Out and About II - Kuwait

Another outing organized by the AWARE Center a few weeks ago was an evening with a guided tour through the "House of Mirrors". It is a residential house where the lady of the house, Lidia Al-Qattan, basically went nuts 20 or so years ago and started covering walls in bits of colored glass and bits of mirrors...grand mosaics to small little details: doorways, hallways, doors and floors, radiators, lamps, stove, the stairway to the 2nd floor. Basically the outside of the house and the entire first floor are covered in bits of mirror. She was a very friendly and animated hostess/guide and her stories about how it all began and the various rooms were funny and entertaining.

The second floor was more dedicated to the art work of her late husband, Khalifa Al Qattan and some of her other interests and her own artwork, planets, the universes...harmony ...all illustrated with colored lights, painted carpet and sculpture.

Here are a few of the photos I took. All 22 can be seen on photobucket...HERE.

Fish - House of Mirrors, Kuwait



Paint on Carpet - House of Mirrors, Kuwait




Reflections (Imagine That!) - House of Mirrors, Kuwait



Lights - House of Mirrors, Kuwait




Reflections II - House of Mirrors, Kuwait

Out and About - Kuwait

I'm trying to get/stay on top of things with regards to the photos I take here in Kuwait. Just a week or so ago we went on a tour of the Arab Organizations Building organized by the AWARE Center. It is a bland building from the outside (as all but a very few of the ultra modern glass towers are here) but the inside has art work and design work worthy of writing home blogging about.

Here are a couple of teaser photos and a link to a slideshow (as yet uncaptioned:)

Entrance Foyer - Arab Organizations Building, Kuwait




Screen - Arab Organizations Building, Kuwait




Water Fountain - Arab Organizations Building, Kuwait




Entrance to Sitting Room - Arab Organizations Building, Kuwait

I'm Famous...

or maybe obscure...

I was reading a photography forum and a reference was made to how you can use google to search for a particular image. (if interested, see http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html)

The discussion centered around copyright infringement...basically stealing people's photographs posted on line and either claiming them as your own, or using them without attribution (and compensation) or the worst I guess, selling them. Being the curious type, I searched a few of my photos and was shocked...SHOCKED I tell you, to find that some of my photos have been used without attribution:

Possibly my favorite photo of all time, blogged HERE
Shows up at a travel site page about Kakadu HERE

One of my very recent photos taken while on a return visit to Sarajevo, taken from Shelby's balcony. Shows up in a thread "The Skylines in Eastern Europe"

One of my Plitvice photos shows up in a thread all in Cyrillic that I can't read.

A Lake Bled photo is linked on another travel site

And my blog entry about Sutjeska Monument has photos showing up a number of times including twice on this site.

Last, one of my earliest blogged photos is apparently "for sale" or for upload to your facebook account...it's making me rich!

The coolest part though, is how many people apparently look like an elephant....or a tombstone (see the "Visually similar images" :)

It is also cool how google tries to figure out where and what of the photo is taken.

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

"Bonsai" Tree

Every time I drive down Cemetery Rd past Greenlawn Cemetery I'd look at this tree and think it looks like a big bonsai tree. After a bit of a snow this past winter, I walked down and took some photos. They didn't really turn out like I'd visualized, but yesterday when I was sorting through things, keywording etc. I took another look. Here are four interpretations (or "moods" as you will" via Photoshop of the very same photo. You're always welcome to vote for your favorite.

Pretty much straight out of the camera, with minimal processing, no cropping...

Tree - Greenlawn Cemetery Milford, Ohio




A bit of a crop, sliding the "Clarity" slider to the negative:

Tree - Greenlawn Cemetery Milford, Ohio



Same bit of crop, Black and white, various color filters applied and sliding the "Clarity" slider to the negative:

Tree - Greenlawn Cemetery Milford, Ohio



Again same crop, Black and white, various color filters applied, Clarity slider left in neutral:

Tree - Greenlawn Cemetery Milford, Ohio

Sofia, Bulgaria (София, Sofiya)

A few years ago I spent some time in Sofia, Bulgaria. I took a lot of photos while I was there and even put some on the blog. Below are some of the photos that I don't think I ever got around to before.

St. Sofia - Sofia, BulgariaSveta Sofia



Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker - Sofia, Bulgariaцърква "Св. Николай Чудотворец", tsarkva "Sv. Nikolay Chudotvorets"



St. Nedelya Church - Sofia, Bulgariaцърква „Света Неделя“ Sveta Nedelya



Inside St. Nedelya Church - Sofia, Bulgariaцърква „Света Неделя“ Sveta Nedelya



St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Sofia, BulgariaХрам-паметник „Свети Александър Невски“, Hram-pametnik „Sveti Aleksandar Nevski“



St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Sofia, BulgariaХрам-паметник „Свети Александър Невски“, Hram-pametnik „Sveti Aleksandar Nevski“



Monument to the Unknown Soldier - Sofia, BulgariaПаметник на Незнайния воин, Pametnik na Neznayniya voin



Soviet Era Sculpture - Sofia, Bulgaria

Sarajevo Door Handle

not the first time I've had a photo of them... but here is one in actual use.


