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I love Prague. I love it for it’s whimsical nature. Where else would you find a row of yellow penguins acting as a guide for river boats or a display of statues of babies climbing up a broadcast tower or a statue of Sigmund Freud hanging from a bar outside a second story window in a historic part of town?

They tell you that a good photographic image, a “Fine Arts” image, must tell a story – “They” being photography experts, judges and teachers. While I don’t disagree, I’m not convinced that the story needs to be much deeper than the story of the beauty of a sunset over the Adriatic Sea.

Another thing they tell you is that perspective is important in a good image. I happen to strongly agree with them, which is why I include this images as my third post.

What do you think? Can pictures of graffiti also be art? Graffiti is often art in and of itself. Some graffiti is truly amazing art. Some, of course, is just ugly vandalism.

Regrets. I try not to have regrets. Despite that, I do have a few photography-related regrets. For instance, I regret I wasn’t a more experienced photographer when I was taking pictures on safari in South Africa. I regret I didn’t get out of bed early for an amazing sunrise in Montreal. I regret I waited so long in my life to graduate from snapping pictures to becoming a photographer (the trip to South Africa was when I started to appreciate what it meant to be a photographer).

Dallas has its own area where graffiti and other creative endeavors tend to flourish. It is a section of downtown that is separated from the rest of the city by an unfortunately placed freeway.

Have I mentioned that I love taking photo walks? Given that the vast majority of those walks are in towns and cities, or in this case more of a hamlet, I take a good number of pictures featuring windows and doors and other parts of buildings. I have quite a few such pictures coming in future posts, but I think this one, “Doll House”, is my favorite.

I love water. I love being near water. I love being on water. I love being in water. I love the sound of the surf. I love the smell of the ocean air. I love taking pictures that include water. And despite all of that my family settled in land-locked Dallas, Texas. Go figure.

We’re back in Dallas for this post’s image.

Have you ever had the experience where your expectations for something are completely different from reality? I understand that is often the case the first time people see the Grand Canyon. I’m guessing the Great Wall of China evokes similar feelings.

Contrast.  Contrast can be a strong tool to help an image stand out.  Contrast can be in the colors, tones, textures, or – if you’re lucky – between image’s subjects…

When I first started getting serious about photography, I had a number of pictures that I very much wanted to capture.  Think of it as a bucket list of locations,…

Beauty comes in many forms.  Sometimes it’s presented in grand form as in a breathtaking sunset or a heart-lifting performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  Other times it’s presented in simpler…

In my previous post, I talked about how beauty can come in a grand form, as illustrated by the breathtaking view my wife and I experienced on our drive down…

In the post for “Doll House” I talked about “micro architecture” pictures that I include in my goals for photo walks.  By micro architecture I mean photographs that focus on…

Is it okay for a photographer to have a favorite image? It seems a little unfair to the photographer’s other creations, kind of like a parent having a favorite child…

Sometimes you’re just lucky.  A seemingly random shot while riding a cable car up to Table Mountain turns into an iconic shot. Or at least I think it should be…

The world is full of messages.  Some are made through sound, as in the siren of a first responder or the cry of a hungry baby.  Some are written, as…

Photography, in all its forms, is about capturing light.  The quality and effect of the light depends on many factors.  Indoor light differs from outdoor light.  Light produced by a…

There’s a time of day when the most beautiful natural light makes it possible to take pictures that truly stand out.  It is a fickle time, one that doesn’t always…

Bridges represent some of humankind’s greatest achievements, both in engineering and in architecture and art.  Those elements that make a bridge structurally sound often also lends the bridge beauty.  A…

It’s generally accepted that naturally lit outdoor subjects photograph better in the soft morning or evening light – the light during the golden hour.  Does this mean that we should…

There are times when it’s not possible to head outdoors and rely on natural light for images like Golden Bridge, The Crown Jewel, Concrete and High Noon.  There are times…

The subject of this post’s image is a change of pace. While most of my images come from photo walks in cities, resulting in architecture and city-scape pictures, I also…

It’s easy, when walking through a city’s center – a city’s business district – to see only store fronts, building lobbies, street signs, cars, and – of course – people. It is easy to forget that the city is built in three dimensions.

Some cities – like Singapore – have them because of the heat. Some cities – like Montreal – have them because of the cold. Many cities have them to provide access to the underground Metro stations in their city centers.

Some of nature’s most beautiful creations can become instruments of great destruction.

Sometimes it’s fun to experiment and play around with your craft a little bit. It’s good to try new techniques; go in different directions; break some rules; see where it takes you. And, occasionally, that experimentation results in something surprising, something interesting, something compelling.

I grew up in farm country in north-central Iowa, where the most prevalent focal points are corn fields and soybean fields, with the occasional farmstead dotting the horizon. In the winter it all turns white.

What’s the value in yet another picture of a sunset? Haven’t there been sufficient paintings and drawings and photographs of the sun falling over the horizon, spilling out beautiful hues of reds, oranges, pinks and yellows? Why record yet another instance of the sun saying, “Thank you for another day; here’s a little gift to remind you of the beauty in the world during the dark hours that will come as I get my rest”?

Whimsy is defined as “a fanciful or fantastic device, object or creation, especially in writing or art.”

The simple architecture. The straight lines that pull the viewer into the image. The wood framing the square in which sits the bouquet of flowers. The beautiful simplicity of the pot holding the bouquet. The monochromatic feel of the building contrasting with the pop of colors from the flowers and their pot.

My favorite photographic art usually includes some amount of whimsy, providing a bit of lighthearted balance in a world that can seem overly intense.

When making a portrait, getting the eyes right is crucial.

The Sun Life Building in downtown Montreal, was built in three phases, starting around 1913 and finishing with the twenty-four-story tower in 1931.

It’s a river that flows through some breathtakingly beautiful stretches of central Europe.

Would you go out of your way to visit an island named for universally hated rodents with long tails, seemingly razor-sharp teeth and beady, glow-in-the-dark eyes?

Humankind continues to reach for the sky, building structures to maximize the space utilization in areas identified as centers of commerce.

There’s a natural tension between the need to preserve history and the need to make progress. A tension between culture and commerce.

In the world before plastics, toys were made of wood, metals, rubber and cloth.

The nymph, wearing the golden chaplet and raising the golden torch, frames the Eiffel Tower, which is transformed into golden beauty by the golden sunset over the Seine in golden Paris.

Certain places are so over exposed, so over-represented on travel and photography sites that there is a danger photographers will overlook these views while seeking more unique perspectives.

Contrast – “The state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition or close association.”

While I was in college, I bought my first art book, a collection of the works of Maurits Cornelis (M. C.) Escher.