

I've been to quite a few battlefields in my day. I live in the Southeastern United States - so we have plenty of American Revolution and Civil War battlefields scattered about. And sure, they have their cannons and little trenches and little grassy-covered forts... but there is something altogether different about seeing real World War 2 - and knowing people (or having family) that fought here?

See, that's completely different. What you see in the water there is pieces of the Mulberry Harbor - a massive retaining wall of immense concrete blocks designed to block the waves as the large transport ships could come in and offload their supplies and equipment and personnel in the days following D-Day.

I had ended up here, just west of the Arromanches-les-Bains between Gold and Omaha Beaches where British and Canadian Forces had scaled these 100ft tall cliffs with grappling hooks and ropes to eliminate the gun emplacements here that were shooting down the beaches toward Omaha Beach.

The defending soldiers would wait for the grappling hooks to come up over the side and wait until a few soldiers were climbing... then they would either release the grappling hook or cut the rope.

Now, it looks rather peaceful... to be called "les Chaos" where some of the most prolific fighting took place.

Some of the bunkers were destroyed by the early-morning bombardment on June 6, 1944. But not that many...

Many a young man died here - on both sides. The damage is still apparent.

The batteries were left intact.

As are the machine gun nests:

The view from the cliff's edge is like this. Yes, it was THAT close. And just imagine fighting your way to the top of this cliff... not getting dropped by the soldiers up top... and meeting this thing face to face... realizing all those bombardments earlier were almost ineffective: the shells just made pockmarks on the surface.

The fighting just has begun.

Then, if you made it past this sight, you then have to fight your way through the maze inside this bunker. On the backside is a lower entrance and a higher entrance up a ladder. If you chose the lower entrance, you're met by a machine gunner shooting at you through this armored hole:

A grenade doesn't really help much past making a loud noise, but you just dive into this pitch dark maze through to the end where there is a nest of soldiers waiting for you.

Well, somebody did it. Someone made it all the way through and survived the onslaught. How do I know? Because the bullet holes in the wall here are from an attacker... probably passed through the body of the defender:

And they could have only been shot from the doorway.

See? Puts into perspective things we either take for granted or don't think about how impossibly hard this was.

A couple towns over, though, is the resting place for 9,387 young soldiers who did not survive to tell the tale.

The walls to the right and left of this monument list their names...

...but walking up the steps there and seeing them for yourself is an experience all to itself.

And to the north... just a few meters from this shot...

...Omaha Beach itself.

(And just a note for my photo buddies, the dark corners and vignetting is all done with the lens. I figured out which apertures combined with zoom on the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 does it.)

Anyways...

In all of Europe, this was one of my "I must go there" places. Also, I was mightily impressed by the area's policy of "absolutely no commercial activity". I couldn't even find a lapel pin for my grandfather... as strange as that is - finding a place in Europe with very very little tourist activity - I'm happy things are that way.

This place demands respect...

...definitely my respects to these soldiers here...

...for they really were part of the "Greatest Generation."

But my time was growing short and I had to be in Brussels, Belgium, before 19:00... I had to move along.

But here's another little story:
On the way to the American Cemetery, I passed this church and randomly photographed it because it looked familiar.

Then again, I've seen a billion churches in the past few months. This one was unique, though, because I recognized it from somewhere a bit more subtle.

It was this famous photograph...

...now reconstructed...

...I had seen that photograph in books and things when I was studying a lot about World War II a few years ago.

How bizarre is it to stand in a place like this. Just a single photograph.

Alas, my time in France was drawing to a close. I took the train back to Paris' St. Lazare station and then took a taxi to the Gare du Nord.

Yep... yet another Bourne Identity movie location.

;)

I made it to Brussels in less than 1.5 hours on the super hi-speed Thalys train. It was mighty cool to see the world go by at 350km/h.

From the sleepy town of Bayeux, France, to the hi-speed French trains and then speeding through Brussels in time for a 19:00hr flight, my life as a traveler never can really slow down...

...but to take a little time and remember those who have fought for my freedom to do so... it was one of my most memorable locations. So, in the spirit of Memorial Day and the anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1944) coming up... thank a soldier.

I do need to return there someday and spend some more time exploring the rest of the beaches. This was just a short morning.

I need about a week.

Stay with me. My trip is winding down quickly. There are only a few more posts before I returned to the States.

Sad... I know.

~Noah D.

Louvre... Louver... Luvrey... Luuuuve... Lovray... something...

2008-09-28T19:02:00.005-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 27 May 2008
**

As I'm sure you can figure out from the title, I've recently been to the Louvre...

...and I spent quite some time there. That was Day 2 in Paris.

