Friday, September 26, 2008
Srebrenica
Last Sunday, Elesa and I went on a tour to the "Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery to Genocide Victims" with a number of other Americans. It was a gloomy damp day (a lot of those the past few weeks) that fit the mood of the place.
Grave Markers for the Identified Victims Remains Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery to Genocide Victims
Names of the Victims Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery to Genocide Victims
Monday, September 22, 2008
Are You Smarter Than a...
My bet is that you are. Everyone I know certainly is.
Here is my argument. Would you pay two times the sticker price of something at the store?...say eggs, just because you are friends with the salesman and have known him a long time and because eggs used to be a lot more expensive? Would you pay two times the sticker price on Sunday afternoon when you knew the eggs would be going on sale for 1/2 price on Monday morning? (effectively paying 4 times the price?).
Well that is EXACTLY what Bank of America did a week ago Sunday. BoA agreed to buy Merrill Lynch for twice the price you, I or anyone else (if we had the money) could have bought it for the prior Friday afternoon. The price BoA agreed to buy Merrill Lynch for was likely 4 times or more what anyone with a pulse could have bought it for the following Monday morning (if BoA hadn't announced the plans to buy on Sunday).
That is the level of stupidity that Congress (both Democrat and Republican) and the Executive Branch (primarily Hank Paulson, Secretary of Treasury and President Bush) want to support and encourage with their latest "bailout" plan. The math, the concepts etc. really aren't as complicated as Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Barney Frank and others are trying to lead people to believe. Anyone who earns more than they spend, maybe has a loan that they make payments on, can easily grasp where these guys went awry.
I could rant about the bailouts for hours on end. Instead, I called my Representative in Congress as well as the two Senators from my state to lodge my complaint. Unless you feel that you need to be saddled with another $40,000 or so of debt, and that these idiots deserve to continue to make $50 million dollars at year at your expense, I suggest you do the same....pst "pass it on".
Members of the House of Reprehensibles (BTW...all are up for reelection in November) can be found HERE
Your State's two Seniletors can be found HERE
too bad I don't have 100,000+ hits a day like Barry does...
-end rant
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Who Would You Vote For?
Like the U.S.A., Bosnia is also in the midst of an election cycle. They definitely have a different idea of what makes someone electable though. From looking at the numerous posters around town, the focus seems to be on serious, mean and ugly...do NOT smile.
Vote Jeff !!! - Sarajevo
Friday, September 12, 2008
Boulevard of Broken Things
Along Evlogi Georgiev (Евлоги Георгиев) Boulevard is a collection of what I can only describe as "deconstruction art". Sculptures constructed of what appear to me to be pieces of old buildings, walls, staircases etc. Most of it seemed pretty bland, but the idea struck me as interesting. I wasn't very creative with my photography of if either though...in retrospect, my photos are also a little bland.
"Deconstruction" Art - Sofia, Bulgaria
Shells - Sofia
Stairway to Nowhere - Sofia
Man in the Room - Sofia
More "Deconstruction Art" - Sofia
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Samokov Monastery
Metoh - Maiden's Monastery or Convent...shroud or veil, it gets pretty confusing and what it is called will depend on the translation. The Bulgarian Monastery web site's page for Samokov is HERE. where they call it “The Shroud of God’s Mother” but it you search on Samokov, you will find other names. Whatever it is called, there was this cute little old orthodox nun that just talked up a storm with some of the people I was with.
This first photo was taken through a sheer curtain, the little room and her little garden were too small to hold us all.
Orthodox Nun - Samokov Monastery, Bulgaria
She was very proud of her garden (and rightfully so)
Orthodox Nun - Samokov Monastery
Their grounds were beautiful, flowers, vegetable gardens, grapes, benches, just a peaceful place. The church was pretty neat too.
Flowers - Samokov Monastery
Flowers - Samokov Monastery
This first photo was taken through a sheer curtain, the little room and her little garden were too small to hold us all.
She was very proud of her garden (and rightfully so)
Their grounds were beautiful, flowers, vegetable gardens, grapes, benches, just a peaceful place. The church was pretty neat too.
Sofia Texture
The first couple are obvious....bark has texture..
Bark - Vitosha, Bulgaria
Birch - Samokov (Самоков), Bulgaria
But the lady in the breakfast room at the hotel thought I was a little strange when shortly after finishing my coffee and breakfast, I came hustling back. I was lugging my big white 70-200 2.8L lens to take this photo before the sun moved.
