Mar 122014
 

According to Wikipedia, the Ponte Vecchio is “a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge”. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I thought I’d fill you in just the same.

About ten years ago I had dinner with my family in a restaurant “Golden View” across the river from here. I stayed behind after dinner, with my girlfriend at the time, and wound up playing the piano there. That resulted in the waiter providing us with complimentary champagne, strawberries and cream before driving us back to our hotel out in the countryside!

I planned on trying that trick again on this trip, but never made it across the river.

ponte vecchio in florence on a beautiful cotton candy cloud morning

Mar 092014
 

You don’t typically expect blue skies in London, particularly not in January, but I got lucky for a weekend. It was bloody cold though. I’m to Chicago next week, doubtful I’ll bring the camera though, as I’m there for a three day bachelor party.

Big ben in the early morning, London

 

Feb 222014
 

Sticking with yesterday’s theme of photos of street lights, similar to those you’ve seen before, here’s a tighter version of Westminster from across the Thames in the wee hours of the morning.

Westminster houses of parliament and big ben viewed from the south bank of the thames, London

Feb 162014
 

I managed to get up early enough, and drag myself out into the cold to get to Westminster before sunrise. When I set up this shot, I stood around for quite a while waiting because I thought the clouds behind Big Ben might do something interesting as the sun peeked over the horizon. They never lit up, but I think this photo has a nice moodiness about it.

westminster housesof parliament and big ben early morning from across the calm thames in London

Mar 192013
 

This is another shot from my 12 hour layover in London on my way to South Africa. This was actually taken on New Years Eve. I wondered if they’d mark midnight in some way while on the plane. Sure enough, I woke up, parched, to be offered what I thought was water – it was still dark and most people remained asleep. As I took a sip, I was shocked to discover that it was actually champagne.

3 double decker buses cross Tower Bridge on an overcast day in London

Feb 042013
 

My first trip to Africa was entirely inspired by a forwarded e-mail showing people swimming in the Devil’s Pool right on the edge of Victoria Falls. In order to do this we had to go at low water, which was an incredible experience. However, I can safely say that a return at high water was necessary to truly appreciate the grandeur of the falls.

Where you can see the fall in this picture is where we walked across the last time we were here, it was bone dry. This time, mist swirled everywhere and it didn’t take long for me to get completely soaked.

A rainbow arcs across Victoria Falls and the Livingstone bridge at high water in Zambia

Jan 102013
 

The architecture around London is really quite fascinating. Old structures are juxtaposed against ultra modern designs all over the place. This photo, comparing the egg-shaped city hall to Tower Bridge helps to get this point across.

I took this photo between overnight flights on my way to Capetown. I managed to get my camera set up on my tripod all set up ready to take bracketed photos when I saw a security guard approaching out of the corner of my eye. As he got closer I hit the shutter button and as I spoke with him my camera worked away getting what I needed. Once I convinced him I was just a tourist he was satisfied and asked me not to take photos of the reception in the building.

A view of London City Hall with Tower Bridge in the background

 

Jan 042013
 

We came to this bridge and as it wrapped around us, I decided I wanted to try and capture that, so I called for my driver to reverse. We could see a car coming up the single lane road behind us, but it was a distance away. You find you can see cars on the same road as you from a long way away in Iceland pretty often. Still, I felt the pressure as we were blocking the road. So much so, that I took this photo barefoot. The road was freezing. I don’t think I stopped hopping from foot to foot the whole time.

The view as you drive onto a suspension bridge in Iceland