Mandy and Sarabeth - the two companions I had set out with from Athens - left early this morning and were at the Louvre before we even woke up. Mandy's brother joined up with them and they did their own thing from here. It would be many days before we would see them again.

But, alas, I did not find the Holy Grail that Dan Brown said was there...

...whoa, I think I might have spoiled the story.

And if you didn't understand that... go read The daVinci Code. But now you don't have to because I just spoiled it for you...

Alright, moving on. I'm starting to make very little sense.
Yep, its a museum. A really really huge museum. And in an attempt not to completely put you to scrolling through the pictures, I'll attempt to keep it interesting.

But seriously, it has quite a few rather major things that I just could not leave Europe without seeing. Some people find big museums like this a little insipid, but after you've spent months in the places these little artifacts came from, they start to gain a certain sentimental aspect to them.

Like the Venus de Milo, for instance:

Anyone who sat through the lowest level of Art Appreciation in high school or college has seen this little lady. I guess she could be the world's most famous naked person, but the Venus (or Aphrodite, as she was originally known to the Greeks) is one face that has been famous for a LONG time.

Speaking of long times, the Egyptian influence and artifacts follow you everywhere. If its a museum, it probably has something Egyptian in it.

Not that these really belonged to anyone notable, but they're still in exceptional condition - and since they're in Louvre, they will be in exceptional condition for many years to come.

And speaking of good condition:

You, my squatty friend, are one legendary little dude. This is one of the things the Cairo Museum wishes it still had in its possession. He's almost 5000 years old... yes, that means there's a good chance he was there BEFORE the pyramids!

Remember the sacred burial ground of Saqqara all the way back from my second day in Egypt? From here:

Well, the Seated Scribe was found there. Understand my connection to these places? You see this little dude in the Louvre and kinda sit and think, "Wow. I've been there."

Its truly unreal to think about.

Moving on...

Since the Louvre is in France, you can't get away without seeing some crown jewels and something glorifying the beauty of the country:

Can you go to Washington, D.C., without singing praises to the USA? Well... even in today's time! I'm sure if we had crown jewels (held within the gold sarcophagus in the lower right) we'd be flaunting them, too.

Then, if you've spent any time in Greece, you'll be well acquainted with the headless "Nike of Samothrace"...

...and if you pay attention to quite a few things in the world these days, too. She's copied dozens and dozens of times - but here is the original. A repaired copy stands in front of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. And some say the original design for the Rolls Royce Spirit of Ecstasy had its roots here.

Whatever SOME say, I just think the Winged Victory of Samothrace is just really really exceptional.

One of my favorite statues from the Louvre - along with Michaelangelo's Dying Slave - is this one:

How cool is that lighting? Museums with infinite budgets can do things like that.

And of course, you can't go to the Louvre without seeing some daVinci masterworks. It had been a while since I got an elbow to the ear, so I felt like running the gauntlet and seeing the "Lady of the Louvre"...

...in all her over-exaggerated glory, the Mona Lisa is in the middle of a huge mess of people in a room almost to itself. And who would blame them? For most people, this is where they make their beeline.

Why? The world may never know. But just to say, "I've seen the Mona Lisa" would be enough for the average tourist.

Well, one little disappointment came from the Babylonian room. Sure there was pieces of the REAL Ishtar Gate (remember, I saw a reconstruction in Berlin) and quite a few artifacts from Nebuchadnezzar's reign... but it took me a good 5 or 6 minutes to figure out the venerable Code of Hammurabi was nowhere to be found!

What the heck!?! The Code of Hammurabi... was... gone!

Okay, so there was no reason to sound the alarm. The Louvre was having an exhibit on Babylon. Some of my companions would not pay the extra 9Euro to go see it... but I'm of the opinion: "How much would it take to come BACK to the Louvre to see it - plane costs, train costs, hotel, another ticket. Yeah, 9Euro is definitely worth every cent.

I could not photograph inside the Babylon exhibit because some of the artifacts from the Ziggurat of Ur and the findings relating to the Ziggurat's relationship to the biblical Tower of Babel were yet unpublished.

No matter. I was there. I saw the real Code of Hammurabi. No photos and descriptions in an encyclopedia. I can see it in my memory.

Lets see. What else from the Louvre?

Oh, did you know the Louvre used to be a castle? Yeah, me neither... but here's the excavations done from beneath the modern building:

And it seemed like a high-security day. I never found out why.

Well, I guess that did it for the world's most famous Museum. This was still early in the day, though.

A day in Paris equals two or three in other places.

We hit the streets again.

It was a Sunday morning... the little markets were opening where they sell little creatures of all shapes and sizes. There were chinchillas, mice, and - of course - the birds.

Its not a stereotype at all! It really is there!

Then just around the corner was Notre Dame. I had walked by the previous day...

