Christmas Day (yesterday) was spent on the road. We left Death Valley behind and drove through the Artists Drive and Artists Palate on the way out. It was a beautiful canyon of color that would probably look great at sunrise or sundown. We might try coming back later. One of our planned excursions at the […]
Stuck in 4WD Low — Death Valley
We got up before dawn and headed over to Zabriskie Point to catch our first sunrise in Death Valley. It is a popular point for sunrise, and we got our first indication of how many people are traveling this week. Christmas Eve morning, and the point had roughly 50 people watching (and photographing) the sunrise. […]
Wet Burrito and Really Good Jerky – Enroute to Death Valley
We started our drive today, to start a week+ long car trip with Evelyn’s sisters’ family. First stop: Death Valley. Since we plan on getting some (hopefully) nice photographs along the way, we wanted to start out with arriving in the desert in time for a sunset shot. Sunset in Death Valley is awfully early […]
[BRAG] Tonight’s Winners at BCC
Tonight was another competition night at the Berkeley Camera Club. This competition allowed us to enter one image in Travel category and two in Journalism. I was rather surprised a couple months ago to find that I had been promoted to the Masters category for Travel (the highest of 4 levels of competition), though I […]
[Brag] Photos win Best of Year Awards at BCC
Last week, the Berkeley Camera Club had its annual banquet (which I was forced to skip due to other commitments). I had been bumped from Basic (lowest level) in most categories up to Advanced (third level) for 2011, so I didn’t expect to win nearly as many awards this year. To my surprise, four of […]
Vietnam – Back Home Again
Saturday, Oct 29 We took a predawn flight from Danang to Saigon (now called Hoi Chi Mihn City, but I still find Saigon rolls off the tongue better), then a quick tour of the Chinese wholesale market. We have been to local markets around the world, and seen wholesale food and flower markets before, but […]
Vietnam – 15 cent Beers!
Posted Oct 28, 2011 Etienne picked us for before dawn for another photo tour this morning. We started by taking a local ferry across the river. The ferry was an experience in itself, filled to overflowing with scooters and people, it recalled images seen in news images of overladen boats capsizing in Thailand or elsewhere […]
Vietnam – Models!
At Hoi An, we stayed at the Palm Garden Resort, a 5-star hotel. We had a very nice room with a view of the beach. It was perfect in almost every way. Unfortunately, it was also way out of town. The taxi ride was only $5 each way, but took about 20 minutes and meant […]
Vietnam – Hue
We flew from Hanoi to Hue last night, and were met by Lan, our final Vietnam guide. The Gerbera Hue hotel was rated 4 star, but felt more like 5 star, and had a river front view. One surprising feature was the shower, which had a large glass window separating it from the bedroom, giving […]
Vietnam – The Junk
We spent last night on the sleeper train from Sapa back to Hanoi. “Sleeper” is a bit of a misnomer, as it is pretty hard to get much sleep while being nearly tossed out of your bunk each time you pull into or out of a station, which happens a couple times an hour during […]