Do Lights Ruin or Enhance Your Photographs?

On November 13, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge2 Comments

For the most part, we try to avoid getting street lights or other lights in our photographs, especially during the day. Obviously it gets much harder to avoid them as the sun starts to go down and often they are useful to help illuminate the subject of the photograph. The issue, of course, is that you can’t control the amount of light being emitted and sometimes the light grabs your attention more than the focal point of the picture. As we’ve said many times, we’re not professional photographers, but just point and click with varied results. On some occasions we have actively focused on a light because we simply found it to be an interesting subject. We have included several photographs here as examples, but what do you think about taking photos with lights in them?

Fountain Lights in Piazza Navona in Rome

Trying to Take a Picture of a Hummingbird

Getting the Job Done

On November 6, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge5 Comments

For many reasons, we love to memorialize the inventions and tools that people have used to do their jobs throughout history. With all of today’s computing and machine power, seeing the tools of the past makes you realize how fortunate we truly are these days. We have seen displays of working conditions in a variety of countries and they are all very interesting. We have taken photographs of many of them and looking back at them, it is kind of fascinating that the pictures almost capture a sense of dreariness that must have truly existed at the time. In fact, some of them are almost downright creepy.

Everyone Loves a Historic Castle

On October 16, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn England, Germany, Photo Challenge, Romania, Spain6 Comments

In just about every city in Europe it seems that you will find a palace, cathedral, and a castle. Obviously, these fortifications were an important defense system for the local citizens and for the country as a whole. Although many of them are in various states of disrepair, a majority of them have been restored to their original grandeur. Regardless of their condition, travelers flock to these grand locations and some of them have even been converted into hotels. A few of them have that fairytale feel that create images of princesses meeting their prince charming, but conditions were likely not nearly as nice as the romantic images of films and books.

Although we certainly have many more castles to visit, we have enjoyed seeing the ones that we have. Just like choosing a favorite location isn’t really possible, we aren’t able to pick our favorite castle. Could it be the first castle we ever visited, Warwick Castle in England, or could it be Bran Castle in Romania with its ties to Dracula? Perhaps Heidelberg Castle in Germany would be our favorite with its idyllic scenery? The Alhambra Palace and Fortress is also something special to see with its Islamic architecture. Whether you have a favorite castle or not, it is likely that you have seen many of them during your travels. Maybe our favorite will be the next one that we discover on a future trip.