...but this time I had a little more time to get close...

...there are entire families of gargoyles! Not just one or two... entire flocks!

And inside really is impressive...

I don't really want to think about how many churches I've been inside during these past 4 months, but this one has a famous name... so, might as well go do the tourist thing and gawk.

I enjoy going a little "behind the scenes" and not taking the photo everyone else takes. Sure, the front of the altar... looks like almost every other altar in every other catholic church in the world. What does it look like from the back?

;)

And I kinda caught somebody's flash! I guess some people can't read "NO FLASH" written in 18 languages. Its not really an enforced rule... it wasn't hard to catch a flash since they were going off EVERYWHERE.

Whatever... its not like a camera flash is going to cause the paint to degrade. Yep, that's what they'll say.

The stained glass is just absurd.

I don't really like that photo because the perspective messes with my head, but you get the idea...

Notre Dame. Pretty impressive.

Crowds are pretty huge there, though...

...but such is Paris. April in Paris, as it were. ;) (Shout out to all you jazzy people out there, w00t.)

The street performers were out in force...

...but such is Europe.

So I and my two remaining companions had a late lunch in a cafe in the Latin Quarter.

And so ended my stay in Paris.

This night our paths would take us separate ways. Melissa and Bethany met up with some of our other friends from Athens to stay in Paris one more night... whilst I took a little train ride...

...out to a nearby city that would become one of the highlights of my journeys abroad:

If you figure it out from that photo... you get a cookie. This was the view from my hostel window.

Keep up, my friends. The next day was one Monday I'll never forget.

~Noah D.

In some cities, there is just too much to see...

2008-09-28T19:00:00.008-05:00

**
ORIGINALLY POSTED: 25 May 2008
**

...and, for the most part, we seemed to be going to those cities which that applied to.

Rome? Too much to see - hit the high points.

Prague? Too much to see - hit the high points.

Berlin? Too much to see - hit the high points.

I could have spent AT LEAST a week in each of the cities we had been to thus far in our little sojourn. So, where's this next place that had just SOOOO much to see 2 days didn't even scratch the surface!?

Yes, my friends, here is Paris.

Paris, France.

No, not Paris, Germany... or Paris, Tennessee... this is the real thing.

As I heard once from fellow travel enthusiast Tony Bourdain , "Paris is the city of the senses: they are famous for their food - sense of taste; they are famous for their perfumes - sense of smell; and they are famous for their art - sense of sight; and, of course, Paris is famous for its 'love' - there's the sense of touch; but, Paris' pop music scene leaves something to be desired... but 4 out of 5 ain't bad!"

This is completely true.

From the moment all five of us began getting ready for the day inside our little closet-sized sleeper train, we were literally inundated by the senses.

I've been in a LOT of big cities, but coming to Paris the first time is like the old farmer arriving in New York City for the first time. Six major train stations, 20 something metro lines servicing 100-something metro stations, 10.5 million locals... this is big stuff - even to the seasoned traveler.

Our hotel was pretty far away...

...but not THAT far.

My companions headed off to meet a tour guide. That's not really my thing, so I decided to self-guide... again... And just enjoy me some time in Paris and see whatever the heck I wanted!

Oh, and I decided to take my first shower since Rome. Okay, yes... you read that right! That's real traveling right there...

;)

So, I just headed into town and decided to walk a little. This guy will show you how to do it:

Starting from the Champs Elysées and the Arc de Triumph and walked toward the Louvre. Its a straight shot... a very long straight shot. You don't realize how huge Paris is until you try walking something like this. I didn't realize...

One of the first things I came to was one of the major things I was coming to Paris to see: the Luxor Obelisk.

Why is this THAT important to me? Well, because it actually belongs here:

See the big blue-lighted obelisk? See where there should be one sitting on the closer pedestal? Yep, that's where it should sit. They used to be twins. This was from my visit to the Temple of Luxor in Luxor, Egypt. See why it is so important?

Oh well... such is life...

I passed this dude in the Louvre gardens...

...he must have tried to walk all the way, too. The people were out en mass today.

...as were the flowers...

...and the children with no parents to be found.

When you see the giant spider, you're almost there!

As with the Romans, I guess the Parisians like their triumphant arches, too.

I did not look it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was ACTUALLY from Rome and it had been brought here just like the Luxor Obelisk.

Does it sound like I'm a little bitter about stuff taken from its original place and put in museums? Actually, I'm not! I think it is very important to have priceless artifacts in a place where they can be collected and preserved and appreciated by the general public...