Back Lit Curtain
Supposedly the oldest building in Sofia, St George Rotunda hides in what is primarily a service courtyard at the Sheraton hotel.
St George Rotunda (Ротонда Свети Георги / Rotonda Sveti Georgi) - Sofia
Not far away from the St George Rotunda is the Church of St Petka of the Saddlemakers (Tsurkva Sveta Petka Samardjiiska). It hides in the below grade median of the multi-lane highway the runs past the side of the Sheraton.
St Petka of the Saddlemakers - Sofia
Also not far from the Sheraton, but right out in front of everything...the road has to curve around it, is the Holy Sunday Church. The stones look like petrified sponge or something.
Holy Sunday Church (Tsurkva Sveta Nedelya)
But the lady in the breakfast room at the hotel thought I was a little strange when shortly after finishing my coffee and breakfast, I came hustling back. I was lugging my big white 70-200 2.8L lens to take this photo before the sun moved.
Supposedly the oldest building in Sofia, St George Rotunda hides in what is primarily a service courtyard at the Sheraton hotel.
Not far away from the St George Rotunda is the Church of St Petka of the Saddlemakers (Tsurkva Sveta Petka Samardjiiska). It hides in the below grade median of the multi-lane highway the runs past the side of the Sheraton.
Also not far from the Sheraton, but right out in front of everything...the road has to curve around it, is the Holy Sunday Church. The stones look like petrified sponge or something.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
No Photoshop Required
This is stuff you can't make up...
From our automobile insurance policy (for the car overseas) under section VIII. "Exclusions"
We will not pay for
3. Loss due to or as a consequence of:
b. discharge of any nuclear weapon (even if accidental);
dang! I thought I would have been covered!
From our automobile insurance policy (for the car overseas) under section VIII. "Exclusions"
We will not pay for
3. Loss due to or as a consequence of:
b. discharge of any nuclear weapon (even if accidental);
dang! I thought I would have been covered!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Vitosha (Витоша)
Sofia has heaps of parks and open space. Vitosha mountain and national park to the south, South Park that runs from the south all the way to the heart of the city, and the mall-like Bulgaria Square in front of the National Palace of Culture (NDK)
Lone Flute Player NDK with Vitosha Looming in the Distance - Sofia. Bulgaria
Mountain Stream - Vitosha, Bulgaria
Rorschach Ink Blot Test
I was fooling around and just couldn't help myself...
(You might want to click on the photo to see the larger version)
Rorschach - What Do You See?
(You might want to click on the photo to see the larger version)
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fountain - Bulgaria Square, Sofia
The fountain in Bulgaria Square in front of the NDK (National Palace of Culture/Национален дворец на културата/Natsionalen dvorets na kulturata)...in the time I was there, it didn't always have water...
The Fountain in Bulgaria Square
Sparkling Fountain
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Postcards From Summer Travels
Still recovering from a long summer (that isn't quite over yet).
Here are a couple of "post card shots" from some of my travels this summer.
What is Art? Graffiti vs. Communism Monument to the Bulgarian State - Sofia, Bulgaria Pametnik na Balgarskata Darzhava
Church of the Holy Seven - Sofia, Bulgaria Tsurkva Sveti Sedmochislentsi
Here are a couple of "post card shots" from some of my travels this summer.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
summer vacation
If you haven't figured it out by the lack of posts, I"m taking some time off... so if you just have to see photos, you can see what is playing on some of the digital photo frames in our family. After receiving one as a Christmas present a couple years ago from my kids. we all enjoyed it so much that we gave one to both my parents and Elesa's....the last load of a card for theirs can be found at my photobucket site, HERE.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Fresh Water
On the nicer side...if you go up in the mountains far enough, you can still drink the water where it comes out of the side of a mountain. Along the road from Kakanj to Ponijeri, there are a number of water stops where fresh drinkable water is available at the side of the road.
However, out in the boonies, the issue remains land mines. In the past few weeks a number of people have blown themselves up wandering off the beaten path...one was apparently hunting mushrooms, two more were chopping wood, and just Saturday I believe two mine clearing workers were killed in an accident.
WARNING - Don't wander off the road if you are not familiar with the area.
