Sep 14 - Looking out the Louvre

When Apryl and I were in Paris, we spent two days at the Louvre. We stayed until the evening on this day and as we were walking through, I saw that the sun had set outside (we didn't realize how late it was) but it wasn't yet dark. I really like the color of the dark blue sky and the light on the building. I even think the lines from the window add to the photo. This week is going to be building week I just decided, so I'll post some of the architecture that I've visited over the years.

Happy Monday!

Sep 11 - Girls in St Marks Square

To round out the week (and the world, as this is the 4th continent in 4 days) I'm posting one of my favorite environmental portraits. In fact, I even entered this into the Orange County Fair a couple of years ago (no, it didn't win anything). I just really like it because they just seem to be having a lot of fun in the picture. I sat there and waited until they both had a pigeon at the same time. (Too bad the pigeons don't know there's birth control in that bird seed). Finally it happened and I took the shot.

On a different note, I too will never forget where I was on Sep 11 and hope that the families of the victims are at peace. Have a great weekend everyone!

Sept 10 - Singing Girls in the Sacred Valley

Continuing on my Environmental Portraits theme, these two little girls met up with us while we were touring the ruins in the Sacred Valley near Machu Picchu. The come from the Highlands and wear their traditional garb. Most of the people that dress this way in Peru will allow you to take photos for a "tip", these girls went above and beyond and tried to sing for us. I stress the "try". We gave them a little tip, took a few photos and went on our way.

Sep 9 - Boys in Africa

These boys in Africa are destined for a short hard life, but for now they are enjoying the day and the visitors (that's us). I visited these natives of Namibia as part of my African tour and the same day that our truck broke down for two days. There is very little water here and the people never bathe, but that doesn't mean they are dirty. They actually cover themselves in a local red clay and because they put it on every day, they actually remove any of the old dirt by exfoliation, so luckily, they don't smell.

These little boy were running around the village, trying to get in our shots, just hamming it up. This was their home as we were about to go inside to see how they prepared meals and the boys were right there to greet us. In the future they will have to travel 5 miles each way to gather water and learn to hunt with their dads. For now, boys will be boys.

Sep 8 - Cancun Bar Waitress

I decided to take a Portrait class at my local community college because I wanted to get better at taking photos of people. I consider that one of my weaknesses with my photography. One of the first "homework" assignments was to find examples of Environmental Portraits, ie, people in their environment. I was looking through my pictures and found this one. I laughed out loud because I had completely forgotten about it. Here we are in a bar in Cancun and this waitress goes walking by with 4 levels of drinks on here head.

We couldn't believe it. We watched her take off the drinks, go back to the bar and get another set. This time we got her to stop her motion and take a picture for us. Crazy right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's photos. I should be back on a regular schedule. You'll probably see more "people" from my travels as I begin to look over my photos for them and learn from my good photos and my mistakes.

Enjoy. Hope you had a great long weekend.

Sep 3 - Ica Dunes

Hello my beautiful people. I'm back. The photo takes us back to the Ica Dunes in Peru. We spent two hours on these dunes on a buggy and was able to sandboard down quite a few of them. This picture shows how mountainous the dunes are and makes you feel like they go on and on forever. The sun was just starting to get low in the sky, so the light and shadows aren't too harsh and really create some great detail in the photo.

Sep 1 and Sep 2 - No Photo

Sorry guys.. a couple of days off.. Busy at work and activities at home.. I'll make sure there's something on Thursday!