...HOWEVER... the Luxor Obelisk is borderline in my opinion. If you ask the Parisians, they'll say, "Oh, the Obelisk was GIVEN as a gift." But, if you ask the Egyptians (believe me, I have) they'll say, "The Obelisk was taken in a last ditch effort to get the last major thing out of Egypt before the Egyptian government made exporting things like the freaking OBELISK OF LUXOR illegal." So... see? Borderline.

Don't even get me started about some of the Greek stuff... you'll get that rant soon enough.

But, back to the story:

I made it. There's evidence. Camera propped up on the camera bag. Heck yeah.

From there, I just walked on around the side and across Pont Neuf and down to the good ol' Notre Dame. The Hunchback of Notre Dame type of thing.

Alright, so, after a little street food snack, I headed down to... um...

Okay, people... I promise I don't have some sick fascination with this stuff. This is just really cool off-the-beaten-path stuff. And it was just so cool...

The Paris Catacombs begin in a nondescript little building in the middle of the plaza in the middle of Place de Denfert-Rochereau in the 14th Arrondesment. Well, remember the Ossuary I visited at Kutna Hora outside Prague? That was 40,000 completely human skeletons.

That's a drop in the bucket to this place, my friend.

Try 6 MILLION completely human skeletons interred beneath the streets of Paris.

It goes on and on and on...

...they are stacked and piled and sometimes just shoved up in the nooks and crannies...

Guys and gals, seriously not for the faint of heart. Maybe not quite as outright bizarre like Kutna Hora, but to walk through a maze of 6,000,000 human skeletons is just a little more than awe-inspiring.

Lets see... what is that? Six million. The population of the greater Los Angeles area. The population of Atlanta, Georgia... and ALL of the surrounding counties. The population of the entire state of Tennessee. The entire population of the country of Jordan.

Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Just look at these arm and leg bones. For every two of those, that was one person:

Think about that then go back and look at the ones in the first catacomb photo. See? Very humbling...

Anyways... after a while wandering underground amongst 6,000,000 skeletons, I decided it was time for some food. I hiked back to the plaza and sat down at a completely random cafe and had an amazing lunch.

And then on to more celebration of DEATH at the Pere Laichase Cemetery! Alright, well, this is famous stuff here...

...for my music aficionado friends: Chopin's grave.

...and for my OTHER music aficionados: Jim Morrison's grave.

...and then bizarre of another kind: this is the grave of Oscar Wilde.

First, I'm sure you'll just see its kind of an odd facade there...

...but blow it up and look a little closer.

Are those LIP prints? In fact, you're right!

The jury is still out concerning this practice - some people think it is defacing the monument - but I kinda think its kind of a nice gesture. If that many people visit my grave over 100 years after my death, I wouldn't mind it a bit. The lip prints cover it from top to bottom and on all sides.

Thats a lot of people.

Well, it was about time to meet with my companions and suck it up and take a tour. As luck would have it, though, I happened upon them near the Tower quite randomly.

The Eiffel Tower is just so absurdly, unbelievably huge, by the way. My sister asked me, "Is it as big as the Hatteras Lighthouse?" to reference it with something we could both relate to. (If you don't know, the Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina is the tallest lighthouse in the United States.) Well, I assure you, the tallest lighthouse in the WORLD is substantially larger.

Yes, the Eiffel Tower is considered the world's largest lighthouse - though, not exactly usable as a maritime navigation aide.

The Tower is just so much bigger than you'd expect. It took almost 20 minutes to walk to it from where I took the photo above.

Moving along... we decided to take the tour through Montmartre. That's where this is:

The world-famous Moulin Rouge. Here's a little trivia for you: "Moulin Rouge" means "red windmill". It ALL makes sense now!!

;)

So, you'd be surprised at the type of people who were going into the front door there. The average age was probably 45 and almost every one of them were couples... and by the looks of it - married couples. Its about 150Euro for a show at this time of the day. Needless to say, I wasn't there for that.

Whoa! I just realized, I haven't posted a random animal photo in a long time!

There.

Makes me gag its so adorable. Silly woman jumped in there... kinda gave a little strange composition element to it. Immediately after she took the photo, I expected her to leave, but she touched the cat and made it leave... a bunch of other people all groaned at her. They all missed the photo. I have a photo AND a story!

ANYways... its a cat. I have one right here with me right now. It shouldn't be something that's going to stop traffic...

What WAS thrilling, though, was the kinda stuff we were seeing on this little tour: vanGogh's apartment where he died; the last originally REAL windmill in Paris; the absinthe museum...

...and the Sacre Coeur (translated: Sacred Heart) at the top of the hill...

...complete with its humongous gargoyles...

...and those killer views of Paris everybody drools over.

It was sort of funny to overhear a few people asking, "Hey! Where's the Eiffel Tower?"

Well, if they walked about 100ft to their right, they would see:

(Digital converted to B&W.) Remember how HUGE I was saying it was? Those high-rise buildings next to it... count the floors and compare.

