Tag Archives: ocean

Pearl Harbor – Oahu, Hawaii

by

USS Arizona Approach

My first visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial on Oahu was about 25 years ago.  What is so striking to me about each visit is the large number of Japanese tourists in attendance.  Many arrive by organized Japanese tour companies.  I would really like to have the ability or nerve to speak to them and learn their impressions and thoughts during their visit to the site of their country’s surprise attack which killed more than 2,500 Americans.  It is certainly an odd twist that anyone who visits Hawaii today quickly realizes the economic vitality of Hawaii clearly depends on the Japanese tourist.
Continue reading →

Carrick-A-Rede Bridge crossing

by

Carric a Rede Bridge

What is now a fun tourist attraction in Northern Ireland near the town of Ballentoy used to be the means of getting to a very important salmon fishery for a hundred fishermen.  When first erected the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge was simply a thick rope spanning the 60 feet between ridges and 1,000 feet in the air.  The fishermen would carry their equipment over in the morning and the fish they caught back in the evening, going hand over hand.  The distant island serves as a breakwater for the ocean waves from the Atlantic.  We could see large waves crashing the rocks on one side of the island, but calm waters for the fishermen to string their nets on the other.  This point is no longer used by the fishermen as the Atlantic Salmon is on the endangered species list.  A salmon fisherman’s house still on the island is shown in the picture below, click the ‘continue reading’ button below to see it.
Continue reading →

Cinque Terre, Italy

by

 

Village of Manerola at dusk

Village of Manarola at dusk

Cinque Terre is a series of five small fishing villages on the west coast of Italy, known as the Italian Riviera.  In these towns there are basically no cars, no stop lights and few roads wide enough to drive cars if you had one.  We stayed in Corniglia, the middle of the five towns.  To get to our condo we walked up a series of narrow sidewalks bordered by 4-5 story buildings several hundred years old.  Adding to the interest of our stay were three turtles in the back yard.  The first night we saw the Mom Turtle dig a hole with her hind legs and lay eggs.  The very close proximity of the buildings does not provide much privacy but adds to the quaintness.  If not careful, our just washed clothes could drip on the people walking below when hung out to dry.  Corniglia was on a high hill requiring 400+ steps, arranged in a series of switchbacks, to arrive in the town from the train station.  The bus service between town and train station was unreliable, so walking was the preferred method for us as it also provided good exercise.  So here you have an entire town that is not wheelchair accessible.  If you wanted to go to the scenic beach, that would be another 400+ steps down on the other side of the cliff, no bus service.  I would say the Cinque Terre area is a highlight of Italy and wonderfully unique area.

Continue reading →

Sailing, Sailing, Over the Ocean Blue…

by

SLIDE SHOW, 7 PHOTOS

We recently took our first trans-Atlantic cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Rome. The 15 days were very enjoyable and relaxing. One can approach such a trip as a non-stop 24 hour a day feed trough, or one can approach it as a health club. I chose the latter, but still think I may have added some pounds. I exercised an hour every single day we were not in a seaport.  While at the various ports we did a lot of exercising as well, like climbing to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. Other time was spent relaxing on the balcony of our cabin.  More photos will be added later, but here is one of the blue, blue ocean. During the days out to sea, air pollution was not at all apparent.

Ship Sunset

Ship Sunset

Post Processing of a Photo

by
ORIGINAL Vision of the Scene

ORIGINAL  Scene

The final version of this beach photo totally changed from my original vision.  The brilliant orange sunset lit up the beach in a way no photographer could pass by.  The sky was bright orange as was the reflection in the wet sand.  However, in working with the photograph, the contrast appeared to be tooooo great.  Also, one might wonder what was making the sand so bright and simply think it was an over-saturated photo.  The entire reason for me capturing this photo now seemed to be a problem, so the bright sand was cropped out below.
Continue reading →