Skiing the Rhine River

Posted by Imagery Photography on November 16, 2016

Part of our excursion was on a river boat cruise ship, The Viking Hiln. Al the Viking ships have weird Nordic names. The ship, service and food were exquisite and a tip of the hat to Camelia for running the best bar on the river and Sharon our great program director. Part of the joy of the ship was enjoying views from our veranda as we cruised the river.

It was a cold day but it didn’t stop this brave guy from challenging the river. This was taken from our veranda between Heidelberg and Basel.

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Skiing the Rhine

Speed Dreams

Posted by Imagery Photography on November 10, 2016

My wife and I both took too many images inside the BMW Museum in München. We talked later how compelling it was. The museum was so beautiful and the displays so complete the photography was almost a compulsion. In most museums you can’t take photos and in most who would want to. I don’t need a picture of a painting hanging on a wall and the glare off the frame thank you very much.

It should have been the same here, I mean how many images of engines do you need? Yet the displays were perfect and you could feel the speed.You could tell by watching the people. We would pause, stare at a car or motorcycle. You could see the fantasy play over our eyes, we were IN the car, feeling the speed and oh yes it was good.

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Speed Dreams

A View from Prague Castle

Posted by Imagery Photography on November 9, 2016

Prague Castle is the largest castle in the the world. It is more like a small city than just a Castle. There is a cathedral, two churches, streets with shops and cafes and at least two large garden and park areas. Currently the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic lives there so there is also a large military presence. This view was taken looking south from the upper garden.

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The view from Prague Castle

Changing of the Guard at Prague Castle

Posted by Imagery Photography on November 8, 2016

We were fortunate to be at Prague Castle during the changing of the guard. I did manage to get some video but it is a little jumpy because i was running backwards as they walked towards me. This is a still from the video which will be included in my upcoming video focused on European street musicians. Their marching cadence is a form of music if you ask me. The whole thing made me think of the movie Duck Soup for some reason.

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Changing of the Guard

Windmills of Kinderdijk Nederlands (UNESCO Site)

Posted by Imagery Photography on October 29, 2016

The Windmills of Kinderdijk are along the Rhine River in Holland south of Amsterdam. They are used to manage water and eliminate flooding and have been in existence since the 15th Century. The name of the town means “children’s dike” and refers to a folk tale that after the a great flood when they went to access the damage they saw a cat in a child’s cradle jumping to maintain the balance of the cradle. As the cradle drifted to shore they found a baby inside the cradle. This is the source of the folk tale, “The Cat and The Cradle”.

Although some of the windmills are still used, the main water works are provided by two diesel pumping stations near one of the entrances of the windmills site.

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Kinderdijk

Expedition Start–Amsterdam

Posted by Imagery Photography on October 28, 2016

For the last month we have been touring Europe to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary. Our journey through Europe covered 1600 kilometers and five countries. I took about 2000 images and videos and surely will be busy editing and publishing for a while. Like most good European journeys we started in Amsterdam. Our flight on Lufthansa had been canceled and we were forced to ride in middle seats on United so when we hit the ground we were hungry, bitchy, and jet lagged. On our way to find food and a coffee shop I stopped for a second to take this image.

Fortunately we have been to Amsterdam before because the next day we would board our ship and sail down the Rhine. We didn’t have too much time for sight seeing. This was taken facing the city from the central train station.

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Amsterdam

Civility and Politics

Posted by Imagery Photography on September 23, 2016

I don’t usually comment or post about politics on this blog. In the last six years of writing this blog my political posts have only been a plea for people to get out and vote. Once again I encourage people do so. I will not be in the United States for most of the time leading up to the election. THANK GOD! Elections have always been contentious but this year has set a new low. We can blame it on the candidates but it is not really their fault.

Society is more polarized and angry that it has been since the Vietnam war and our political landscape is merely a reflection of how fractious and divided the United States has become. I have always felt guilty for the way we disrespected those who returned from the war in Vietnam but now the pendulum has swung the other way and if you don’t worship the flag and display your love of country many think you are not American. I yearn for simpler times when politicians were less controlled by lobbyists and Americans were less judgmental of each other’s actions but I recognize those times have passed. We are encouraged by social media to have an opinion about everything and correct and judge each other.

I realize like Roland Deschain that the world has moved on and I struggle to move with it. Once again i encourage you to vote and not to be discouraged. I know many people don’t even register to vote for silly reasons like they don’t want to serve on a jury or their religion prevents them from voting. So a nation that preaches democracy to the rest of the world and feels it has the right to take democracy to all has one of the lowest voter turnouts of any nation. This is shameful.

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Ted Kennedy and George McGovern in Pittsburgh 1972

An Oldie at a Deserted (or so we thought) Train Station

Posted by Imagery Photography on September 20, 2016

This is one of my favorite shots and for some reason I never have published it. I was on a fashion shoot at what we thought was an abandoned train station. I have shared some photos from that shoot before.(one,two). We had been there for about an hour, not a soul in sight. The model was doing outfit changes behind a deserted building and then a train pulled in and these two guys got off the train and immediately checked their watches. We were both stunned but Pat had the good sense to run over to the train and strike a pose. A magic moment.

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A Deserted Station

Iao’s Needle

Posted by Imagery Photography on September 19, 2016

Every time we go to Maui we make sure we leave time to go Īao Valley State Park and the wonderful Gardens at Kepaniwai County park. The first time we were there was 28 years ago and I was saddened to learn that the parks were damaged severely last week. As of today Īao Valley State Monument on Maui, will remain closed indefinitely due to extensive damage from heavy rain and flooding that occurred on the night of Sept. 13 and early morning on Sept. 14, 2016.

“Our inspections show that the (ʻĪao Stream) Wailuku River course has changed and is significantly wider, cutting into state park land that contained public access features. The stream is heavily silted and cobbled with new material and landslides on both sides of the stream are evident,” said Curt Cottrell, Department of Land and Natural Resources State Parks division administrator.

I hope no one was injured although I believe several lost their homes which is injury enough. I know the spirit of the Hawaiian people and am sure the park will reopen soon but “mother nature” did some real damage and it will take hard work and dedication.

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Iao’s Needle Maui Hawaii

Iao Valley State Park

Maui Hawaii[/caption]

Yo La Tengo at Carnegie Music Hall

Posted by Imagery Photography on September 15, 2016

So we were on our way to Boston for Thanksgiving a few years ago and stopped at a rest stop on The Mass Pike. My daughter and wife found me standing in front of the Men’s Room door staring intently at the door. They gave me a strange look and shrugged and I said, “Any second Trey Anastasio is going to walk out that door.” They both laughed but I had seen him go in when I was leaving and almost on cue he walked out the door.

Predictably my wife and daughter both shrieked TREY and he smiled and walked over to talk to us. After a minute he asked an interesting question, “So how did this happen?” wanting to know how our family became Phish Fans. We told him that we had been taking our daughter to Grateful Dead shows since she was 7 years old and now she was taking us to Phish shows. He nodding saying, “That makes sense.”

So why am I telling you this? It wasn’t really accurate. We still bought the tickets and actually it was my Godson who really introduced us to Phish. However when my daughter was in graduate school she surprised us by buying tickets and taking us to our first Yo La Tengo show in Maxwell”s Pub in Hoboken. Last night we saw the band deliver an awesome performance at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. Of course it made me think of my daughter but also of meeting Trey Anastasio all those years ago and thinking he would also think that this also made sense.

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