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

The Roman Bridge

I continue to fall further and further behind with processing my photos. Here's a snapshot I took last weekend when Elesa and I took Sophie and Maya to Vrelo Bosna to let them run around a bit. The "Roman Bridge" (Rimski Most) is really Ottoman dating from the 16th century. It is the symbolic western edge of Sarajevo.

Roman Bridge - Sarajevo, Bosnia

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

Catching Up - The Montenegro Trip

I've pretty much finished what I'm going to do for now with the photos from Elesa's and my "birthday trip" to Montenegro a few weeks ago. If you are interested in seeing the photos that made the final cut, they can be seen in their entirety HERE (slideshow of 49 photos).

I still have a number of photos to do from Ron and Carole's visit, and a massive amount from our 3 day trip with them to Plitvice. the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and the Mostar region of Herzegovina....I'm noticing more and more that I could use a fast computer ... that the 768 MBytes of RAM I have isn't a lot when using Photoshop CS2.

Tree Among Ruins - Kotor, Montenegro (Crna Gora)

Sutjeska National Park

The most recent conflicts of the 90's as the former Yugoslavia basically left plaques of names on buildings and small fountains, graveyards and shells of stone buildings everywhere...and in the case of this particular part of the country...the "unspoiled beauty and nature" of the Sutjeska...mine signs (and presumably the mines). The park is more like what in the U.S. would be called a National Forest, little to no services, markings etc. It was a beautiful drive, so much so that we took the route both ways on our trip to Herceg Novi.

Valley - The Sutjeska, Republika Srpska, BiH




Pine - The Sutjeska, Republika Srpska, BiH




Moss - The Sutjeska, Republika Srpska, BiH

Trip Pic From Počitelj

I took about 500 photos on our 3 day whirlwind tour of Croatia with the Millers earlier this week, I'm still putting keywords with the photos and busy with heaps of other stuff. On our drive back, we stopped at three places in the Herzegovina section of BiH...Počitelj, Blagaj and of course Mostar. It is amazing how much has been done to fix up the first two since we first saw them less than 3 years ago. Počitelj still isn't on the UNESCO World Heritage list though :)

Decorated Ruins - Počitelj

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

Skakavac Waterfall

I made the hike up again today with the Millers who are visiting. We couldn't have had a much nicer day. I only took my super-wide...and this photo is of no real significance (the lines don't overcome the boring green batch of grass in the middle of the frame) The only significance...photo number 10,000 with this camera...

The Bright Green of Spring - Skakavac Waterfall, Sarajevo BiH

St Stefan (Sveti Stefan)

The mystery island (now peninsula) of St Stefan (Sveti Stefan), juts out into the Adriatic just down Montenegro's coast a few miles from Budva. Once an exclusive resort, now shuttered for "renovations", the rumors fly as to what is going on. "The Russians bought it" "The Japanese bought it" "The Mafia bought it" "The Chinese bought it" "SPECTRE bought it"

We stopped at the overlook and took a few photos before heading back...besides the traffic jam, and another couple tourists with a guide (he said Japanese), no one paid us any mind, which probably eliminates the SPECTRE notion at least.

St Stefan - Montenegro
Sveti Stefan - Crna Gora

Perast

While we were in Montenegro, we took a drive around the Bay of Kotor, with a bit of a stop at the old town of Kotor itself (more on that later). Near Kotor is a small town called Perast. Just off the shore a bit in the bay stands two islands, one, Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela), is man made. The Abbey of St George has trees and such...each island is very different looking despite being only meters apart..

This first photo is an illustration of my lack of patience, It is a stitch of 7 photos to make the panoramic. The final stitch is probably over 20,000 pixels wide. I was too impatient to get out the tripod, but I did much better than I did in my previous attempts. Unfortunately, I don't know how to present the photo so you can see it wider than 1024 pixels... even clicking on it and looking at the "large" version, you will only see something that is like 1/25 or so of the final photo and it is hard to see the details of the town.

The photos of the individual islands are panoramic crops of single frames taken from the Perast side of the bay.

Perast - Montenegro
Our Lady of the Rocks and Island of Saint George



Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) - Perast, Montenegro



Island of Saint George (Ostrvo Sveti Đorđe) - Perast, Montenegro

Herceg Novi

Last weekend, in honor of Elesa's birthday and in anticipation of mine, we drove to Montenegro (Crna Gora - "Black Mountain") and stayed a couple of nights in Herceg Novi on the Bay of Kotor...said to be the southern most fjord in Europe. It was a peaceful trip and the area is quite beautiful. The weather isn't real warm yet and outside of a bunch of people from a cruise ship in Kotor itself, there were no crowds at all. Here are a few of the photos from Herceg Novi.


