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Port De Nuit

September 20, 2013 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment

This image captures the essence of the harbor of Honfleur at night. While strolling through the city center you smell the seaside air, hear the Boats gently rocking in the placid harbor, and peer through the night to admire the dimly lit architecture.

The small sheltered harbor of Honfleur is a timewarp into the past of France’s seafaring history. Very narrow yet tall buildings of the town square were built in a time when France charged property taxes based on the footprint of your home. So instead of building out, local residents built up.

From Wikipedia:

Honfleur is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. Its inhabitants are called Honfleurais.
It is especially known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell tower separate from the principal building, is the largest church made out of wood in France.
Filed Under: 2013 Show, Blog, Cities/Towns, Coastal, Europe, Nightime

South Island Sunset

September 20, 2013 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment

WestCoastSunset copy

New Zealand is is a country of vast open spaces and is largely un-populated. The country’s  makeup is small towns strung together by twisting mountain roads and one lane bridges. The rugged west coast of the South Island is predominately undeveloped with a single 2 lane road clinging for life to the mountainside cliffs. This image is looking west from the volcanic shores of the south island. Extraordinary to be sure…but an everyday sight for the locals.

From Wikipedia: New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal, fungal and plant life; most notable are the large number of unique bird species. The country’s varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions.

If you are interested in exploring the possibility of ordering a print, please contact me for details.

Notes: These are low resolution images and I apologize for the watermark signature on my photographs as I feel it detracts from enjoying the image. However, with the ease of image piracy on-line they are necessary evils. You may also want to read my color post as images can be very different from what you see on the monitor.

Filed Under: 2013 Show, Blog, Coastal, Sunrise/Sunset

Tour Eiffel Illuminee

September 20, 2013 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment

Eiffel Tower Illuminated

The Eiffel Tower needs no introduction. The sentinel of Paris, it’s visible from almost anywhere from miles around. At night, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower is illuminated by countless flashing strobes creating a mystique that only enhances the romance of Paris at night.

From Wikipedia:

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris[10] and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-floor building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 17 feet (5.2 m). Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, [tuʁ ɛfɛl]) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris[10] and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-floor building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 17 feet (5.2 m). Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

If you are interested in exploring the possibility of ordering a print, please contact me for details.

Notes: These are low resolution images and I apologize for the watermark signature on my photographs as I feel it detracts from enjoying the image. However, with the ease of image piracy on-line they are necessary evils. You may also want to read my color post as images can be very different from what you see on the monitor.

Filed Under: 2013 Show, Black & Whites, Blog, Cities/Towns, Europe, Nightime

Aspen Window

September 20, 2013 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment

Aspens are regaled for their shimmering leaves in breezes of summer, vibrant golds and oranges in fall, and branch-less trunks (ideal to ski through) making them as much a symbol of Colorado as the Rockies themselves. As I  hike through the mountains in the fall, I’m often struck when looking into a grove of aspens: From the interesting designs on the tree trunks, to the depths of the uniformity of the trunks.

From Wikipedia: (Aspens) typically grow in large clonal colonies derived from a single seedling, and spreading by means of root suckers; new stems in the colony may appear at up to 30–40 metres from the previous trees. Each individual tree can live for 40–150 years above ground, but the root system of the colony is long-lived, sending up new trunks as the older trunks die off above ground, spreading about a metre per year, sometimes eventually covering many hectares. They are able to survive forest fires because the roots are below the heat of the fire, and new sprouts can grow from the roots. One such colony of American aspen (P. tremuloides) in Utah, given the nickname of “Pando”, is estimated to be 80,000 years old, making it possibly the oldest living colony of aspens.

If you are interested in exploring the possibility of ordering a print, please contact me for details.

Notes: These are low resolution images and I apologize for the watermark signature on my photographs as I feel it detracts from enjoying the image. However, with the ease of image piracy on-line they are necessary evils. You may also want to read my color post as images can be very different from what you see on the monitor.

Filed Under: Colorado, 2013 Show, Abstract, Blog, Fall, Flora

Il Grande Canal

October 15, 2012 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment
The Grande Canal

Venice is not a city that can be described but must be experienced. Boats crowd main canals as tight as cars on highways. Police boats, fire boats, ambulance boats, even delivery “truck” boats replace their 4 wheeled counterparts while the back “alleys” or smaller canals are littered with gondoliers or residents boats moored in the narrow waterways.

In the fall, Venice floods daily with the tides and the city doesn’t skip a beat. Elevated walkways are set out for the tourists to clamber onto while the citizens just pull on their galoshes and continue with their day as if nothing is happening.

Venice is a city of twisty narrow corridors and tiny shops. While the main squares and corridors have a bit of a tourist trap feel to them, the back alleys, tiny restaurants, and shops have an oddly safe feel to them and an authenticity that is pure Italy.

Excerpts From Wikipedia:  Venice (Italian: Venezia) is a city in northeast Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as a World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon.

The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC.  The city historically was the capital of the Venetian Republic. Venice has been known as the “La Dominante”, “Serenissima”, “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Masks”, “City of Bridges”, “The Floating City”, and “City of Canals”. Luigi Barzini described it in The New York Times as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”. Venice has also been described by the Times Online as being one of Europe’s most romantic cities.

