This panorama was taken from the deck of the USS Yorktown, a decommissioned US Navy Aircraft Carrier. The boats in the photo are all moored at Charleston Harbor Marina in Mount Pleasant, just across the harbor from downtown Charleston. If you look on the horizon just to the left of the red-roofed building (the Charleston Harbor Resort), you can see Fort Sumter.
I think the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon is to eat and drink your way through London's Borough Market but a close second is a stroll through Paris' famed Parc du Luxembourg.
If we're to believe his memoirs, a much younger, much poorer Hemingway used to hide out in the park until the guards left at night and kill doves with slingshots to feed his family while he was getting started on his craft. If it's good enough for Hem', it's good enough for me!
This photograph was captured with a Nikon D90.
I have a friend who really wants to take 3 weeks off of work and hike to the basecamp at Everest for his 40th birthday. This is probably as close as I'll get to making that trip with him. This is a photograph of Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The Imagineers at Disney do such a great job making sure sight lines are just perfect everywhere you go. If a ride is visible in the background, they make sure it's framed perfectly.
This photograph was captured with a Nikon D90.
Generally, I try not to stand in the frame when I'm taking photographs. Usually when I do, you can see me scowling back at the camera or looking down at the screen completely oblivious to the fact that I'm photographing myself. In this case, I actually managed to smile so I thought I'd share it!
This is a pub appropriately named 5506' at the top of Beech Mountain Ski Resort and is open most of the year (the resort turns into a Mountain Biking paradise in the Summer). Beech Mountain is the highest town east of the Rockies and this pub is right at the top so I think it can probably lay claim to the title of "Highest Pub on the East Coast." It's also part of Beech Mountain Brewing Company, which brews in the ski village so they have great craft beer on tap.
If you'd like to check out the pub for yourself, rent out Slopeside for a weekend, it's in the ski village and is a nice hike or quick chairlift ride away from 5506'.
This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone that just happens to be on sale $340 off at the moment!
Happy Friday! Last weekend in Charlotte was pretty stormy. When I got to work early Monday morning, the dark skies were finally breaking and the clouds were absolutely flying through the city. It was almost like looking out of the window of an airplane... except the clouds were moving around us. I put the drone up for a few quick shots. This is the first of several that I'll be posting over the next few months.
This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone that just happens to be on sale $340 off at the moment!
Until I have the opportunity to travel to Ireland, the lush green of the North Carolina Highlands will have to suffice for my St. Patrick's Day photo. I love the way all of the trees blend together into one giant mass, painting the mountains in green. I guess I was still thinking about Bob Ross when I named this one so here comes the quote...
“Spend some time talking with the trees.”
This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 2 with a GoPro Hero 3+ Black camera.
I've written about North Wilkesboro Speedway in the past. This is another photo in the series showing the old Winston Cup Series track. Some day, somebody is going to do right by this piece of history and breathe new life into it.
This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone that just happens to be on sale $340 off at the moment!
This is a reticulated giraffe, also known as a Somali giraffe. It is native to Somalia and parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. It can also be found living on the "African savanna" at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The Wildlife adventure at Disney's Animal Kingdom really is fantastic. It's sort of like Wall-E meets a traditional zoo as they drive you around in an expedition vehicle through a recreation of various African habitats. Despite clever — and often natural — fence-like dividers between each group of animals, you still feel more like you are in a cage and the animals are out in the wild as you lumber through.
If only they'd let the cheetahs out to chase down a gazelle or zebra once in a while to keep things real! They say danger helps burn certain memories in our minds... that would be one way to ensure the younger kids don't forget their first time to Walt Disney World!
This photograph was captured with a Nikon D90.
Go to a park in the United States and you're likely to find some empty beer cans down by the river. Go to a park in Paris — make that the park in Paris — and you find half-full bottles of wine sitting at the feet of famed statues. I'm not sure if this was the result of a 3-bottle picnic lunch that just couldn't be finished or if something more sinister was going on. What if it was an offering to the statue? I think this warrants a little more research...
This photograph was captured with a Nikon D90.
We spent a long weekend in Secrets at Playa Mujeres last year and had a great time! The days were bright and beautiful but so were the sunsets. On this particular night, the clouds rolled in with the sun at the end of the day and they filtered the light beautifully.
This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone that just happens to be on sale $260 off at the moment!