Tuesday (15-May-2018) — Japan

Gone to See Japan. Travel New Jersey to Tokyo.

The direct flight from New Jersey to Tokyo was long. I’ve never been on a 12+ hour flight before, and upgraded so I would have more leg room. I selected a window seat since the polar route was going over Canada, Alaska, and Russia — and hoped to take some images of the ground (weather permitting). Unfortunately, my “window seat” didn’t have a window. ARRG! One interesting note is that the seats on the plane had shoulder seat belts that we were supposed to wear during takeoff and landing. Once we arrived at the Narita Airport, the queues through immigration and customs were quick and efficient. It appeared that women got an extra metal detecting hand wand exam looking for gold bullion while passing through customs. I got a limo-bus ticket from Narita to the Keio Plaza hotel in the Shinjutu district of Tokyo (3100 Yen). The bus ride took a little over 1 hour. After arriving and checking in at the hotel I did a short walkabout where I saw many Azalea flowers in bloom. I used to have Azalea shrubs and flowers around my house, but the deer ate them to death.


Red Azalea Flowers. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens. (David J Mathre)
Red Azalea Flowers. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens. (David J Mathre)

Monday (23-April-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime in New Jersey.

The temperatures have warmed a bit, so it is time to get started on the red-brick walkway around the house. The path was laid out last fall with gravel and fine stone dust. The Japanese Andromeda shrub is in bloom. This, and the daffodils are some of the few flowers ignored by the ravenous deer.



Eleven-Years Ago (26-March-2007) — Illinois

Gone to See America 2007. Springtime in Chicago.

Walkabout in Millennium Park during time off from the American Chemical Society spring national meeting. The “Cloud Gate” also known as “The Bean” is quite an attraction. I was able to take a mirror “selfie” with the city in the background. Someday, I would like to go back and do a time-lapse video of people interacting with the sculpture. The images in the two slide-shows have been reprocessed using new software. Individual images can be viewed here. Let me know if you find the two out-of-place images.



Four-Years Ago (15-March-2014) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2014 – Winter Photography Workshop. Day 7: Golden Circle.

Svartsengi geothermal power plant near the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens. Between Geothermal and Hydroelectric power more electricity is generated than needed by the 340K residents of Iceland. The excess power is used by a couple of aluminum smelting plants, and more recently by bitcoin miners. I heard a report on the news that 600 computers specially configured with multiple video processors for bitcoin mining were stolen from a warehouse data center in Iceland. Need to follow where the power is being used…

Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant Near the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant Near the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Trolls Lair. Moss Covered Lava Field Just Outside the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Composite of 3 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/11). Google HDR Efex Pro. (David J Mathre)
Trolls Lair. Moss Covered Lava Field Just Outside the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Composite of 3 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/11). Google HDR Efex Pro. (David J Mathre)

Three-Years Ago (14-March-2015) — Chile

Gone to See Patagonia 2015 Photography Tour with Thom Hogan. Day 13: Hotel Lago Grey to Hotel Las Torres. Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.

It was a long day. I got up early to check out dawn and sunrise before we departed Hotel Lago Grey. We got on the bus and started the drive to Hotel Las Torres. There were many stops to get panorama images — of the mountains, the lakes, the rainbows, the clouds. We stopped for a long time at Mirador Salto Grande (lookout for the grand waterfall). This has to be one of the windiest places on earth. We then hiked to Mirador Cuernos. During the hike we passed a forest of dead trees. The story behind the forest fire that killed the trees was a hiker that was trying to burn his toilet paper. As we got closer to the Cuernos del Pain (granite horns) we can across a group of Guanaco. After that we got back on the bus. We stopped for a bit at the old bridge, where our guide Rob did some wire-walking. We finally ended the day at Hotel Las Torres.

Individual images from the slide-shows can be viewed here.