Fresh Spring - Ponijeri, Bosnia
However, out in the boonies, the issue remains land mines. In the past few weeks a number of people have blown themselves up wandering off the beaten path...one was apparently hunting mushrooms, two more were chopping wood, and just Saturday I believe two mine clearing workers were killed in an accident.
WARNING - Don't wander off the road if you are not familiar with the area.
The Real Miljacka River
A continuation of my earlier rant. These were taken at the same time as the photos in this earlier post and are the "comes later" photos I promised at the time....here is what most photos DON"T show.
Every visitor we've had, pretty much any foreigner I've talked to here, says something along these lines at some point..."This would be such a beautiful country except for the litter everywhere."
The Miljacka River Garbage Dump - Sarajevo
Umbrella Left for Dead - Miljacka River, Sarajevo
Every visitor we've had, pretty much any foreigner I've talked to here, says something along these lines at some point..."This would be such a beautiful country except for the litter everywhere."
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Rijeka Miljacka
flows through the heart of Sarajevo and is sometimes referred to as "Sarajevo's River"....here are a couple of pretty photos as a prelude to what comes later :(
Reflections in the Miljacka - Sarajevo
Roses on the Walls of the Miljacka - Sarajevo
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Out In The Country
Before the breathin' air is gone
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime
Walking around out in Kakrinje while Shelby was horseback riding (a panoramic view of Kakrinje taken a little over a month ago can be seen here), I took a few shots. It was a beautiful day and one of my favorite Three Dog Night songs came to mind. "Out in the Country"
Here goes my first "political" rant is quite a while. As anyone who has been outside the U.S/Canada, western Europe, Japan and Singapore is sure to know, the pollution and trash in other countries is overwhelming. Travel a bit and it quickly becomes apparent that labeling the U.S. as one of the world's biggest polluters is just politically inspired B.S. I've been to some single cities that I'd swear pollute more in terms of dumping raw sewage into the world's water supply then the entire U.S, Canada, and western Europe combined. Today the gross haze of dirty diesel and sulfur laden coal over Sarajevo was not apparent. and that was much appreciated. Someday I'll take pictures of the river that runs through Sarajevo, to show another side of it../end rant
Haystacks - Kakrinje, Bosnia
Cherries - Kakrinje, Bosnia
Wildflowers - Kakrinje, Bosnia
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime
Walking around out in Kakrinje while Shelby was horseback riding (a panoramic view of Kakrinje taken a little over a month ago can be seen here), I took a few shots. It was a beautiful day and one of my favorite Three Dog Night songs came to mind. "Out in the Country"
Here goes my first "political" rant is quite a while. As anyone who has been outside the U.S/Canada, western Europe, Japan and Singapore is sure to know, the pollution and trash in other countries is overwhelming. Travel a bit and it quickly becomes apparent that labeling the U.S. as one of the world's biggest polluters is just politically inspired B.S. I've been to some single cities that I'd swear pollute more in terms of dumping raw sewage into the world's water supply then the entire U.S, Canada, and western Europe combined. Today the gross haze of dirty diesel and sulfur laden coal over Sarajevo was not apparent. and that was much appreciated. Someday I'll take pictures of the river that runs through Sarajevo, to show another side of it../end rant
Saturday, June 21, 2008
View From the Golf Course
The evening of Carl's graduation. Two years in a row the weather was almost exactly the same.
In the foreground is Sarajevo's Bare Cemetery (Sarajevsko groblje Bare). Also known as the Gradsko Groblje (City Cemetery), it is larger than many of the nearby neighborhoods. At the top, Hum with its radio tower and in the far distance on the left, Bjelašnica with some remnants of snow.
Bare Cemetery and Hum - Sarajevo
In the foreground is Sarajevo's Bare Cemetery (Sarajevsko groblje Bare). Also known as the Gradsko Groblje (City Cemetery), it is larger than many of the nearby neighborhoods. At the top, Hum with its radio tower and in the far distance on the left, Bjelašnica with some remnants of snow.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Busy With Visitors
but taking lots of photos as we go around seeing things...
