Travel Photography

Postcards From My Fun Working Holiday In Paris

by

I returned a week ago from a travel memoir writing workshop in Paris where a dozen participants, 11 from around the U.S. and one polite Canadian (thank you, Garrett), communed with fellow travelers, writers, and American travel writing legend and all-around good guy Rolf Potts who organized the event.

I been basking in the glow of that marvelous 6-day experience ever since.

The Eiffel Tower beams its blue light over the Seine River, where the French people and we tourists crowded its banks every night to wine and dine into the wee hours.

Read more

Playing With Light At New Delhi’s Lotus Temple

by
India — a photograper’s delight! Here’s one among many favorites of mine from a recent month-long stay in New Delhi, India’s capital city. The Lotus Temple, a Baha’i worship center, is named for the shape of the flower used in its unique design.

India is fascinating, a country of many stark contrasts, and the images are stunning almost everywhere you turn.

Yet the fascination comes with a jumble of mixed feelings, as in the advantage I took in shooting the scene above of the beautiful Baha’i Lotus Temple.

I was there at dusk with the setting sun, good for taking a photo of almost anything, anywhere. And in New Delhi, with the most polluted air of any capital city in the world, shooting straight into the sun like that, I was able to use the pollution like a filter to mute the sun’s rays coming directly through my lens from behind the temple to capture the scene with dramatic effect.

At least I thought so. Let me know if you disagree.

Read more

Gone From Istanbul, Been to Barcelona, Now I’m in Georgia

by
One of my favorite activities in Istanbul, Turkey, was riding the ferries across the Bosphorus and Golden Horn to visit the many different parts of this large and captivating city.

It’s been too long since I last posted. I was in Turkey at the time, which was two countries ago on my continuing journey.

For the past 11 days I’ve been in Georgia — the country, not the state — and before that I spent a week in Barcelona, Spain, where I visited a friend who I first met in 2017 in Medellin, Colombia.

Read more

The View From Istanbul’s Galata Tower

by
A view from the Galata Tower across the Golden Horn

The weather is dreary this Monday in Istanbul. Gray skies since early morning persist, and post-lunch raindrops have begun speckling the windows of my apartment by the park on the Golden Horn. The air is damp and cool for such a late-spring day.

This is in contrast to Sunday’s brilliance, just yesterday when the sun reigned in the glory of a regal blue sky, shedding warmth across the city.

Yesterday was perfect for a walk from my apartment in humble, colorful Balat in Fatih, across the Golden Horn waterway on the Galata Bridge, to historic Galata Tower in the bustling tourist area of Beyoglu. It’s an easy, interesting walk of about two miles.

Read more