pictures

27
Oct
2020

More photo posts coming soon

For about 2 years before I updated my site, I was unable to post new photos because the software that I used to do so was outdated. It was 32-bit software living in a 64-bit world. However, when I created the whole new site, I posted all of the photos that were in the queue for the past few years. It seems like a good time to do it since I’m not exactly taking many photos in 2020. So, over the next few weeks you’ll be seeing blog posts referencing albums that are debuting for the first time. Feel free to live vicariously through my past vacations and outings as we all stay home and wait out COVID-19. That’s what I’m certainly doing. Looking at the photos is about as close to going on a vacation as I’ll get this year!

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
16
Jun
2017

Finally put tons of photos on Flickr

I’ve had a Flickr account for 12 years and a paid Pro account for about 5. Mostly, I’ve only used it for sharing photos with family members semi-privately. They’re photos that I don’t care if others see, but I also don’t want to bore you with photos of kids opening Christmas gifts, etc. I used to use Google’s Picassa Web Albums for this, but they went the way of the dodo a few years ago.

Up until now, the only photos in my public Flickr stream were photos cross-posted from my Instagram account so that I have an exit-strategy from that service since they’re now owned by Facebook and using any Facebook-owned property makes me a little (ok, a lot) queasy. Plus it gives the photos a some extra exposure.

That has changed change. I’ve spent the past few years tagging the photos from my website and preparing them to be uploaded to Flickr. As much as I’d prefer to drive traffic to my site, cross posting them to Flickr will get them a some more exposure and, if nothing else, make me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth from my Flickr Pro subscription.

So, I’ve posted almost 8000 photos in my Flickr feed over the past week or so. They’re broken down in albums and further separated into collections by year, so you’ll be able to navigate through them if you wish.

Enjoy the photos, and feel free to share them and comment on them which is something you can’t (currently) do on my website.

Posted by Michael in Photography
03
Jun
2017

Photos from the Final Tour of the Circus

Tiger and trainerThe last time I went to the circus when it rolled into Philadelphia, I was in elementary school. When we heard that Ringling Brothers was shutting down the circus for good this year, we decided that we should go see its last hurrah. We splurged a little and got seats in the second row. There were two separate touring shows this year. The one that came to Philadelphia was “Out of this World.” (The other being “Circus Xtreme.”) Wow, what a difference from the last time I saw the show. I remember seeing Gunther Gable, elephants and a unicorn. I probably don’t want to know what kind of animal rights violations were committed in the production of the unicorn, but I did miss the elephants. As for Gunther, there was a big cat trainer there who was also quite good. The other surprising part was that besides the acrobats, clowns, contortionists, dog trainers, etc., a portion of the show was also performed on ice. Add some horse stunts, motorcycles in a steel sphere and a menagerie of animals including a kangaroo and you have quite a fun spectacle. It’s really sad that this will be the last year that anyone will get to experience it.

Relive the circus experience by checking out my photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
02
Jun
2017

Philadelphia Flower Show Photos

Tulips & BicycleDespite living in the Philadelphia area my entire life, I’ve never gone to the annual Philadelphia Flower Show. I’m not necessarily a flower enthusiast, but I’m a photographer and have spent plenty of time photographing flowers elsewhere like Longwood Gardens, the Macy’s Flower Show in Chicago and many other places. This year’s theme was Holland and tulips are my favorite flowers to photograph so how could I resist? Despite it being a damp rainy day, we hopped on the train to Center City and spent the day indoors enjoying the sights and sounds (Dutch techno light show, anyone? See the video below.). It’s truly amazing to see what the Philadelphia Horticultural Society builds inside the convention center. Besides flowers, the amount of stuff they load in there, trees, landscaping, tons of dirt and mulch, art exhibits, etc. is beyond impressive. It made for a fun (and colorful) day.

Check out the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
06
Apr
2016

Scranton Photo Album

McDade ParkWhile in the Poconos for the Jim Thorpe Winterfest, we headed up to Scranton for the day to visit the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum. I highly recommend stopping in if you ever get the chance. The history and heritage of the miners and their families is a fascinating tale. Living as close as we do to the PA coal mining region, I’m sorry I haven’t explored it more. I hope to head back up there one day and take the coal mine tour since it was closed for the winter. We also visited the Historic Scranton Iron Furnaces. It was here that we realized that we did not wear enough layers for the subzero temperatures and after exploring the furnaces we headed directly to the nearest Wal-Mart for additional hand warmers and thermal underwear!

On the way back down to the hotel in Lehighton, we made a stop at Mohegan Sun Pocono (formerly Pocono Downs) in Wilkes-Barre for dinner and a little gambling.

You can see the photos from our day in Scranton here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
20
Nov
2015

Norwalk CT Photos

While looking for someplace to stop for a few days on the way back from Kingston in the Catskills, we settled upon Norwalk, Connecticut, a city I’ve driven through/past hundreds of times but never visited. They have a cool aquarium along the waterfront on the Long Island Sound. We also took a boat trip out to Sheffield Island to tour the lighthouse. Our spare time was spent exploring the SONO (South Norwalk) neighborhood where we found some fantastic food. On our way out of town we stopped at the world’s most fun supermarket, Stew Leonard’s. A friend suggested it and you’ll have to look at the photos to really appreciate it as much as I appreciate her telling me about it!

Check out the photos here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates