A Gloomy Day on Sutton Place

These exclusive Sutton Place balconies have
a great view over the East River, but all 
the money in the world can't make the
clouds go away. I don't even care; I can't afford
this view anyway, and I'm having too much fun 
playing with the new camera app on my iPhone.

[It's Skywatch Friday. To see more skies, go here.
And you can head to the Marais here, 
on my monthly Paris blog.]

On the Rialto

This fish market in Venice is one of my favorite places to take photos.  

Best time to do that is very early in the morning, before the 

market actually opens. The guy on the far right was there 

for the same reason I was—but he had a real camera.
I recently heard a nasty rumor that some folks want to 
move this market to the mainland. I wonder whose very bad
 idea that was (and I wonder how I could stop them, if ever)!

This week's Thursday Photo Challenge is "red" and 
the theme for Theme Thursday is "wonder."
  

ABC Wednesday—G is for "Galapagos"

These well-tended—by which I mean aggressively
left in peace, if that's not too much of an oxymoron—
volcanic islands have to be the most incredible
place I've ever had the privilege to visit.
(I'm pretty sure I'll be back for the letters H and I.)
What you see here in the foreground is an
ancient volcano that's now under water.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]
 

Ruby Tuesday

These cactus flowers bloom in the desert
habitat at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  I don't
know what they are but they're native to Africa
(and those stalks are at least six feet tall).

[To see more Ruby Tuesday posts, go here. To see
more February flowers, visit Tina's Picstory.]

well-protected

I seriously doubt that any desert creatures
would try to munch on these tiny cactus
blooms—not more than once anyway.

[To see more Mellow Yellows, go here.
To see more macros, visit Lisa's Chaos.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's world-class bonsai
collection includes about 350 trees, with 30 or
so on display at any one time. This lovely Japanese
apricot (Prunus mume)—though the flowers are usually
called plum blossoms—is a mid-winter bloomer.

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.] 

The Weekend in Black and White

It was the perfect Saturday morning to stay
all warm and snuggly in bed.  Instead, I just had to get
up and throw a window open so I could take this picture.

[To see more monochromes by more obsessed
people, visit Dragonstar's meme.] 

Skywatch Friday

Apparently, I'm not done pilfering photos from
my kids' recent trip to Antarctica.  But can you blame
me?  This spectacular sunset (not that it ever completely
sets there at this time of year) was shot by my daughter Lila.

[To see more Skywatch shots, go here.
To see more things that are orange, visit
Orange You Glad It's Friday.]

You must remember this . . .

A little over 35 years ago, I took my
first trip to Rome, armed with my trusty
SLR camera and plenty of Kodachrome.
(And back then, I wasn't even winded
when I got up here to the top of St. Peter's!)

[The theme for this Thursday Photo Challenge
is "photography."  To see more, go here.]

ABC Wednesday—F is for "fabric"

This brilliant batch of fabric was for sale
at the huge market in Otavalo, Ecuador.
Beautiful—though I did find the array 
of choices a bit overwhelming!

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Tina's Picstory—"roofs"

My favorite view of my favorite
rooftops—partly because the ET has no 
competition from any modern "skyscrapers."
But to get this exact view, you have to visit the
Centre Pompidou (not my fave Paris museum).

[To see more roofs, visit Tina's Picstory.]

Blue Monday

My favorite time of day—l'heure bleu.  I enjoyed
this blue hour while sailing around the Galapagos.
(Still can't believe I'm able to say that!)

[To see more shots that feature the color
blue, visit Smiling Sally's meme.] 

A tree . . . and me

What looks like a warm, sunny day was
actually a bitter-cold (sunny) day.  I'm all bundled
up; as for the poor naked tree, every time the
wind kicked up, it looked like it was shivering!

[It's Shadow Shot Sunday.  To see more, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

This is a detail of Giambologna's "Ocean."
It was completed in 1576, and now
stands in the Bargello museum, in Florence.
He really made the marble "live," didn't he?

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme]

The sky at the bottom of the world

At first glance this looks like a mountain
range with a fairly flat top—but look again,
 because those are clouds rolling over those peaks!

See?  This amazing Antarctic sky
was captured by my daughter Lila.

