This bird on the wire was shot right outside my study window, using my consumer-grade Canon, and I liked the results (2014).
One or two families of crows nest in trees in my backyard. Noisy winged neighbors indeed, and bullies. I am fairly certain they keep all other birds away too (crows raid nests of other birds, as they are efficient at finding food anywhere). Crows are not quite as stately as the raven, the granddaddy of all birds and the apex of the corvid family of birds. At times I watch the crows, likely this one, on a perch outside my kitchen window, and they cannot see me. They are wickedly smart and not afraid to tussle and compete with humans for the land we mistakenly think is “ours.” (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
To create, perhaps we all need creative space. Not all of us will create with steel, stone, and wood, like my colleague whose works now cover his yard and sizable studio. But I think we need a place, wherever that is, to allow our creativity to flow. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
The St. Louis Art Museum was built for the 1904 World’s Fair. It replicates the Roman Baths of Caracalla. The museum is free to all who enter. I have been coming here for decades now, now just on the family visits. Today I brought my GoPro to capture some of the more well-known pieces in the museum’s great catalogue, modern and ancient. If you come to the city, put this on your to do list. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
I grew up in the St. Louis area. One of my favorite places remains Forest Park, perhaps one of the nation’s top tier public parks. It is both historic and beautiful as a natural place in an urban setting. There is a six-mile running trail that circles the outer edge of the park that takes one by a bird sanctuary, a golf course, the Jefferson Memorial Building dating from the 1904 World’s Fair, some artificial ponds where urban fisherman really do fish, and the St. Louis Science Center. The latter has a life-size diaroma model of a tyrannosaurus rex battling a triceratops, which were among my favorite critters growing up.
One of the oddest attractions is a monument to the Civil War veterans from the Confederacy, highlighting the city’s legacy as both a Southern and Northern community–a racial and sometimes divisive legacy that remains today, as seen recently in protests in Ferguson. There is also a competing statue nearby of German-American veterans of the Union Army from the Civil War. These are all visible from the running trail. I decided to photograph these sights today using my GoPro Camera to capture the scenes with a fish-eye view.
Runners, put on you shoes and do a lap or two when you visit. You will love it. (Click on each photo to see larger pictures on separate picture pages.)
A view from my hotel in Trabzon in 2001. Getting there was a great epic. I arrived at 3 a.m. after a day-long bus ride and found a hotel with nary a scratch. The things we do when we travel. Loved this place.
I visited Trabzon, in northeast Turkey on the Black Sea, during my Turkey trip. It is a fascinating, large city, with Greek, Byzantine, and finally Turkish roots. One of the great Byzantine-era churches, the Hagia Sofia, is now just a shell there, on a hill overlooking the sea and recently converted to a mosque. I used this city as a base to visit the Sumela Monastery, a Greek Orthodox sanctuary in the nearby mountains that was abandoned in the 1920s when Greeks and Turks engaged in a nasty ethnic cleansing of their respective countries that displaced about 2 million people. I may publish some pictures of that monastery later. (Click on the photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
Laborers pause inside a hothouse in southern Turkey near Antalya.
Hothouses growing crops for local and international markets were common sights on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean Coast. During my trip in 2001, I travelled the entirety of that coast by bus (loved it!), and had a chance to visit a hothouse by a bus stop. The workers reminded me a lot of the male laborers I saw in my home state of Washington. They were friendly, their clothes revealed the dirt and sweat of their hard labor, and they had pride in who they were. It is a reminder to always stop and just look around the corner and see what you may find. More pictures of my travels in Turkey can be found on my Turkey photo gallery. (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
At one the the greatest mosques in the world and certainly in continental Europe, the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, men perform the wudu, or ritual wash, before prayer. I dug this one out from the digital archive vaults recently. This is a must-see place. It was actually designed by an Armenian architect (Sinan Aga), whose grave is located not far from this spot. More of my pictures from Turkey can be found on my Turkey photo gallery.
This amphitheater was also used for Roman gladiatorial games.
The discovery of a nearly 2,000-year-old wooden toilet seat by Hadrian’s Wall in England brought to my mind just how expansive the Roman Empire was, stretching from the highlands of Scotland to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the Upper Nile in Egypt to the deserts of Iraq. They were creative, violent, organized, and pragmatic, and they left a lasting legacy in every land they conquered and administered. The toilet seat also reminded me of the famous Monty Python skit from the film The Life of Brian. One of the rebels named Reg, who is plotting to overthrow the Romans, summarizes the local grievances against their masters: “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Modern-day Turkey, long at the heart of the Hellenic world, was ruled for centuries by Rome and then into the Middle Ages by the Byzantine Empire until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. You can see the Roman footprint everywhere in Turkey–Istanbul, Antakya (brilliant mosaics and ruins everywhere), Adana, Myra, Ankara, Ephesus, and countless other historic sites and ancient cities. Here are just a few of some of the pictures I took. I have never published these before until now. Thanks Python crew for reminding me of all the things the Romans never did for us. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
More pictures of my trip to Turkey can be found on my Turkey photo gallery. Skit from Monty Python below.
For decades now, I have kept journals. They have taken different forms over the years. When I was in high school, I embraced a daily record method. That trait carried into my next phase of keeping journals, to record my thoughts, impressions, ideas, and stories when I travelled. This turned into rigorous daily practice, when I hiked down the Pacific Crest Trail, or lived and worked in Chile, or worked on photo projects in Turkey. The act of remembering the day forced a discipline into my travels. The act made me reflect and contemplate what I saw or learned. I never went to sleep without putting pen to paper.
Today, the journals fill two small storage boxes. Occasionally I will open one of the old journals and use the words to recall people or events. Then, a flood of memories comes back to me. I used many of these journals as my workbooks to flesh out ideas for stories I later wrote. I suppose they are one of my legacies. If a fire occurs, they are lost. If I die unknown, they will be thrown away. If I perhaps one day achieve “fame” (I am fairly certain that is not my destiny at this point), they could end up in a dusty archive, never to be seen. So maybe they are just like a golden treasure I still hoard, as if they had magic properties. I open the secret cask, blow away the dust, and conjure up times and places far away.
(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
South Park is located in south Seattle, surrounded by industrial activities, the Duwamish River, and some major arterials. It is, by Seattle standards, lower income, given the physical and built environment. Still, it is home to many families and others who live here, in single family homes, subsidized housing, and apartments. More Latinos call it home than any other racial or ethnic group. A number of Latino-owned businesses can be found in the main intersection at Cloverdale and South Fourteenth Avenue. The South Park Bridge, which has been under repair for four years, cutting off a lot of potential business for the area, finally reopened this summer. The bridge now includes a lot of steel artwork, which I like. I also spied some developments along the industrial Duwamish, on land claimed by the Port of Seattle. I have no idea what is happening there. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
What Beautiful Light 