Imagine… Spending years constructing this amazing Cathedral with a gigantic hole in the ceiling for a massive dome, knowing the technology, knowledge & skill did not actually exist to build the dome. About a hundred years passed before the dome was able to be designed & constructed by Brunelleschi. Just another amazing part of amazing Florence.
I photographed this deep within the hillside of the Tuscan town of Montepulciano. I am pretty sure the name of the place was the Cantina Gattavecchi. We entered the cellar and went down, down, down, till we got to this amazing cellar. It was sort of disorienting to discover after going down all those steps we were able to walk outside from this level. I suppose that is why they call them the hill towns.
Mr. John Taylor (his family calls him ‘Pops’) has spent his life working a ranch that his grandfather settled in the late 1800′s. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to photograph him on his land. (I actually photographed him at a hotel.) So I placed him on a ranch I had previously shot. This technique also works great when photographing corporate clients. It takes far less time (and money) than taking the client out to a remote location.
Thank you Mr. Taylor. It was a pleasure.
United Airlines had one of the truly great ad slogans of all time. After all, most people over 20 can complete the sentence; “Fly the friendly skies of …”.
I believe it struck a chord with the American psyche because almost above all else, humans want to connect. People want a pleasant ‘friendly’ experience regardless of their endeavor, but especially when they travel. The bottom line is happy employees, make friendly employees & friendly employees make customers want to return.
This is Andy. He is a Service Director and spends most of his days on the ramp gently loading thousands of pounds of luggage on to aircraft destined for far away locations. And although he works very hard, he is virtually always smiling. Just what you would expect from ‘The Friendly Skies’ of United.
I shot this just before I got on the train to head home after my last visit to SXSW 2012. For my international readers you may not be aware that many cities in the United States are not exactly known for their public transportation. In my hometown of Austin Texas we completed the first line of our light rail a couple of years ago. The service is rather limited but it’s a start. With thousands of visitors in town for the festival, the possibility of finding a place to park my car was very slim so I decided to try the train. Wow it’s great! The cars are clean and quiet and the ride is smooth. Plus, the trip cost much less than parking would have been even if parking would have been available not to mention, I saved the fuel. Now if we can just add a few more lines to make it an even more attractive option.
I debated about posting this photo this evening since I posted a very similar photo that was taken an hour or so earlier just a few days ago. However, since SXSW is wrapping up for this year, this just seemed like the best night to put it up. I like the “Where’s Waldo” feel of the piece. You can spend awhile just checking out all the various characters and seeing what they were doing during this little slice of time. You can see my other SXSW photos here including the one previously mentioned. I am curious which one do you like best? post a comment to let me know.
South Congress in Austin is known for it’s many eclectic shops and venues including the many food trailers. The Hey Cupcake food trailer was one of the first and remains one of the most popular of the veritable plethora of foodie options. The only thing really missing from the photo is I should be sitting in one of the empty chairs enjoying a nice chocolate cupcake…
You can see another photo of the Hey Cupcake trailer from an earlier post here.
It’s a beautiful day in Austin Texas. Despite the fact we are in the middle of a record drought, there have been quite a few cloudy grey wet weather days lately so it’s great to see the sun. I’m glad the visitors in town for SXSW are having the opportunity to enjoy a little beautiful Austin spring weather!
Welcome to SXSW! Thousands of visitors are arriving in Austin this week for the annual SXSW Music, Film & Interactive conferences. One of the welcoming sights that gives visitors a clue of how important the music culture is in Austin is the display of giant Gibson guitars at the Austin airport baggage claim.
You can see my other ‘Music’ related photos including photos of SXSW here.
This week I’ve had a chance to play with a 16mm Fisheye. It’s been fun finding subjects that work well with this rather extreme lens. Here is a shot I took at O’dark thirty this morning of the Austin Bergstrom International Airport just as it was starting to come to life. Take a look at my other Airline & Airport photos here.