Door Handle - Sarajevo

I've Been Busy

Very busy...including a trip back to Sarajevo...

Sarajevo Skyline At Dusk



Veliki Park Tombstone - Sarajevo

Things in Odd Places

Shortly before the sand storm hit, I found this up on the ridge...

Leonardo's Head

Another Desert Adventure

I'm not sure the photos will do yesterday afternoon and evening justice....but I'll try. Next time, I hope I shoot better under pressure :) In the end we were stuck for about 3 hrs or so until the wind and sand calmed down enough so that we could make our way out to the road.


An Afternoon of Clear Blue Skies in Kuwait




We Could See for Miles




We Had a Great Little "Camping" Spot




A Nice Breeze for a Glide





Trouble Rolls In





Roar is a More Apt Description





Same Rocks from the First Photo...Different Angle





Night Came Early

Patterns

I like taking photos of patterns...look back through and you can see a lot of patterns here. Tree bark and leaves...cemetery stones etc. Anyway, I still await "my stuff" which includes my computer, the drives with the bulk of my photographs and everything else. In the meantime, from some of the memory cards I do have and my time in D.C. in January, using GIMP and my laptop I present a few more patterns:

Metro Station - Washington D.C.



Pine Bark - Patuxent Research Refuge, MD

Never Too Far From Home

Apparently there is a market here in Kuwait for Kroger brand Worcestershire sauce....this figures to be about $2.30 for a 15 ounce bottle.

A Long Way from Cincinnati - Kuwait

An Evening in the Desert

We spent an evening out in the desert a couple nights ago with a group of new friends. Here are some of photos...I'll be anxious to see what they really look like when my good computer gets here. These are the jpegs out of the camera with some editing on my laptop via GIMP, the open source image editing program...it is to Adobe's Photoshop(CS5) what OpenOffice is to MicroSoft's Office Suite. It is the first time I've used GIMP (just downloaded it last night) and the laptop screen isn't what I'd call photo-editing friendly for color, contrast etc.

Desert Ridge and Four-Wheeler Tracks - Kuwait




Shadows in the Sand - Kuwait




Looking Toward the City - Kuwait




Hang Gliding at Dusk - Kuwait




Desert Ridge at Dusk - Kuwait

Been Busy...

and will continue to be so for a while. I have been taking photos though, just not much time to go through them.

Reeds in the Wind - Patuxent Research Refuge, MD

Corvette Museum

One of our stops was the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Corvette has always been one of my favorite cars, partially because it has stayed essentially true to form since it's introduction in 1953. It hasn't tried to be an economy car, a family car...nope just a 2 seat sports car for over 50 yrs. I wouldn't mind having one some day, even if, as many women have told me, "it is an old man's car".

Since pretty much everyone has seen Corvettes, here are a few other photos I took at the museum. The mural is composed of hundreds of small photos of people with their Corvettes.

Corvette Mural - Corvette Museum, Bowling Green KY




Iconic Corvette Emblem





Corvette In the Chrome Era

Kentucky Bourbon Trail

We took off for a few days and went on a little trip down to Kentucky. It was a nice break. First order of business on the drive was a stop at the Jim Beam Distillery outside of Louisville (one of the six bourbon distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail) for a little tour and tasting. I've been on a lot of tours of breweries and wineries over the years, but this was my first time to a distillery. The combination of chemistry, cooking and art fascinates me with regards to beer, wine and spirits...with the added bonus that you get to drink the results. (I like things where you get to eat the results too :)

Jim Beam is the largest producer of bourbon in the world (by far). The tour currently does not include a stop by their working stills, but we did go through one of their barns (aging warehouse) for storing the barrels while the aging occurs. It was fascinating. Six stories of white oak barrels all stacked up and rolled on beams. The warehouse essentially consisted of some kind of corrugated material for the roof and sides to keep out the rain (and probably little else) along with beams of wood to roll the barrels along. Jim Beam does not climate control their aging warehouses. After spending years in these barns, some of the barrels look a little worse for wear. The barrels are used for bourbon only once, then the lucky ones get an all expenses paid trip to Scotland to be used in the aging of Scotch.

Besides the namesake bourbons (Jim Beam 4yr, 7yr, Green-5yr, Black-8yr and Yellow-Rye whiskey), Beam also produces what they call their "Small Batch Collection" of premium bourbons. I think Knob Creek is probably the best known, but also Baker's, Basil Hayden's and Booker's. Also a newer product, Red Stag. The tasting consisted of Booker's and Red Stag. Booker's is their super duper premium bourbon. It is uncut, straight from the barrel so each barrel will be slightly different. The particular bottle we tasted from was 127 1/2 Proof and I found it quite tasty with a little higher viscosity than other spirits I've had. Red Stag a flavored bourbon infused with black cherry and a bit sweet. I liked it too, but more as a cordial type drink I think. Here are a few photos from of the aging.

Barrel of Aging Bourbon - Jim Beam Distillery, Clermont KY



Barrels of Aging Bourbon Stamped with Lot # etc.



Corrugated Wall of Aging Warehouse