[To see more Skywatch pics, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"round"

I actually snapped this big, round rising moon
back in August when I was out in Montauk (the name
of Long Island's primary Native American tribe).
The August moon got its name (the sturgeon moon)
from fishing tribes, but I prefer its secondary name:
the red moon.  Very fitting and much more
romantic—Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, visit Dale's meme.]

ABC Wednesday—E is for "eligible"

According to my daughter Kate, who took this
shot of an Adélie penguin in Antarctica, here's
the penguin equivalent of match.com.  This bird is
puttin' out the word: I'm free and I'm looking!
(Must say, the others seem a bit underwhelmed. . . . Hope
you all have better luck with your Valentine tomorrow.)

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Along the fence

There are fences . . .  and there are fences.  If you
walk along this one, you just might make a friend—
especially if you carry peppermints in your pocket.

[To see more fences, visit Tina's Picstory.]

Mellow Yellow/Macro Monday

I had such a hard time shooting this orchid!
It grows in one of the indoor habitats at the Brooklyn
Botanic Garden.  It was freezing outside and at least
80°F in there, and it was all I could do to keep my glasses
and my camera lens unfogged.  Can't tell you what kind
of orchid this is, but it's about the size of a wine glass.

[To see more Mellow Yellows, go here.
To see more macro shots, visit Lisa's Chaos.]

Going Sledding

Here in Brooklyn, we made it through the
snowstorm and woke up yesterday to
sunny skies and perfect sledding weather.

Apparently a lot of us had the same idea.
No, I did not join in. The last time—and I
 do mean last—I went sledding (right here in
Prospect Park), I literally broke my butt!

[Today is Shadow Shot Sunday. To
see more Sunday shadows, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

It's unusual to find this colonnade empty
because it leads directly to the courtyard of
the Louvre, the most-visited museum in the
world—more than 8 million people per year
(equivalent to almost the entire population of
all five boroughs of New York City).

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme.]

Storm clouds in BA

Sometimes I just love what a cell-phone camera can capture
(as in this retro-looking pic by my daughter Lila).
This beautiful 1917 Art Nouveau building in Buenos Aires,
right across the street from the Argentine National Congress,
housed a famous coffeehouse, the Confiteria del Molino.
The whole place is badly in need of restoration—and lots of
people have lobbied to bring this National Historic Monument
back before it falls into a permanent state of disrepair.

[To see more Skywatch pics, go here.]  

Thursday Challenge—"best of 2012"

This is not the shot that got the biggest response
from visitors to my blog, but of all the thousands
of pictures I took last year, I think this one of a
Galapagos hawk is my absolute fave—maybe because
it's a special souvenir of a once-in-a-lifetime trip, maybe
because this bird let me get up close and personal.  I did
zoom in a little bit here, but was still standing close 
enough to touch him when I snapped this picture!

[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, visit Dale's meme.]

ABC Wednesday—D is for "Duty-Free"

This overpriced (duty-free or not) little item
would make an interesting addition to my
Eiffel Tower collection.  So did I buy it?
I did not—fortunately, someone already
gave me one of these.  I never shop the
Duty Free; I hang on to my leftover euros
and just assume I'll be back.  So far, so good.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Lila X 17

This photo of my daughter Lila was taken by her 
loving younger sister, Katie—whose birthday is 
today.  Here's the turn-around shot of the beautiful 
b-day girl, featured lately on my other blog.

[To see more shots that feature the
letter L, visit Tina's Picstory.]

Mellow Yellows/Macro Monday

Yesterday, I showed a shot taken in my fave garden on
a very cold day.  Turns out most of the visitors were in
one of the garden's indoor habitats: desert, tropical,
aquatic, bonsai, and this one: warm temperate—where
these bright yellow Cape cowslips were in bloom.

[To see more Monday Mellow Yellows, go here.
To see more macros, visit Lisa's Chaos.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

When I went to visit my "backyard" garden (Brooklyn
Botanic) recently on a sunny but very cold day, it may
have been the very first time I was able to take photos in the
pretty little lakeside pavilion of their Japanese garden
with not another soul around to wander into my shot.

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

Looking up at this canopy of palms, I could
almost believe I'm in some lush tropical
place—and not a few short blocks from home
(and indoors) at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme.]