It is the second consecutive month for this feature. Last month’s entry focused on Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle, which contains two centuries of history and boasts impressive city views.
For February, let’s travel halfway around the world to Agra, India, home of the world’s most famous monument built “for love,” the Taj Mahal.
Continue reading “Photo Locale of the Month – February 2015”
February has arrived, and that means that the worst days of winter are almost behind us (even though Punxsutawney Phil suggested otherwise upon seeing his shadow yesterday). Speaking for myself, this has been a mild winter so far, at least by East Tennessee standards. It has snowed just three times, with zero inches of accumulation at lower elevations, and we’ve had nary a day of below-zero temperatures. Even my birthplace of Chicago has been spared its usual 10-week Arctic blast, save for a few exceptionally chilly nights of course.
Still, we’re not out of the woods just yet. February can be nasty cold. It is also said to be the best month for viewing the Northern Lights. It was with this weather phenomenon in mind (the Aurora Borealis, not the cold) that I joined my friend Jules for one long, crazy, February, 2007 weekend…in Barrow, Alaska.
I have decided to introduce a new feature on this blog that I hope to turn into a monthly recurrence: the Photo Locale of the Month.
Each month, I’ll highlight a particular place from my travels – not just a city but a specific site within that city – and I’ll introduce it to you through pictures.
As always, all images are the property of GringoPotpourri unless credited otherwise.
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For the first month, I thought I’d feature a favorite place from what is perhaps my favorite city in the world. The place is Chapultepec Castle and the city is Mexico City.
Last fall, I vowed to write more hiking-related entries. My travels have given me the opportunity to check several multi-day hikes off the ever-lengthening “bucket list.” The third long hike in this series (you can also read about Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Backbone Trail of Southern California) was completed in February of 2009 – six years ago!
One Month in Middle Earth
My first trip “Down Under” – to use common geographical slang marketed to the U.S. by the likes of Paul Hogan, Qantas, and Fosters – was to Australia in 2003. I loved Australia and had long yearned to return to that region of the world. “Across the ditch” from Australia lies New Zealand, a bastion for backpackers and nature lovers. The success of the “Lord of the Rings” films, shot there, effectively priced me (and many other backpackers) out of the market, and it wasn’t until the end of that decade that things went down in cost…and even then only marginally.
The Fiordland region of New Zealand’s South Island is blessed with pristine natural beauty, verdant greenery, Norwegian-style fiords, and more than the island’s fair share of waterfalls. The country’s hiking trails are renowned as being some of the greatest in the world, and many of them are appropriately marketed as such, under the name “Great Walks.” On the North Island you can hike around – and to the top of – what moviegoers know simply as “Mount Doom,” via the Tongariro Crossing. (Mount Doom’s real name: Mount Ngauruhoe.) Three multi-day Great Walks are in Fiordland. Arguably the best of these – and certainly the hardest for which to obtain permits – is the Milford Track.
The nation of France – and Paris in particular – has had a tough week. On Wednesday, radical Islamist terrorists gunned down twelve employees of the Paris-based magazine Charlie Hebdo, allegedly in retaliation for that magazine’s publication of satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. One suspect turned himself in and two others – brothers who were once under surveillance until the French government decided it simply had too many “persons of interest” to continue monitoring the ones it was already keeping tabs on – were ultimately hunted down and killed.
The manhunt was well underway by international authorities, and makeshift memorials of flowers and candles were already being left near the magazine offices, when it happened again on Thursday: a policewoman, just 26, was gunned down by one of the suspects in the suburb of Montrouge.
And again on Friday. The killings returned to Paris-proper when two terrorists gunned down four people inside a kosher grocery store in a predominantly-Jewish section of Paris. One terrorist was killed in a standoff but the second, a female, is still at large and is believed to have since fled to Syria.
I don’t always consider myself to be a good photographer. I am self-taught, which is respectable, but as shutterbugs go, I am not the most patient. Additionally, I so often pack my tripod for a trip and then opt not to haul it around. As such, night photography is often in “P” (Program) mode rather than “M” (Manual) mode. I still pull off some good shots, but I don’t deny that they could have been better.
One category in which I excel – I think – is panoramic photography. It isn’t so much that I’m a natural; some places simply lend themselves to “wider-angle” photography. Natural wonders are obvious choices – the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Alps, I could go on and on. On rare occasions, cityscapes make for terrific panoramic images as well. The trick, of course, is a) to seek these vista points out, b) to step back and recognize a place’s potential, and c) to have a camera on your person.
Below are several of my favorite panoramic photos from my travels. My process is to snap snap snap an epic view from left to right, then “stitch” the individual images together in post. I use Windows Live Photo Gallery for this feature. It is a free program; don’t be surprised if a version of it is already installed on your computer.
Unless otherwise indicated, pics were taken using a Canon Powershot or a Nikon DSLR. You may have to click on them to see the full detail.
Christmas is just around the corner, and this year I’ll be spending the holiday in Eastern Tennessee. I doubt that it will be the “White Christmas” of song – temperatures have been just a bit too warm for snow – but it’ll be spent with my dad. The family as a whole – mom, dad, sis, niece, dog, and me – is celebrating Christmas a few days early, with my mom traveling back to Memphis to spend several days (including December 25th) with her daughter and granddaughter. When family members live in other parts of the country or state, it’s challenging to coordinate the logistics of getting everyone together. And I say this having a small family! Anyway, I’m sure many of you can relate.
I am a sucker for nostalgia, and I often spend time that should be dedicated towards, say, finding a job, gathering proverbial wool or thinking happily of days gone by. As such, I thought I’d continue my series of “Holiday Travels” entries with another bit of fond musing. If you’re curious, my previous post in this series was last December’s Québec City and Montréal entry. I hope you’ll give it a read; the “Related” section at the bottom of that post should then direct you to older entries in this series.
From Memphis to Londontown (2006)
2006 was an epic year for yours truly. I had the best financial year of my life and a generous vacation allotment, resulting in several terrific trips. Mexico, Turkey/Denmark, Singapore/Malaysia…it was grand. As the end of the year rolled around, I hankered to experience my first New Year’s Eve in Europe, but also remembered that I hadn’t visited my parents at all that year. My vacation time was wearing thin, so I finagled something brilliant: four days in Memphis, three days of work back in LA where I lived at the time, and then six days in London. Exhausting? Sí, señor.
Happy birthday Ludwig van Beethoven!!!
The famous – and famously-deaf – composer was born in the year 1770, and though the exact date isn’t known for sure, most historians cite December as the month, as he was baptized on the 17th of that month.
Many music-rich European cities play annual host to Beethoven-themed festivals such as the one photographed here. Where am I? You already know the continent. What is the country and city?
I spent a week in Naples in 2012. Greater Naples was, to me, a previously-unexplored corner of Italy. The general plan was to visit Pompeii, climb Mount Vesuvius, check out the city’s National Archaeological Museum, explore its historic port, and maybe drive south along the Amalfi Coast to an idyllic beach town of my choosing.
Alas, things didn’t go as planned. It rained the first four days I was there (I don’t particularly enjoy Mediterranean Europe in the rain), and I caught a debilitating stomach virus that literally had me bedridden for the last three (sunny) days.
Still, I did make it to Pompeii, and also to Herculaneum – a recently-excavated port city that was second in line (after Pompeii) to receive the volcanic wrath of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Upon my return, I somehow “lost” the pics from my time in Greater Naples. When I accidentally stumbled upon them last week, hiding in the wrong folder of an external hard drive, I did something of a happy dance.
I thought I’d share some of my favorite images with you.
Pompeii
Pompeii was a sizable town of 20,000 people, situated at the base of the volcano. When the volcano erupted its residents had no time to escape and were buried alive. A few are “displayed” under glass in a sort of ashen mummy form.
This past November 9th marked 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. That historic day in 1989 saw the reunification of a divided country following three decades of Cold War hostilities. The transition wasn’t perfect, but it was a non-violent and triumphant event for a small corner of Europe that, throughout much of the 20th century, had seen (and often instigated) more than its fair share of violent, non-triumphant happenings.
I was a freshman in high school when the Wall came down. My German I course was the last class of the day, if I remember correctly, and although it was my favorite class, I nevertheless was an ADHD-addled teenager without much interest in actually learning. My German teacher, Frau Francik, entered the classroom, beaming, and said that something very important had happened. She spent the entire hour explaining the history leading up to the day’s monumental event. She shared her memories of leading a class trip to Germany and crossing Checkpoint Charlie, the designated border crossing for Americans between East and West Berlin. We were impressed and not a little bit scared.
It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that our class had the opportunity to visit Germany over Spring Break. Frau Francik decided to focus on just Bavaria this time around, saving a still-in-transition Berlin for another time perhaps. Alas, I didn’t have the money to go, but I promised myself that one day, I would make it to Germany.
It was a promise I kept…many times over.
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