Very very big.

Well, just around the corner from Sacre Coeur is a little community area of mainly artisans and craftsmen carrying on the traditions of this historic hill.

Picasso, vanGogh, Toulouse... all loved this area for its amazing lighting that remains greatly unobstructed even to this day.

The "Golden Hour" lasts the full hour on many days.

Oh, and have you ever seen the movie Amelie? That is almost completely filmed and based in these streets.

Our tour guide mentioned the metro station she used, we walked by the corner grocery store she goes to in the movie, and the brasserie she works at... Honestly, I've never seen the movie, but now I think I might put it on the Netflix list.

I enjoyed the area. Montmartre was beautiful and very full of life and "real" people...

...once you get away from the main drag where the Moulin Rouge fills the street with red light.

Speaking of another sort of "red light," this area is not very many steps from THAT "red light." But, we had really been walking a long way and it was just about that time for some food. We really wanted to try out this fondue place up the road from here, but it seemed everyone else in the city wanted to go there, too... so we didn't.

We settled on a nice little restaurant in the square a block below Sacre Coeur. It was a mighty nice place. In typical French fashion the food was mighty good. And the waitress was pretty horrible with her English, but in typical French fashion she could play the sheepishly cute card and get away with murder.

Its a game you get used to traveling extensively: you learn the "point at the menu" game. Yeah, you can be silly and butcher the word so badly where the waitress can't understand what you're asking for... but in the end, you'll be pointing at it anyway. Just skip that little embarrassment altogether.

Also in typical European fashion, we could sit there as long as we pleased. Now THAT, my friend, is the way to live. And it is especially noticeable in Paris: they sit and watch and observe what is going on around them. They enjoy the taste of the food and the smells and the sights and then they go out there and engage people and they get out there and live life.

"Too much of life is spent in waiting," said the new Indiana Jones movie. So go out there - it doesn't have to be as absurd as Paris - but just get out there and don't be afraid to live life. Because time will pass you by... and that's time you don't get back. Ever.

So, Paris is not done. See? Too much to see for one day and too much to tell in one post.

Stay tuned, my people. I'll be going to South Carolina tomorrow and back, but Part2 will come soon enough.

~Noah D.

To be proud and learn from the past...

2008-09-28T18:59:00.008-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 21 May 2008
**

Okay, so what is arguably the one city in Europe that has had more bearing than any other city on the nature of the world during the greater part of the 20th century?

No, its not Israel - that's not in Europe, nor is it a city. Ironically enough, Israel ties into this city, too.

The Cold War, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the seat of a government that has provoked two World Wars and inspired some to imagine it to be "how NOT to become a world power"...

...this is where it happened.

...this is Berlin.
Okay, so its not any of those things anymore. Besides some remnants of its past, Berlin is an ULTRA-modern city with amazing architecture...

...and a public transportation system better than any city I had yet seen through my travels in Europe. I literally could get ANYWHERE in the city usually on a direct route or MAYBE with one change.

This is Alexanderplatz, by the way, a hub for a few of the lines. (And, its another movie location from the Bourne Supremacy.)

Oh, and as I said earlier, Berlin is simply a hub for history. The newly renovated Reichstag...

...with its glass rotunda and famous facade.

Not to mention the nearby Brandenburg Gate:

...that, as far as famous stuff goes, its on the short list.

At least in my life, the Brandenburg Gate is probably in my first memories of news and things that. I was almost 4 years old when the wall fell and there are some VERY vague memories of being aware of it at the time. Whether it was from then or the hundreds of times I've seen the photos and videos from the night all the people from East and West Berlin stood atop the wall... this was it.

...and there it was in front of me.

So, I had headed out on my own for a day in Berlin. One of my stops definitely would be the Berlin Museum to tie up some loose ends with Egypt. When I got there, I was greeted by this dude:

But, I was there to see something that I had wanted to see since my travels in Egypt: the Bust of Nefertiti.

It was every bit as cool to finally see her in person as I had heard as far back as good ol' Osman in Egypt. As I traveled through Europe, I began these little interjections into my past months abroad... Nefertiti was up there in that list.

Why was she in Berlin? you may ask... why indeed!
Well, the Bust of Nefertiti was actually in Hitler's bunker when he killed himself at the end of the war. Odd, right?

Not HALF as odd as what I found out about Hitler's "Fuhrer Bunker" with a little digging around. It actually took me quite a bit of research on the Blackberry to find it, but I did manage to locate Hitler's bunker. Well, if you intend to go find it, too, just know that it isn't ACTUALLY on any of the tourism maps I could find... nor is it marked AT ALL!!

