Garden of the Gods

I spent last week attending a class on VMware vCloud Suite 5.1-- awesome class. Afterwards Alicia suggested that I visit the Garden of the Gods before the sun set. When I got there, I quickly understood why she urged me to go. It was simultaneously beautiful and fascinating and oh-so-photo-worthy.

But was I up to the task? There I was with my handy iPhone popping off shots, but I found myself wondering how to do a respectable job of capturing the beauty in photos. I often find that I need to make adjustments when photographing different places. Usually I can make minor adjustments, and I can make those adjustments quickly based on previous similar environments.

But Garden of the Gods was unlike any place I've photographed before. It was an exciting challenge for me because the clock was ticking, so I had to rush to find things I thought would make for good photos and make technical adjustments to how I took the photos.

This was a rushed project for me, but I had fun learning on the fly and I think the photos did a reasonable job of capturing what I saw.

Full size photos here if you prefer.

Scotland

After spending a week outside London with friends, Alicia and I took the train to Scotland. We spent our days there traveling through Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Isle of Skye, and driving the length of the numerous lochs. We saw castles, fairy pools, and only one day of rain.

Here's a video of photos from our trip:

Full size photos here if you'd prefer.

Wiesbaden

A month ago I spent a week training a customer in Wiesbaden, Germany. The weekdays were largely consumed with work, but I was able to spend the day I arrived seeing the sights. Here's a recap of my jet lagged tour of Wiesbaden.

Full sized photos here if you prefer.

Liechtenstein

I spent last week attending a class in Munich. I took advantage of the proximity to nearby countries. This trip I popped through Austria and Switzerland, but my real goal was to visit Liechtenstein for the first time.

Here are some photos from my day trip.

Full sized photos here if you prefer.

I still need to through together my photos from Frankfurt and Wiesbaden a few weeks earlier. And the Morocco photos, and the...

Haarlem, The Netherlands

Here's a video of some sights in Haarlem.

Fun with Hipstamatic in Leiden

Left the 30D behind for the day. Instead of lugging it around, had fun bopping around Leiden with Hipstamatic on the iPhone instead. Here's a few photos...

View of Mierennesthofje in the distance

Mierennesthofje from the Burcht

Mierennesthofje once more time

Oude Vest Singel

Grapes growing on the side of a bike shop of all places

Love the doors of Leiden

Hipstamatic + flowers in a pot = too darn easy

Bridge at the Junction of Herengracht and Nieuwe Rijn Singel

Herengracht Singel

FYI... The first three photos were shot with Loftus Lens, DC Film, No Flash. The others were shot with John S Lens, Ina's 1969 Film, No Flash.

Passports

Alicia just pointed me to an article I missed in last Sunday's Chronicle. Loved it. If you're a travel nut like me, you will too.

One of my favorite lines:

"... an expired passport is never invalid."