Flowers - Šibenik, Croatia
Friday, May 23, 2008
A Year ...
and 3600 photos ago, we went to Mostar with Elesa's parents. Doors and doorknobs are popular subjects in Bosnia, here's my version of "Door" from that day trip to Mostar :)
Door - Mostar, Herzegovina
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Wooden Church in Dobříkov
DOBŘÍKOV - Dřevěný kostelík z Podkarpatské Rusi
This small 17th century church was "rescued" from the Ukraine, and moved log by log to the little village of Dobříkov, not far from Choceň in 1930 or so. The interior is very dark, (well actually the exterior is too :) but everywhere you look is yet another iconic depiction of a saint or two. There isn't a whole lot on the internet that I could find about this village and church, beyond what is here and here. We stopped by and checked it out a little closer and one of the local women let us in and gave us a little tour. We'd originally visited back in 1995 I believe when we went through the area and my parents stayed at a small bed and breakfast a few hundred yards away. I probably have slides of it somewhere.
The Crucifixion - Dobříkov, Czech Republic
Saints - Dobříkov, Czech Republic
This small 17th century church was "rescued" from the Ukraine, and moved log by log to the little village of Dobříkov, not far from Choceň in 1930 or so. The interior is very dark, (well actually the exterior is too :) but everywhere you look is yet another iconic depiction of a saint or two. There isn't a whole lot on the internet that I could find about this village and church, beyond what is here and here. We stopped by and checked it out a little closer and one of the local women let us in and gave us a little tour. We'd originally visited back in 1995 I believe when we went through the area and my parents stayed at a small bed and breakfast a few hundred yards away. I probably have slides of it somewhere.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Dinner was Quite Tasty Tonight
look what I'm reduced to....you'd think I was on Flickr or MySpace...
Chicken and Broccoli with Oyster Sauce at Sunset
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Messing Around With Stitching
These are notes for myself. I haven't messed with this in about 2 years and what little I learned at the time, I've obviously forgotten. Today I started relearning, because, at some point this summer I'd like to take make a large photo of Sarajevo so that I can have a large, but detailed panoramic print made.
Stitching is a method of taking multiple photographs that overlap and putting them together to get a much larger photo. For landscapes and cityscapes especially, it can make for a much larger more detailed photo in a large print. You can effectively end up with a photo that would require the equivalent of a 100 megapixel camera or more (not to mention the lens!) Stitching is commonly used for long panoramic photos.
Putting a bunch of photographs together at first glance looks pretty easy. Many digital cameras include some sort of stitching software in all that junk on the CD you probably stuffed in a drawer somewhere. I loaded mine on my computer, "Canon PhotoStitch". However, if you look close a the photos below, you can begin to see problems where the seams of the neighboring photos are.
Bosnian Countryside - Kakrinje, Bosnia
The first photo, a string of 14 photos shot left to right (16,000+ pixels wide once stitched) had two main problems, the first of which doesn't show up here. Because I was shooting "handheld" I didn't stay exactly level, I ended up having to cut parts of the bottom of the photos on the left off that I really would have liked to keep, and parts of the top off of the photos on the right. Use a tripod next time, and if necessary, do two rows. The other problem shows up especially in the roof of the house on the right. The exposure changes as I move across the scene. So next time, I'll take a shot of the brightest part of the scene and a shot of the darkest part of the scene and then in manual setting, use a constant aperture (which I already remembered to do) and a constant shutter speed (which I this time I let vary with each exposure) that will "work" with both the brightest and the darkest portions
The second photo (a vertical stitch of 3 photos) has some problems too. The varying exposure again, the distortion that comes from using a very wide angle lens, and I didn't leave enough overlap between the bottom photo and the middle photo, so I had to "help" the software a little more than should have been necessary. Next time, don't use such a wide angle, just take more photos instead, and make sure to overlap enough details for the stitching software to work with.
Big Sky - Kakrinje, Bosnia
Last, getting a good stitch is probably the easy part. Afterwards, the finishing work (which I didn't do at all on these photos) such getting the colors, sharpness, relative brightness etc all right could be tremendously time consuming and tedious across a huge 16000+ pixel photograph. And very last, at least the way I have the blog set up now, 1024 pixels is as wide as things can go, so you really don't see much once I reduce a photo to 1/16 the original size.
Stitching is a method of taking multiple photographs that overlap and putting them together to get a much larger photo. For landscapes and cityscapes especially, it can make for a much larger more detailed photo in a large print. You can effectively end up with a photo that would require the equivalent of a 100 megapixel camera or more (not to mention the lens!) Stitching is commonly used for long panoramic photos.