And, get ready for this: when I did actually manage to find the vague instructions that its "near the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and An der Kolonnade" I walked around that stupid corner for 15 minutes before I found anything.

In front of this nondescript apartment complex is this glass panel. On this glass panel, it gives the entire history lesson of this location. Before World War 2 a huge mansion used by Kaisers and other major government officials - including Hitler. It was pretty much leveled by the advancing armies in 1945.

But here's the bizarre part: notice the place I've marked with an arrow in this photo.

Here's the enlargement:

In the center of the frame here is the line "In 1943 [Hitler] had the "Führer's Bunker" built in the gardens, where he killed himself in 1945." This is the only mention of the bunker. After this, I went into the courtyard of this apartment complex and found some sort of mound where I assume an entrance or a part of it still lies underground. There's a children's play set there now.

No markings. Not even its own little glass sign history lesson. Maybe I'm a nerd, but I'd kinda like to see this thing! But... oh well... I guess its not exactly a popular subject matter to take up a collection to memorialize such a site.

Anyways... returning to our story and returning to the Bust of Nefertiti:

This randomly massive structure next door to the Berlin Museum was rather impressive...

...known simply as "the Dom".

Then, in a quest for more nerdy fun, there was the Kaiser-Wilhelm Geächtniskirche on the western side of the city center. I took the ever-efficient metro over there to check it out...

...this church was bombed out during World War 2 and was left in its destroyed condition for almost 70 years now. Yes, those dark markings are actual burn marks from Allied bombing.

It was a mighty cool thing to see up close. It was difficult, however, to imagine practically everything in the area looking like this.

Well, I've seen the Great Temple of Zeus where the massive statue (one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World) once stood... why not go see the Great Altar of Zeus.

Brought here from Pergamon in present-day Turkey, the Great Altar of Zeus is really really big and has its own building, the Pergamon Museum, which also showcases plenty of other ancient art and architecture.

Huge architecture.

Like, a complete blue (reproduction) Ishtar Gate from the Processional Way in ancient Babylon:

Yeah, I know the perspective is weird, but how do you get something 100ft wide and 50ft tall in an 18mm lens? Its truly huge!

It was all I could do to get the entire Pergamon Altar in there!

But never too big to get a little street-ish shot of a random person looking confused in front of a Roman bema.

Speaking of street...

...I hit the streets again on this cold and windy day to visit the remaining section of the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery.

There's a certain amount of respect you just feel compelled to give a place like this.

As a media-minded guy like me sees something like this, I see all the thousands and thousands of stories and photographs and news spots this place has conjured up for the last half century.

Our parents grew up with this thing in their news.

And even our grandparents, for that matter.

Here it is, my friends. Its real. It wasn't thousands of miles away in a foreign country where nobody speaks English.

No, this thing was in my humble camera's viewfinder.

Crazy stuff...

Well, by this time I was rather cold and extremely hungry. How to remedy it? Easy. Street food! There was a man selling brats outside the metro station. It was a mighty good thing. Did I get some rabid disease from it? No.

Okay, so I've drunk the water in Egypt and Jordan and eaten street food all over the Mediterranean world... I'm still here.

At least, nothing Imodium won't fix.

;)

Next, off to a little thing that was just SLIGHTLY depressing to witness:

In classic capitalistic style, Checkpoint Charlie has been sold out to the highest bidder. This time, the highest bidder has come in the form of a tourist trap. Complete with uniformed "actors" holding flags for tips from tourists wanting to get their photo taken.

Oh well. Not everything can escape the iron fist of cheesy tourism...

...not even a location that, on more than one occasion, almost saw the Cold War escalate to armed conflict.

I had a little extra time before I was due to meet up with my traveling companions at the train station so I took another opportunity to find a few more movie locations. That was fun...

But, as usual, train stations were the first and last things we saw in any city.

We were heading toward our next destination via Karlsruhe, Germany. Since all the night trains were booked solid direct from Berlin, we were having to take a 6hr ICE train down south to get on a night train to our destination.

It wasn't long before the afternoon scenery turned to complete darkness...

Berlin was our first stop of a few hugely major locations. It was only west from here... west in direction... and "west" in thought.

The next location MIGHT just warrant two blog posts... I'll see if I can keep it down.

;)

Got any ideas yet?

See soon. Stay tuned.
~Noah D.

What huge pile of human skeletons are you talking about?

2008-09-28T18:58:00.003-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 18 May 2008
**

Oh... THAT huge pile of human skeletons!

Yes, my friends. I'm taking you from the beauty of Northern Italy that is found in Venice...

...to the freakishly bizarre Church of the Dead.

Come one! Come all!

Welcome to Prague.
...but more precisely, Kutna Hora.