Herceg Novi - Montenegro
The Sea Fortress (Forte Mare) of the Old Town Rises Above the Sea and Boats




St. Michael The Archangel Church - Herceg Novi
Sv. Arhandjela Mihaila - Stari Grad Herceg Novi




Bell Tower, St. Leopold Church. - Herceg Novi
Crkva Sv Leopolda.




Old Town - Herceg Novi, Montenegro
Stari Grad - Herceg Novi, Crna Gora

Sutjeska Monument

On our way to Montenegro last Sunday, we drove past the monument that commemorates the Battle of the Sutjeska during which the Partisan forces led by Josip Tito fought off the Axis forces in World War II. It is quite a grand monument...there are a number of the monuments to the Partisans in Bosnia from that era, but none that I've seen are anywhere near the scale of this one. ...rant to be continued with photos from Sutjeska National Park (Nacionalni Park Sutjeska) at a later date...

Monument Commemorating the Battle of the Sutjeska - Tjentište, BiH




Monument Commemorating the Battle of the Sutjeska - Tjentište, BiH



Monument Commemorating the Battle of the Sutjeska - Tjentište, BiH




Monument Commemorating the Battle of the Sutjeska - Tjentište, BiH

Buckeyes!

I'm from Ohio..."The Buckeye State" and when I was little it was a great joy to find a buckeye tree and the pretty smooth shiny brown buckeyes beneath it. Here in Sarajevo, especially Veliki Park, the buckeye trees (horse chestnuts as they are known in Europe) are common and HUGE. They hurt when the spiked balls land on your head in the fall. The trees are flowering furiously right now, no doubt doing their part to contribute to the pollen and general "hay fever" and itchy eyes around town.

Buckeye Blooms - Veliki Park, Sarajevo

Took a Little Trip

In honor of Elesa's birthday and in anticipation of mine, Elesa and I took a few days and went to the Montenegrin Coast/Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska). We just got back this evening, so more photos will be forthcoming. In the meantime, here is a shot I took while climbing to the top of the fortifications and walls above the old town of Kotor (another UNESCO World Heritage Site to add to my list)...my legs still hurt. Elesa. being of sounder mind, is somewhere in the triangle of the old city between my feet.

Jeff's Feet - Kotor, Montenegro (Crna Gora)

Tree Bark

For some reason, tree bark has captured my attention for the past year or so. I guess because it is easy texture. I noticed this tree about a week or so ago, as they started digging up the paths in Veliki Park. Today I couldn't stand it any longer, and after I got home from work, I grabbed my camera and went right back out there and took a couple photos. One of the great things about digital cameras, instant results.

Tree Bark - Veliki Park, Sarajevo

Discarded Paradise

Haven't been too good about posting lately...running into some troubles with my backup disk.

This is a cellphone shot I took on the way to work this morning. In addition to the new fountain, which still isn't complete, they started to repave the pathways in Veliki Park. They are progressing at a pretty good clip, more than half-way done in a little over a week. I've always known that some of the old Turkish "turban" tombstones were paved over during a previous pathway paving as I could see bits poking through the blacktop. I didn't realize it was so many though. During the latest paving effort, they have uncovered some (but not all) of the previously paved over markers to paradise. This is just one of the piles of uncovered tombstones from the Ottoman era (roughly 1450-1870's)

The Old and New - Veliki Park, Sarajevo

Spring is in the Air...

and the pollen can't be far behind :)

(BTW My digital camera is 3yrs old, Its first outing was Good Friday in Antigua, Guatemala...I'm averaging about 3245 photos per year which is just less than 9 per day)

Flowering Trees - Sarajevo




Flowering Trees - Sarajevo




Flowering Trees - Sarajevo

Jeff's New Toy

Unfortunately I can't afford THIS right now.
So for now I will have to make do with a 2X Extender in conjunction with my
70-200mm f2.8L IS..

Moon Over Sarajevo - 9 April 2009

The 2009 Sarajevo Walk For Life - Šetnja za Život

Like last year. it turned out to be a beautiful morning to walk from Skenderija around Baščaršija to raise awareness for breast cancer and raise funds for a preventative equipment in Avon's "Walk for Life" or Šetnja za Život in Bosnian. It looked like they had over 2000 participants including a bunch of teams from the various embassies, schools and organizations around town.

Shelby organized a group from her QSI School and even attempted to bring the dogs along. Maya tried to climbed to the top of my head because she was in fear of getting trampled. Balloons popping freaked Sophie out and as her tail made it to her nose through her legs, Shelby ran them home to "safety" just before the actual start.

Signs Around Town - Šetnja za Život




Shelby, "Z" & Sophie Panics as Another Balloon Pops




The Contingent from the U.S.Embassy - Šetnja za Život




The Start - Skenderija, Sarajevo





This Year A Military Band Led the Whole Way




Every 1/2 Kilometer Was Marked...with a Waterboy!





Making Our Way Past Pigeon Square