Putting a bunch of photographs together at first glance looks pretty easy. Many digital cameras include some sort of stitching software in all that junk on the CD you probably stuffed in a drawer somewhere. I loaded mine on my computer, "Canon PhotoStitch". However, if you look close a the photos below, you can begin to see problems where the seams of the neighboring photos are.
The first photo, a string of 14 photos shot left to right (16,000+ pixels wide once stitched) had two main problems, the first of which doesn't show up here. Because I was shooting "handheld" I didn't stay exactly level, I ended up having to cut parts of the bottom of the photos on the left off that I really would have liked to keep, and parts of the top off of the photos on the right. Use a tripod next time, and if necessary, do two rows. The other problem shows up especially in the roof of the house on the right. The exposure changes as I move across the scene. So next time, I'll take a shot of the brightest part of the scene and a shot of the darkest part of the scene and then in manual setting, use a constant aperture (which I already remembered to do) and a constant shutter speed (which I this time I let vary with each exposure) that will "work" with both the brightest and the darkest portions
The second photo (a vertical stitch of 3 photos) has some problems too. The varying exposure again, the distortion that comes from using a very wide angle lens, and I didn't leave enough overlap between the bottom photo and the middle photo, so I had to "help" the software a little more than should have been necessary. Next time, don't use such a wide angle, just take more photos instead, and make sure to overlap enough details for the stitching software to work with.
Last, getting a good stitch is probably the easy part. Afterwards, the finishing work (which I didn't do at all on these photos) such getting the colors, sharpness, relative brightness etc all right could be tremendously time consuming and tedious across a huge 16000+ pixel photograph. And very last, at least the way I have the blog set up now, 1024 pixels is as wide as things can go, so you really don't see much once I reduce a photo to 1/16 the original size.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Reflection
I was looking back through some photos from last summer. I only have room on my internal drive for about a year's worth of photographs so some will be stored off soon, I thought this photo of the Indiana Statehouse aptly fit my mood....reflecting, new and old...
Indiana Statehouse - Indianapolis
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Abandoning All Pretense of Originality
I thought this was pretty original. I mean really, how many people would think to take a photo of a sewer lid? Well apparently pretty many others have. Enough that someone actually googled the terms: prague castle sewer. On the bright side, I was the second hit in the results list :) and the googler took a look at my photo.
I can pretty much guarantee that the photo below has been taken a million times. Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand of them are for sale on the Charles Bridge. Here is my version.
Prague Astronomical Clock (Pražský Orloj) at Night - Prague
I can pretty much guarantee that the photo below has been taken a million times. Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand of them are for sale on the Charles Bridge. Here is my version.
Friday, May 02, 2008
A Theme - Shades of Two Colors
Like this past entry and this one. The photo below is basically comprised of just two colors, in this case gray and green and shades thereof. Like a huge chunk of the photos on this blog, it was taken in Veliki Park next to our apartment...maybe at some point I'll tag the Veliki Park photos. The three or four acres (my wild guess only) that comprise the park sure give me a lot of photo opportunities.
Up is Green - Veliki Park, Sarajevo
Bosnian Cooking, Jeff Style
A follow-up to this past entry. Today I tried my hand at making "Jeff's Gourmet" version of pita...Bosnian pie. I didn't make my own phyllo, but I made up my own filling recipe. Shelby was quite aghast..."Burek doesn't have walnuts in IT!". But I was not to be deterred. I followed along similar to the zeljanica we did in out little class a while back. but....no spinach. Instead I added chicken, gorgonzola cheese and walnuts to the egg/cheese filling mixture. It was quite tasty if I do say so myself. Ema, who had joined Shelby in teasing me about my recipe, did ask for a bit more :) and Carl seemed to like it.
Jeff's Gourmet Chicken Gorgonzola Pita with Walnuts On the left, ready for the oven, on the right fresh out of the oven
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Self Portrait with Shelby
A "fun" photo I probably would have never taken just a couple years ago in the days of film. When Shelby and I were out with our cameras in Prague, on our way up to the castle, I noticed our reflection in a menu written on a mirror across the street. I zoomed out to 200 with my 70-200 and focused on our reflection vice the written menu....and shazam!
Self Portrait with Shelby - Prague, Spring 2008
Prague, Three Details
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