Arches is a very popular National Park in Utah. To avoid over crowding of the parking lots the Park often has to close for a few hours as early as 9:00am. We found the best time to visit was later in the afternoon and stay until after sundown. Better photography at the later hours! This is a small selection of the over 2000 natural sandstone arches as well as fin shapes and balanced rocks. Best to go in Spring or Fall to avoid the worst of the heat.
Category: Photography
Nara Japan
Nara Japan
Nara Park (奈良公園 Nara Kōen) is a public park located in the city of Nara, Japan.. Established in 1880 it is one of the oldest parks in Japan. Nara is known for the oldest, largest and most interesting temples and the 1,200 wild sika deer (シカ or 鹿 shika) that freely roam around in the park, protected as natural treasures. The official size of the park is about 1,240 acres, the area including the grounds of Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, and Kasuga Shrine, which are either on the edge or surrounded by Nara Park, is as large as 1,600 acres.
It was during Nara’s time as the capital of Japan (710-794) that Buddhism was established as a state religion and began to spread to other parts of the country.
Nara’s temples include such world famous UNESCO World Heritage listed temples such as Kofukuji, Todaiji Kasuga Shrine and Yakushiji which will be featured in this website. Please click on the pictures for more information on the photos.
Kōfuku-ji has its origin as a temple that was established in 669 by Kagami-no-Ōkimi (鏡大君), the wife of Fujiwara no Kamatari, wishing for her husband’s recovery from illness. Its original site was in Yamashina, Yamashiro Province (present-day Kyoto). In 672, the temple was moved to Fujiwara-kyō, the first planned Japanese capital to copy the orthogonal grid pattern of Chang’an. In 710 the temple was dismantled for the second time and moved to its present location, on the east side of the newly constructed capital, Heijō-kyō, today’s Nara.
Tōdai-ji (東大寺, Eastern Great Temple)[1] is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall (大仏殿 Daibutsuden) houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha[2] Vairocana,[3] known in Japanese as Daibutsu (大仏). The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism.
Kasuga Grand Shrine (春日大社 Kasuga-taisha) is a Shinto shrine in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan.[1] Established in 768 CE and rebuilt several times over the centuries, it is the shrine of the Fujiwara family. The interior is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lanterns that lead up the shrine
The path to Kasuga Shrine passes through Deer Park where the deer are able to roam freely and are believed to be sacred messengers of the Shinto gods that inhabit the shrine and surrounding mountainous terrain. Kasuga Shrine and the deer have been featured in several paintings and works of art of the Nambokucho Period.[2] Over three thousand stone lanterns line the way.
The original Yakushi-ji was built in Fujiwara-kyō, Japan’s capital in the Asuka period, commissioned by Emperor Tenmu in 680 to pray for recovery from illness for his consort, who succeeded him as Empress Jitō. This act of building temples in devotion to Buddhist figures was a common practice among Japanese nobility when Buddhism was first imported from China and Korea. Emperor Tenmu had died by the time Empress Jitō completed the complex around 698; and it was disassembled and moved to Nara eight years after the Imperial Court settled in what was then the new capital.
Related Images:
These are a few sample pictures from our travels in 2017. These are a selection of pictures taken in Greenland, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Wales, Scotland and England. Please check back for Photographic additions in one or all of the visited Countries.
Greenland is an interesting country ans has just recently started receiving the tourist trade. I bought a fun t-shirt in Greenland on our first visit that says “Lost in Greenland” such fun!
Venice is great for photography; the Gondolas, the canals, Rialto Bridge and the historic Buildings. Burano Italy is just a water taxi away from Venice famous for its colorful houses, and beautiful lace work. Santorini and Mykonis are beautiful Greek Islands, and very popular with the tourist crowd. Many Chinese women come to Santorini to pose in their wedding gowns.
Wales, Ireland and the Islands off Scotland have many interesting Neolithic sites such as Skara Brae and several Henge sites, Standing Stones of Stennes, and Ring of Bodgar near Kirkwell Orkney.
