Work took me to Philadelphia last month and I was able to go a day early to explore the City. The weather was perfect for walking so I explored on foot, hitting the famous sites and neighborhoods in between.
Philly felt like a mini-NYC. An older city mixed with modern design and a lot of American history, yet smaller and more easily explored in just a couple of days.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Late winter is always is “go” time for me – the days are growing longer and it won’t be long until the snow melts and my opportunity for winter photography has passed for the season. With each new snow, I more anxiously plan and work to get outside in the right location at the right time.
Photographing in winter, and snow specifically, can have such a short window with each storm. Go in the midst of it and there may be too much snow falling to see anything. Go too far after it has stopped, and it could be tracked over, fallen off trees or structures, or even melted away.
The photos here are from two such late-season outings. One from Rocky Mountain National Park and one of the bison at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
(And to think, I almost made it through the winter without sharing photos of bison in snow.)
Salida means ‘exit’ in Spanish and the Colorado town was given that name for the Arkansas River’s exit out of one valley and into another canyon. Today it seems Salida is anything but an exit, but rather than entrance into central Colorado.
The town itself, the largest historic district in the State and once a stagecoach and railroad stop, has transformed itself into an arts and outdoor mecca. In town, galleries dot the streets, and outdoor activities exist in town and in the surrounding mountains. Hiking, including nearby 14ers (peaks over 14k feet), whitewater boating, mountain biking, skiing, fishing… well, pretty much anything.
Somehow this turned into an advertisement for Salida, which it wasn’t intended, but easy to do. We make an annual winter trip there to ski and this year extended our stay to a week allowing for more time out with the camera. Below are a few highlights.
Part II of our fall trip.
The Faroes has been a bucket-list destination for me for years, and while I love Iceland, truth be told, the Faroe Islands was the reason for this trip. We had to fly through somewhere to get there and I’ll never pass up the opportunity for more time in Iceland.
If you don’t know much about the Faroe Islands, you’re not alone. Probably the question we most received before (and after) the trip is, “where?” So, a quick primer: The Faroes are a group of islands (18) between Iceland and Norway (you can probably already tell why I wanted to go since those two are among my favorite trips ever). They are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, though self-governing since just after WWII. Fishing is the main industry and there are more sheep than people (~50K people, ~70k sheep), though tourism, pre-COVID, is increasing.
And you may start to hear more about them. Tourism is growing and they continually have tourism campaigns that get international attention. For example, Sheepview, which was their petition to Google to add Streetview to their country (Google initially declined, but all the press changed their minds).
The landscapes are stunning with mountains running into the sea, and the often poor weather only adds to the dramatic views, though also making it challenging to get outside sometimes (we spent two days inside due to weather). It just made the good weather days all the more rewarding.
In 2020 I started keeping track of how many photos I actually took, and in 2021 I kept at it and even added to it a bit, keeping track by type of outing (wildlife, landscape, around town, etc.).
While looking back at my favorite photos tells part of the story of the year for me, looking at the numbers is equally fun – at least for me. 🙂
So, how did 2021 turn out?
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