A sleepy town lying 45min due east of Prague, Kutna Hora is home to its (in)famous Ossuary where, back in the Middle Ages the plague struck this region. Since the grounds of the church here were blessed by soil brought back from the Holy Land, thousands and thousands of people sought to be buried here upon their demise.

To make a long story short, the place isn't that big! The cemetery became overcrowded. Extremely overcrowded. So overcrowded, in fact, that the monks who inhabited the monastery here began to exhume human remains and piling them up inside and out of the church.

It wasn't long before a monk had a fit of creativity...

...wouldn't we all?

He started small and simple...

...and then created his masterpiece...

...a massive chandelier array containing every single one of the 206 bones from the human skeleton at least once... and many many times over.

Sadly, the genius monk died before he could complete his masterpiece.

It wasn't long before someone picked up the pieces and completed the rather odd decorations.

And I can honestly say it was one of the more fascinating things I saw during my travels thus far.

Many put the count at 40,000 complete human skeletons represented here.

Somehow, I wouldn't doubt it...

...but the Ossuary is not very big so you have to just imagine how odd it is to stand in the midst of 40,000 skeletons. These are the grounds as they are now.

--------------------------------

So, it had taken a staggering 13hours of an overnight train through Austria to arrive in the Czech Republic. Some would be bored to tears... I call that "catch up on sleep."

We had gone from the blah overcast-ness of Northern Italy to the wonderful blue skies of Eastern Europe.

Prague was also full of educational moments. While I was enjoying myself outside town in the Bone Church, my companions visited the Torture Museum.

Why? I don't know.

But then we reunited for another unique experience: dinner.

We had always heard that the Czech Republic was just crazy cheap; nevertheles we did not realize how crazy cheap it was. After a mighty fine meal of duck, dumplings, drink, and including an appetizer, my bill came out to 362 Czech korunas.

How much is that?

About 13Euro...

Yep. For real.

Then we took a walk.

Prague - at night and during the day - is a beautiful and unique experience. (I'm not sure I like that perspective weirdness on that photo, but anyways...)

During my earlier train trip from Kutna Hora, my Blackberry educated me concerning the huge number of movies filmed here in Prague. Not only from movies that claim to be Prague - such as the movie xXx in which Vin Diesel goes toe to toe with anarchists who plan to launch chemical weapons - but even movies that are SUPPOSED to be other European locations.

One example is the beginning scenes of The Bourne Identity. The locations where he busts up the embassy in "Zürich" is ACTUALLY... you guessed it: Prague. They say that Zürich wasn't "consistently European enough".

Also, movies like the first Mission Impossible:

The ramp on the left where Tom Cruise and the girl are pretending to make-out as the man who stole the N.O.C. list escapes from the embassy. Then runs down the sidewalk (toward the right) to the gate there where he is stabbed. Then the other girl runs up and is stabbed through the gate, too.

Falling together yet?

Then, Jim Phelps "gets shot" and falls off the bridge (approximately where I'm standing) and later climbs up the embankment right there. Immediately, Tom Cruise's character runs up the stairs...

...then the car explodes.

Where?

Here.

Pretty cool, right?

After watching the movie again, its pretty freaky to put it all together. But, then again, it doesn't really look THAT much like it... stuff has changed since then.

So, Prague was mighty cool. Movies, dead people, torture museums, and 'Good King Winceslas' seen everywhere.

Oh, and really big pretty churches dominating the night skyline.

I probably need to go back to Prague.

I think I'll return there with some more companions... my stay there was far too brief.

Maybe I'll get another US$18 huge meal...

Hmm... what's next?

~Noah D.

The world doesn't look like that...

2008-09-28T18:57:00.002-05:00

**
ORIGINAL POST: 17 May 2008
**

I find it enjoyable to go to a place like Milan and already know what to expect and already know how to get around. My little trip during Leap Year Weekend bolstered my confidence in that...

...but with Milan, I learned Florence, too!

So, I returned to Florence with a few friends in tow.

I will admit, I enjoyed Milan more than Florence the first time around. The second time was ruined by the gypsies and immigrant hawkers and tens of thousands of people.

Second time around, I enjoyed Florence more. But then again, 8:15am may contribute to that somewhat.

What's that, you say? If we were in Florence at that time, we would have had to leave Rome at...

...yes, sometime during the 5 o'clock hour.

Such is traveling like this sometime. It wasn't the first time, and it would definitely not be the last.

Instead of taking pictures of all the fun sites like I had the first time, I was able to just relax and take in some of the people. This was my companion's first time, though.

I saw Michelangelo's David... again.
I saw the Duomo and Baptistry... again.
I saw the Medici Palace... again...

...yet I couldn't help a little decoration added since last time.

Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with what a lot of what China does in their country (and the countries they control), but sometimes I wonder if the people who are all up in arms about "Free Tibet" and "Human Rights in Tibet" even know where Tibet is. Anyways - not important for my story.

What IS important to my story is this:
After visiting a place like Florence with a gargantuan amount of classical art and sculpture just lying around everywhere, the quizzical mind returns to its home and does a little research. Then, upon his return, he sees the things that he researched - such as the famous Rape of the Sabines - and is able to appreciate it all the more:

This was a detail from that sculpture. This, by the way, was the first sculpture featuring true 360º viewing... it means there is no right way of looking at it. There is no privileged angle.

Also, when I return to a place, I tend to enjoy the photographic opportunities more. Instead of shooting all the "pretty scenery" and things I'm seeing for the first time, I can really concentrate on what I really love:

Real life.

This is their place. This is where they belong. I am an outsider.

This little man was in his place. With his usual paper. Doing his usual thing.

The distinction between traveler and tourist is sometimes a bit of a blurry line for some, but I really thing there is one major difference between the two: a tourist is sort of like a bull in a china shop scurrying from place to place taking all they can from the scene to go back and prove they've been there; a traveler finds himself in a scene learning from and being sensitive to it.

Does a tourist see the people as "real" or do they see them as part of the scene?

Think about it...

Next, we made a quick stop by Gröm. Okay, if you're ever in Florence and you want truly amazing gelato, I fully recommend finding this little place. Off to the south side of the Duomo, the proprietor of this nice little place creates all of his own concoctions from all real, all natural ingredients and makes the gelato right there in the store. If you get there early enough in the morning (similar to the way we did it) you'll have the first fruits of his labor... so fresh that he made us wait 5 minutes so the creamy goodness would "age" a little bit more so the cream is creamy enough.

Oh. So. Good.

Again... this was my second time here. After having tried all the flavors offered by Milan, Pisa, and Rome, this place has my vote.

And again... another stay in the Campo di Marte train station east of Florence. This is the same station I spent 5 or 6 hours in the middle of the night during my Leap Year Weekend stay in Italy.

Though, this time I was going to a place that was just downright bizarre.

Things like this just don't exist in the real world. In fact, the world just doesn't look like this:

Venice, Italy, is more like something from a freaky sci-fi dream where the world has flooded and modern technology has been forsaken. It just doesn't look real...

From the moment you step out of the train station and hear nothing but people and water and little boats puttering by, you realize you're definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

In the 4 months I've been abroad, you'd think there wasn't that much that could just make me pause and say, "Well, golly gee..."

...but Venice will do it to you... or at least it did for me.

(That one is a taxi, guys. Yes... a real yellow-cab taxi!)

After storing my luggage in the train station, I took off all by my lonesome for a little afternoon stroll (and float) through Venice...

Just FYI: if you want to go on a little gondola ride but don't want to pay the high dollar prices for it (sometimes upwards of 100Euro without a singer), you can hop a gondola ferry. They're strategically placed along the Grand Canal and will take you across for a mere .50Euro per ride. VERY good price, I'd say...

Okay, so I can't be a traveler ALL the time. One must splurge sometimes...

And from the lower side of the Grand Canal, it is only a short walk through the narrow streets...

...to one of Venice's main attractions:

San Marco Basilica... which just increases the incredibility of this place.

Taking a look around to the buildings on either side of this plaza, then the brick tower, then the Basilica itself - the whole thing just doesn't match! That makes it more difficult to believe...

...not to mention the location of more winged Petri dishes than any other place I've been over three continents.

I'm sure it looks pretty heartless of me to just walk through and practically trip on them on my way to the Basilica, but after Bird #5920192 almost flies up your nose (again) you kinda tend to get tired of them.

Oddly enough, the Basilica was closed (even at 4:00pm or so), but that's the way things go sometimes.

And did I mention Venice has canals? And boats? And people singing on boats?

And dinner was AMAZING, too. Near the Rialto Bridge...

...you can find dozens and dozens of little restaurants. Yes, you'll be rubbing elbows with the best tourists Italy has to offer, but at least you're going to get a wonderful meal. Then, sit and listen to this place as you eat said meal just a few meters from the water.

Yes, it is becoming extremely touristy these days - I'd hate to even think about this place in the heat of the summer - but no matter the crowds and pigeons, I still found this little waterworld a nice diversion from the usual European cities I had grown to expect.

A little bit of a dreamworld, if you will, but very real at the same time.

Sorry it took so long to get this one up. I was gone again this weekend - I haven't spent a full one at home YET!

Stay tuned for my next stop. Let's just say, we dropped off the Eurail pass and even the Euro for a little while...

...now, can you feel the anticipation?

;)

Soon,
~Noah D.