In a Previous Life

We used to go to places like this with some regularity.

Dubrovnik, Croatia - 2007, 13 years ago this week

It Is Nice To Feel Loved...

I thought of these after the S&P downgrade of U.S.A.'s credit rating.
Seen along my travels...

Someone Doesn't Like NATO - Split, Croatia



Someone Didn't Like Bush II - Sofia, Bulgaria

A Day in Dubrovnik

Lot of links in this one...could keep the curious among my many readers quite busy...

Although we ended up going back a number of times, the first trip we took to Dubrovnik in late January of 2007 was one of our last as the original 5...the weather was great and we had a good time. My original blog entry was Here.
I took a huge number of photos that day as did Ryan and Shelby.

A later trip to Croatia that included a stop in Dubrovnik I also blogged Here and put a slideshow of our friends' entire visit on photobucket. At least one other trip to Dubrovnik didn't even warrant a mention in the blog.

I've been trying to organize things lately and when I started keywording the photos from that time period... (and ironically, I blogged about my lack of organization with regards to my photographs using a photo from this original trip Here) I realized how many I liked that were taken in just that one day. So I processed a bunch of them over the past few days and here is a sample of the results.... the entire slideshow can be seen on photobucket, I've still have a few to add, and the photos haven't been captioned yet....that may be asking too much of me...enjoy.

Silhouette and the Sea - Dubrovnik, Croatia




Water Drain - Dubrovnik, Croatia





Flag Above the Walls - Dubrovnik, Croatia




The Walled City - Dubrovnik, Croatia




Cross Above Dubrovnik, Croatia

Time to Go

We're busy packing out and all the other fun stuff associated with a long distance move....you won't see much from me for the next couple of months. My computer will be gone Tuesday and I don't know when I'll see it next. I'm pondering getting a bigger & faster one as this one is 7 years old with only 768 MB of RAM...

Clock - St Stephen's Cathedral, Zagreb

Finished My Plitvice Photos

Not that I've caught up with all my photos, but I have finished the photos from our visit to Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. I've also put a link to some individual slide shows for my various wanderings on the sidebar of the blog. I'll add more to that over time.

The Plitvice slide show can be found HERE (or on the sidebar)

The Path - Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera, Hrvatska

Mirogoj Cemetery - Zagreb, Croatia

The city cemetery in Zagreb (Gradska Groblja, Zagreb), Mirogoj is possibly the most fascinating and peaceful cemetery I've ever visited...and I've visited a lot of them! It is basically an outdoor sculpture garden. It was a cold (for late May) gloomy and misty late afternoon, but the birds were singing their hearts out. Outside of the birds, it was extremely quiet. I took over 100 photos and I barely saw 10% of the cemetery.

The Vine Covered Arcades - Mirogoj, Zagreb




Angel - Mirogoj, Zagreb




The Miletić Tomb, Rudolf Valdec's Angel of Death - Mirogoj, Zagreb




"Mourning" The Matko Family Grave - Mirogoj, Zagreb

more Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera

I'm still wading through photos from Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia in what spare time I have. Once I catch up, I think I will put a link to individual slideshows for all my various wanderings on the sidebar of the blog. In the meantime, here is a short sample of some more Plitvice photos.

Reflection - Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera, Hrvatska



Dripping off the Tufa - Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera, Hrvatska



Wooden Path - Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera, Hrvatska

Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera

I'm starting to work my way through the photos from Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. I took a lot and the place is so amazing, that I am having troubles choosing. Even after skipping past the 90% that are boring or messed up, I still have heaps to choose from. Plitvice is on the UNESCO World Heritage list for good reason

UNESCO World Heritage - Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera, Hrvatska



Clear Emerald Water - Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Back From Plitvice

I've been wanting to go to Croatia's Plitvice Lakes National Park for quite a while...and we finally made it there on a quick tour of Croatia with our visitors. Just returned home tonight. Here is a quick snapshot, it will take me quite a while to download, keyword etc the 500+ photos I took during the trip. The park is unbelievable.

Veliki Slap - Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera
The Big Waterfall - Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

The Wall

I believe this is post #300. In any case, this is a photo of a rock wall I ran across today during my effort to repopulate AdobeBridge (after reviving my computer last week) with the keywords I've applied to all my photos the past 3 years or so, It is about here, March of 2008 that Bridge keeps choking on loading/saving the keyword lists and I keep banging my head against a wall.

Wall - Zámek Žleby, Czech Republic

Shazam!

From a little over a year ago. Everytime I've seen this statue, I expect to see lightning flying from his finger tips...

Grgur Ninski - Split, Croatia

Busy With Visitors

but taking lots of photos as we go around seeing things...


Flowers - Šibenik, Croatia

Boring Photos???

I don't know if I am (or was) in a slump as far as creativity goes or what, but for some reason as I try to finish up the photos from our September trip through Dalmatia, my Krka National Park photos generally strike me as boring. Something just seems to be missing. Anyway here is one I forced myself through tonight...I certainly don't consider it a masterpiece :)

Krka At Dusk - Croatia

September Was a Bit Warmer...

This is another photo of the waterfalls at Krka in Croatia. It was a lot warmer there, then...than it is here, now :) This is also a photo that I've taken a couple tries at to get right. It may still need some work.

What I ought to do though, is hike back up to the Skakavac waterfall this weekend and get some photos of it all frozen. It has been below freezing here for about a month, with today's temperatures only making it to the upper teens (Fahrenheit). It would be a cold hike.

Krka National Park - Croatia

The Pretty Picture

I promised a couple days ago. I've been to Krka twice. This is from our last visit in September with some friends that were visiting. It is a beautiful park with spectacular cascades, but I have yet to get a photograph that really captures it to my liking. Both of my visits were at mid-day and the lighting was harsh. I think it would be best fairly early in the morning...maybe next time.

Krka National Park - Croatia

Dubrovnik in the Rain

Church of St. Blaise - Dubrovnik

The Evil Eye...

More from our trip to Croatia in September...eventually I'll do our trip to Chicago for Ryan's graduation, and if I get really ambitious, work back to our summer cruise and vacation :)

Faces of the Townspeople, Cathedral of St. James - Šibenik

The Road Not Taken

This is as far as I went...

At Dusk - Mali Ston, Croatia

What is Real?

First off, my position on the topic...photos always lie and photos always reveal the biases of the photographer...not any different than newspaper headlines...

I sort of hinted at this a while back in my "Portraits" entry and the entry that followed "Some Things I Didn't Consider". My son got me to thinking more about it a week or so ago when he said "hey! you're just making up a sky!" and I went on to explain that no I wasn't. Here is the photograph that I was working on today that made me think of this yet again.

Diocletian's Palace - Split



And the two versions of the same photograph from which I "made" it. One photo was processed for a blue sky, the other for more neutral to warm stone work....


















So now you know my bias ...skies are always blue because I wear polarized sunglasses and I have a sunny disposition :) ...except of course for dramatic stormy skies...then they are really black!

Memories...

Sometimes you can't remember where you took a picture. In this case, I know it was somewhere between Split and Dubrovnik...closer to Split. And if I read a guide book, I could probably figure it out. The Croatian coast has walls and castles in almost every city, town and village. If you have been there, the reason is obvious....they had to do something with all that rock.

Castle and Walls - Dalmatian Coast of Croatia