#TravelTuesday Grattan Bridge Dublin Ireland

The final night of our trip to Ireland we spent in Dublin. It had been a long day of driving across the island. We had left the Ring of Kerry that morning and pulled into our hotel hungry and damp. Evening was approaching and it had brought pockets of rain into the city. It was time to check out the Temple Bar scene. To get there from our hotel required a ten block walk and traversing the River Liffey which divides Dublin into North and South halves. We crossed on the Millennium Bridge which gave us this wonderful view of Grattan Bridge. The Grattan was first erected in the 1600’s but had to be rebuilt a few times due to flooding and maintenance issues. The bridge today dates from 1874. While we were searching for a place to eat the drizzle subsided, and for a few moments the sun poked through the gray sky allowing the picture you see here.

Grattan Bridge Dublin Ireland

Nikon D5100 Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 11mm f/5.6 ISO 100 4 image HDR

Phoenixville Firebird Festival

Each year Phoenixville celebrates it’s namesake by burning down a three story wooden firebird. This was the first time I got to see the spectacle. Visitors come from neighboring cities to enjoy the event. There are street performers, plenty of good food (both from restaurants and vendors) a parade, live music,and a wonderful community spirit. Phoenixville’s original name was Manavon but in 1849 as the borough was incorporated it used the name of the town's biggest employer, the Phoenix Iron Works, to create “Phoenixville”. Since 2004, to celebrate it’s rebirth, the city has held the Firebird Festival. Clay birds are made weeks before the ceremony and placed inside the giant wooden phoenix. They are reclaimed Sunday morning after the burning. Some of the pictures in the gallery are of Spirit Wing, which performed just before the event, and of the Playing Mantis and Admo Ignis fire dancers, which were amazing. Please check out the FirebirdFestival website for more information, and put it on your calendar for next year.

Firebird Festival

Nikon D4 Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 with 1.4 tele @ 280mm f/4 ISO 400 1/320 sec

You can download the images for free but no printing is available

Pearl Harbor and “A date which will live in infamy”

I visited our country’s Pacific naval base many years ago on an orchestra trip. We were returning from a three week tour of China and had a few days in Hawaii on the journey home. I was only fifteen at the time, but I remember the place, haunting but beautiful. I remember looking down in the seawater, watching oil seep to the surface from the sunken Arizona battleship. I remember the Memorial, blazing white in the midday sun. At that time it was difficult for me to understand the attack on my country years before. A strange juxtaposition arose in my mind because at the same time of our stay, the Japanese were remembering the 40th anniversary of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I felt confused about how humans could act so viciously towards other humans, and yet i was passionate about defending our honor. It was a day of awakening in a young boy. A day of grown up questions which had no answers. Please take a moment and reflect on the peace and tranquility of the image below, remembering each human that gave their live to preserve humanity’s path.

Fields in West Chester

Nikon D800 Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm f/20 ISO 100 5 image HDR

Dawn at Blue Marsh Lake

A few months ago I photographed my first triathlon at Blue Marsh Lake which is just Northwest of Reading Pennsylvania. That day it was so cold in the morning that the people in charge of the event called off the swimming part of the race. I was there early and was busy taking pictures of people preparing for the hours of physical exertion ahead, when my attention was pulled to the sun rising in the distance over the lake. The morning was full of fog and mist, but I made note of the location just in case I would find myself there again at that magical hour. Sure enough last week I was able to arise very early and was rewarded with the image you see below. Weeks earlier the water level was much higher. In advance of Hurricane Sandy it was dropped five feet to limit some of the expected flooding. Where the camera snapped away for this nine image HDR (high dynamic range) photograph would have been twenty feet away from shore, three feet under. Which means that this scene will look totally different come Spring. Another photo opportunity :)

Dawn at Blue Marsh Lake

Nikon D800 Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm f/18 ISO 100 9 image HDR