Related Images:
Nevada Wier Seminar
Nevada Wier Seminar
Attended a great Seminar today taught by Nevada Wier. She is a multiple award-winning photographer specializing in the remote corners of the globe and the cultures that inhabit them. Her journeys have taken her crisscrossing the globe in search of compelling travel experiences and images. Her home base is in Santa Fe NM and since she was home in NM for a while our Photo Club was able to secure her talent.
Nevada was the photographer for The Land of Nine Dragons – Vietnam Today (Abbeville Press, 1992),photography from contemporary Vietnam, winner of the Lowell Thomas Best Travel Book of 1992 award, and the writer/photographer for Adventure Travel Photography (Amphoto, 1993). She was a participating photographer in A Day in the Life of Thailand (Collins, 1995),Planet Vegas (Collins, 1995), and Mother Earth (Sierra Club Editions 2002). Her current works in progress are A Nomadic Vision (publication TBA) and Myanmar: Lost in Timea photo book on Myanmar (publication TBA).
www.nevadawier.com
She widened our horizons, highlighting such things as, color, creativity, action, depth of field, reminded us we always need to SEE what is around us, and the need to form relationships to get better pictures of people in other cultures. Photography is about finding the best light, and problem solving, what one person my like others my not. So many concepts and ideas to enumerate in this blog, sign up to take one of her workshops or seminars in your area. To me photography is an ongoing learning experience, and a Nevada Wier Seminar; such a notable photographer, is a valuable learning experience.
In my photography I look forward to use and apply some of the new approaches Nevada presented and start using others that I have learned but forgotten to use.
http://www.nevadawier.com/artfrst.html
I also want to share a few of the Quotes she gave us during the class.
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Leonardo da Vinci
“Life is pretty simple: you do some stuff.
Most fails. Some works.
You do more of what works.
If it works big, others quickly copy it.
Then you do something else.
The trick is to do something else.”
Leonardo d Vinci
“Creativity can solve almost any problem.
the creative act, the defeat of habit by originality,
Overcomes everything.”
George Lois
“There are three classes of people:
Those who see,
Those who see what they are shown,
Those who do not see.”
Leonardo da Vinci
Related Images:
Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps;
In July I attended Photoshop World in Las Vegas NV. It was wonderful!
(I just wish my husband could have gone to the venders section so he could buy me more photo stuff!)
The classes were all great, and the ones that I couldn’t attend, most of them are in the Photoshop World 2016 book so I can still study and learn those techniques. One class I didn’t make it to was taught by Katrin Eismann Entitled;”Modern-Day Photograhy Workflow: Moving Between iPhones, DSLRs and More”. I was especially interested in the Mobile apps for the iPhone, including Marbelcam, Prism, LD, Mextures, ProCamera, and Silk. As to their use, I have featured several of these Mobile apps as you can see by the gallery of photos on this post.
The iphone is often the only “camera” that one has with them thus the growth of iphoneography and more and more apps to enhance and improve the resulting photos. In 2013 Apple announced that one million apps were available for the iPhone! I usually limit my apps to the photo-related apps to enhance my iphoneography.
Website:
Katrin gave us the website for the 100 Best Photo apps. http://iphoneographyschool.com/100-best-apps/. Her website is www.katrineismann.com
There were several other classes on Mobile technology and all the new Mobile Adobe apps for the iPhone and iPad. One of my favorites in the Adobe family is Adobe Capture. New apps to learn and use–Lifelong Learning!
Related Images:
Viewbug Photo contests
Photo Contests; I have Fun with View bug Photo Contests, maybe you would like to also!
Please comment and vote on my photos if you like them. I currently have three or four in rated the top ten in their respective contests, and would like to gain a few more votes! Many different types of contests are featured and it is fun to look through my photos to see which may apply. If you have any photos entered into the contests please let me know so I can view them.
Thank you for your votes!
Related Images:
http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery
Shoot now, focus later. That’s just the start of what you can do with a Lytro camera, the camera that captures the entire light field. A Lytro can also help you remember more of what happened at that party last weekend. And, it may also clue you in on the identity of that dude offering free jailhouse-style tattoos.
This is the start of the picture revolution. Visit their Picture Gallery to experience living pictures for yourself.