Recently in Letters Category

This is National Novel Writing Month if you were unaware.  I only learned of the event last night in late evening reading in Macworld (thank you Jason Snell).  I have signed up and will in the next day or so formulate my plan to write 50,000 words by the end of the month.  Since I am a novice at this, I will base it loosely on a detailed log (hand written) that I kept in 1977 of some time in the Caribbean on an old sailing vessel.  More details as I imagine them on that.

Today, I have been working on images again, and this time from the city that has inspired a lot of novels in the past and present, New Orleans.  I pasted through New Orleans last August on a fast trip from Georgia to Texas.  I had one evening and one morning to take photographs.  The image on the left of the cigar shop is a hand held HDR composition of five images, 1 EV apart from 1/15th/sec. to 1/250/sec at f/7.1, ISO 200, EF24-105mm f/4 IS mounted on a Canon 1Ds Mark III.  Precisely at +29° 57' 29.73" N, -90° 3' 55.27" W, at 9:05 a.m. on August 11, 2008.  I could spend weeks in this city taking photographs.

The one on the right is obviously from seven images in the same area.  For the technically inclined these RAW images were all shot hand held, and aligned in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended as a "smart object" in the "stack mode".  Then the maximum filter was applied to the stack mode.  I love the contrast of the fellow walking in his dress whites against the vivid colors of the street.  It is a great city and a fabulous place for photography, I hope she stays afloat.  So much history is written on the walls of every building.  Interpretation is an endless journey down each alley.  The best of the city however was a late night visit to Cafe du Monde.  Truly some things never change.

The trip from New York CIty to Austin, Texas is not as easy as the Staten Island Ferry, but at least it was an non-stop flight and the flight plan was accepted by the FAA's computers (big glitch today, not many hours after my flight).  I am busy working on images and will create some new galleries soon, as well as have a lengthy commentary about the Silversea trip.  It will be honest and more balanced than the Fox News aboard the ship (the only, yes, ONLY choice of news coverage on what seems to be a sophisticated satellite television system).  Lastly I have one more photo of "Mr. Ben" who was busy photographing me many times.  I would like to thank him for being such a kind and inquisitive subject.  A good time was had by all.

We left Nova Scotia last evening after a wonderful day in the port town of Lunenburg.  Today was in the Bay of Fundy whale watching and I don't think we could have seen more of them.  There were more than a dozen breaching.  We were just southwest of the Brier Island Lighthouse (right image) and it was a lovely dawn.  Tomorrow we'll clear immigration in Gloucester, MA and then transit the Cape Cod Canal in the afternoon. Perhaps we'll see some more whales along the way. These entries are short as they are all done via satellite.  I'll have more annotations about the trip after we are in America.  New York City promises to be an exciting arrival back in the USA.

Commentary on blogging:  It is best done when traveling alone.  That said, I'll do a paragraph to get from St. John's Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova Scotia where we will arrive in about 10 hours.  Ramea Islands were rainy, foggy and interesting, but not very special insofar as photography of my interests.  Gros Morne was wonderful, but we had had barely enough time to do a short walk, let alone a boat ride up the fjord and a hike at the end.... so only the former was accomplished.  I'll be back without slow moving guides.  Today we were in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia... one of the last defenses of the French.  Begun in 1713 and elegantly preserved in that period.  It was a superb historical tour of the early province.

I have new life long friends from Los Angeles and Kansas City.  Who would have known.  It's just the way the stars aligned.

More from Halifax where we will have an all day tour across the island and an evening in Halifax to catch up before leaving for Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.

Aboard the Prince Albert II, leaving the Ramea Islands off the southern coast of Newfoundland.

My first update since arriving in St. John's, Newfoundland.  Upon arriving at the St. John's airport non-stop from Newark, New Jersey on Friday night we have had a lovely welcome to this maritime province.  Terry Adey who lives and works in the St. John's - Twillingate area was there to greet us just after midnight.  We did a quick tour around town in the early Saturday morning hours, even venturing to the top of Signal Hill for a splendid night time panoramic view of St. John's.  Signal Hill was the place where Marconi received his first transmissions across the Atlantic.  

The two nights in St. John's were at the Balmoral Inn (38 Queens Road).  It has a nice self serve cold breakfast available most of the morning, comfortable rooms albeit with a small bath.  The biggest drawback is the necessity of moving almost 200 lbs of luggage (video & still camera gear is more than 60% of this) up almost two full flights of stairs.  However I survived and it was an altogether pleasant stay.

Terry and his wife Debbie were exceeding gracious hosts and tour guides on the Saturday before departure.  Cape Spear, the village of Quidi Vidi, the Battery along with harbor front... all wonderful walks on a picture perfect day.  I'll annotate these days more when I am not uploading posts via satellite and can add more pictures & text easily.

We boarded the Prince Albert II about 1pm on Friday.  St. John's is in the Newfoundland time zone, and it is 1.5 hrs ahead of Eastern Time.... so 2.5 hrs ahead of Texas time.  The night before boarding it has rained for about 10 hours and for sure the weather pattern was changing.  Once upon the ship the 3pm sailing was pushed back to 8:00 pm due to the wind, and sadly our first destination, L'anse aux Meadows, was cancelled due to the high wind and north swell bearing down on our planned course.  Plan B was to turn south and do some of the itinerary in reverse.  The small port of Argentia and some historic ruins there, then then Ramea Islands followed by Gros Morne National Park in the north, and finally returning south to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon before resuming our original schedule toward Nova Scotia and eventually New York City on August 25th.

The photo is of port side in Argentia of the ship and one of her moorings.

Written at noon, Sunday, August 17th, 2008.