The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of commerce (especially silk, grain, and spice) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period. Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi.
Filed Under: 2013 Show, Cities/Towns, Coastal, Europe, Nightime

Vineyards In Autumn

October 1, 2012 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment

Napa Fall
While driving through wine country in the fall, you often come across picturesque vistas such as this one. Stunning colors, low hanging clouds, various backdrops and historic buildings dotting the landscape making Napa a photographers and sightseers paradise.
The joy of experiencing Napa is one for all the senses. Enjoyed through the feel of being nestled an agricultural valley that ignited the American wine movement, the floral smells of the seasons lofting through the air, the taste of intricate cuisines and wines teasing your palate, and the sound of quiet country roads interrupted by the calls of local wildlife.
Excerpts taken from Wikipedia.org:
Napa County is a county located north of San Pablo Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is officially one of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties, and one of four North Bay counties. Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county’s territory were given to Lake County in 1861. The word napa is of Native American origin and has been variously translated as “grizzly bear”, “house”, “motherland”, and “fish”. Of the many explanations of the name’s origin, the most plausible seems to be that it is derived from the Patwin word napo meaning house, although local residents will often cite an urban legend that gives the translation as “you will always return”.
Napa County, once the producer of many different crops, is known today for its wine industry, rising in the 1960s to the first rank of wine regions with France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Napa is warmer in the summer than Sonoma County to the west or Santa Barbara County, a wine-producing county in southern California. Thus, the Napa wineries favor varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon. Napa County is home to a variety of flora and fauna including numerous rare and endangered species such as Tiburon Indian paintbrush and Contra Costa goldfields.
Filed Under: 2013 Show, Fall, Wine Country

Ashcroft Fall

September 26, 2012 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment
Ghost Town Fall

Ghost Town Fall

This image was taken in the ghost town of Ashcroft just outside Aspen CO in September 2012.

From http://www.heritageaspen.org/ac.html

In the spring of 1880, prospectors Charles B. Culver and W. F. Coxhead left the boomtown of Leadville to search for silver deposits in the Castle Creek Valley. After vigorously promoting their findings back in Leadville, Coxhead returned to find 23 more prospectors had joined “Crazy Culver” in the camp they named Castle Forks City.
They formed a Miner’s Protective Association, built a court house, and laid out the streets in only two weeks. Each of the Association’s 97 members paid $5—or one day’s work and $1—to draw for building lots. By 1883, the camp, now called Ashcroft, was a town with a population of perhaps 2,000 with two newspapers, a school, sawmills, a small smelter, and 20 saloons—bigger than Aspen and closer to the railroad in Crested Butte.
As quickly as it boomed, Ashcroft went bust. The mines, which initially produced an amazing 14,000 ounces of silver to the ton, were just shallow deposits. Promised rail links to Crested Butte never materialized. Major strikes in Aspen, already the county seat, lured away investors and workers.
By 1885 there were just 100 summer residents and $5.60 in the town’s coffers. Only a handful of aging, single men made Ashcroft their home by the turn of the century. They all owned mining claims, but spent their time hunting, fishing, reading and drinking in Dan McArthur’s bar. They told stories in exchange for drinks and served as an informal employment service, matching sporadic work at the remaining mines above Ashcroft with an unstable work force.
Every four years they elected municipal officers from among themselves. “Judge” Jack Leahy—who died in 1939—was the last of the original citizens. He cultivated a reputation as a scholar and legal expert and wrote long, melodramatic poetry. Historian Jon Coleman calls these men “prospectors with dismal prospects, boosters with nothing to promote, and town fathers with no children.”
In the 1930s there was a new flurry of interest in Ashcroft, this time by international sportsman Ted Ryan and his partner Billy Fiske, captain of America’s gold medal Olympic bobsled team. They built the Highland-Bavarian Lodge (north of Ashcroft on Castle Creek Road) and planned a European-style ski resort in Ashcroft with an aerial tramway up Mount Hayden.
World War II put an end to their plans. Fiske died in combat and Ryan leased Ashcroft to the army for $1 a year. The 10th Mountain Division, America’s soldiers on skis, used Ashcroft for mountaineering training in the summer of 1942. After the war, ski area development moved to Aspen, and Ryan later deeded the site to the United States Forest Service.
In 1948, Stuart Mace, a veteran of W.W.II and commander of a canine division, brought his family and dog sled operation to Ashcroft. Mace and his Toklat huskies were featured in the popular 1950s TV series Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. The ghost town was fitted with false fronts to create a Canadian set.
Given use of five acres in exchange for caretaking on behalf of the Highland-Bavarian’s remaining holdings, Mace devoted the rest of his life to protecting the area from development and restoring the ecology. In 1974, he was joined in that effort by the Aspen Historical Society. Under the direction of Ramona Markalunas, Ashcroft became a National Register Historic Site, and the Aspen Historical Society received the first U.S.F.S. permit ever granted to a historical society to preserve and interpret a ghost town.
Filed Under: Colorado, 2013 Show, Blog, Fall, Mountains, Ruins/Relics

Cascading Falls

May 5, 2011 By Peter Olson Leave a Comment

The lush landscape, moss covered boulders, and enveloping pines of this photograph exemplify the beauty that is the Cascade mountain range of southern Oregon.

With 272-foot Watson Falls looming in the background, this section of Watson creek exemplifies the Umpqua River valley which is listed as one of the most scenic places in America.  Watson Creek is a tributary of the North Umpqua River in Oregon.

If you are interested in exploring the possibility of ordering a print, please contact me for details. All photographs are limited to 500 reproductions.

Notes: These are low resolution images and I apologize for the watermark signature on my photographs as I feel it detracts from enjoying the image. However, with the ease of image piracy on-line they are necessary evils. You may also want to read my color post as images can be very different from what you see on the monitor.

Filed Under: 2013 Show, Flora, Lakes/Rivers, Spring/Summer, Waterfall