Day 1: We arrived in Florence city center late Sunday afternoon to torrential downpour and thunder storm and after checking into our hotel, decided to immediately tour the city on foot, just long enough to wean ourselves from the jet lag. Along the way and in between the downpour, we experienced the following: {Photos are the property of http://www.rawsilkandsaffron.wordpress.com and may not be used without permission}
These days when I look at myself in photos, I nearly cringe at the fact, I am no longer photogenic. Call it age, or call it wearing my heart out on my sleeve. Photos don’t lie no matter how hard we try. So, while interviewing photographers a couple of months ago for a wedding shoot, I contemplated the idea of having a fantasy photo shoot scheduled for myself, where I could pose as such: (I have put it on my bucket list. :))
I love travelling by train while vacationing throughout Europe, so I figured it would be nice to do the same on Amtrak (USA) while escaping to the suburbs this past weekend, to visit one of my favorite gals on earth. So, I bought a round trip ticket and after work on Friday, I took the bus in San Francisco to the train station in Emeryville,( just past the Bay Bridge) for my trip to Sacramento. The only problem with Amtrak is that, while it stops in most metropolitan cities, getting to the neighboring towns is really difficult unless there is a person picking you up on the other end or there is a connecting bus which is available to drop you off somewhere close to your destination. Anyway, I got sidetracked. But the reason for this blog entry is to share with you some of the photographs I snapped while the train was in motion (about 50 MPH to be exact) on the way to and from Sacramento. But after I uploaded the photos unto …
Despite the fog throughout most of the summer in San Francisco, there are occasional days when the sun breaks through and everyone in the city heads out to the coast, just to get a glimpse of the ocean. Lucky for me, this once in a blue moon event happened on Saturday past and I was able to go on my usual walk along the coast and capture some breath taking photographs with my cell phone (of course). {click on the first photo to view the slide show and remember the photos are the property of http://www.rawsilkandsaffron.wordpress.comm – Thank you}
I love to travel and could probably do so, ten or so months out of the year. But what I love the most about travel is discovering new places or frequenting ones which have left an unforgetable impression. One place in particular which I could actually travel too as much as George Clooney does, is Lake Como. I have grown to appreciate the region not only for it’s beauty, but also for it’s peacefulness and tranquility. Lake Como is an ideal place to hide from the world while trying to get the much needed rest and relaxation from everyday life. There is no pressure to play tourist and the most stress I experienced was having to leave the place. There are many ways to get to Lake Como which are detailed here, and many things to see which are also detailed here. Just remember to bring a good pair of walking shoes, a camera and the desire to experience one of the most memorable and romantic vacation spots in your lifetime.
As I gaze at the heavy fog lurking throughout my neighborhood on a Monday evening after work, I cannot help but envision what heaven may look like.
I go through many phases while contemplating my life and since “the wedding” last month, I have been in a retro mood, so it’s no surprise that I would fall madly in-love with the below photos, which I found here. I am not sure who the creative mind behind the photographs is, but based on the style, Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue most definitely comes to mind. If anyone can shed some light on this, I would really appreciate it if you would drop me a line or two. Anyway, love these fashion photos which take me back to an amazing era in fashion.
I had an amazing time this weekend being outdoors. The weather was unusually warm for “Winter” in San Francisco and although I have been nursing a knee injury since the beginning of January, I just couldn’t resist being outside. One of my favorite hobbies while outdoors is taking photos of most anything I come across, even though sometimes it’s a repeat of the same scenery. But no matter how many times I have taken the same photos, I feel , every time I snap the camera, it feels like I have captured something new. Here are some of my favorites from the eighty or so photos I took this weekend of my favorite walk along the San Francisco (land’s end) coast {photos are the property of http://www.rawsilkandsaffron.wordpress.com}
I can never pass up a stop in Como Italy when I travel through Italy. Normally I spend two nights in Como, but I figured this time since it is Autumn, I would stay in Milan and take a day trip to Como on RailEurope or in this case, the shuttle train from Milan to Como S.M instead. It was about an hours ride, a bit uncomfortable and long since it made alot of stops along the way, but it was a reasonable cost. 4.50Euros each way, so I couldn’t complain much. When I got to Como rail station, I noticed, like I did before, a bus labeled Bellagio, which was the area around the lake I wanted to visit. Since it was freezing outside, I decided this time to give the bus ride a try, I knew it was going to circle the lake and that it would take an hour, but I figured I had done the ferry thing about a dozen times before, why not try something different. Well, I must admit …
Since I had been to Venice several times over the last 2 decades, I decided this time around to take just a day trip from Florence, via train and walk about the streets “outside the high tourist season” being that it is mid October Well I was wrong, Venice, from the looks of things, probably has no down time from tourism, so walking the small streets from the train station to San Marco Square was, once again, very challenging to say the least and took more time then I expected it to. However, putting that aside, Venice is one of the most photogenic , if I may use the term, travel destination for any photographer. I can’t imagine anyone returning from Venice with bad photographs. Anyway, although I entered a few stores to appreciate the Moreno glass neatly displayed everywhere, I spend the majority of my time taking photographs. I even wrote the boat taxis up and down the canal just to get photos of every nook and krany of this marvelous city. Here are …
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