Ferries, Feathers and Flags (of the pirate variety)

October 16th.
My last post had some images from the lough (lock) that is but a few minutes from my apartment. It is a part of the Lagan River, located in what is known as the Belfast Waterfront. It is a great area filled with waterfowl, ships (mostly the touring type) and the scent that only lapping waves can send landward. In that I am in the middle of Moby Dick, that little bit of water calls to me.  My best method of answering that call is by sitting somewhere near the water long enough that I swear I'm in North Carolina.  The slightly less likely method is by saving up all my gold doubloons and purchasing a whaling ship...and finding a crew.
Here is a picture of one of the nicer sections of the lough...you won't find nearly as many cutthroat pirates in this area...

As well as the water and seagulls and such, they also have an interesting "art path" running along the water.  Here are some pictures of the art installations (almost all of which are large metal statues) that you would come across if you were to follow that path...

The 17th of October's picture created a cropping conundrum for me.  I will show you the original as well as how I would crop the original were I to do so.  I can't figure out if I should or shouldn't.  The cropped image has great geometric leading lines that take you up and down the image, but the full photo shows a beautiful little town and mountain scene in the background.  If you leave the nice background scene, the geometric lines take your eye from the bottom of the image (if they are even good enough to grab your attention) and drop you off in the middle of the image with no idea of where to go next.  So yes...that is my cropping conundrum.

The uncropped version with the nice background scene.

The cropped version with the strong leading lines that take you by the hand and actually lead you.

The 18th

Tuesday was graffiti day.  There is some positive inspirational graffiti down the street.  Let it inspire you to...

Right next to it you can find less inspirational, but still pretty awesome, graffiti...

October 19th and 20th were both bicycle days.  I try really hard not to have similar content right next to each other....but with the way people dress up their bikes around here, as well as the fact that it was late and I was yet to get my photo for the 20th, I just had to push the shutter button.

At least they aren't that similar...besides the fact that the subjects for both photos are bikes.

The 21st was Friday, also known as market day.  We buy a week's worth of produce every Friday.  We have really gotten the seven days worth of food down...come Thursday we start running out of our peppers and onions and mushrooms.  It's pretty horrible...and then we wake up and go to the market.

If only we had the money to purchase a whole barrel of delicious olives.

We went to Strangford Lough yesterday...a 40 something mile long lough with cute little towns on either side and a ferry that will take you across for £1.  A nice long bus ride got us from Belfast to Portaferry (the closer of the two towns) where we had tea and toast in a bed and breakfast cafe.  It was situated on top of a hill and the walls were made of big glass panes that allowed you to see most of the town and much of the lough.  This was helpful in making sure we saw when the ferry was docking and accepting passengers.  We made our way across and spent much time walking around Strangford (the other of the two towns).  We had lunch in The Cuan, a restaurant and hotel that is celebrating their 200th year this year.  They also won first place for best restaurant in Northern Ireland in 2010.  The food was amazing so I am really not that surprised.  We then continued to meander and after awhile made our way back to the other town where we went to a little cafe and got hot chocolate and cappuccino in order to keep the rain that had just started at bay...

Some of the houses in the two towns were even more brightly colored than usual.  

This door is also pretty bright....but I'm sure it wasn't as recently painted as those houses.

 We saw a few boats.  Oddly enough.

...some more awesome than others.

On a little peninsula-like bit of land (on the Strangford side) you can see this beautiful sight.  Sadly that bit of land was private property.

Today I was lucky enough to get my wife to go for an early morning walk.  Had I not done so I would have been forced to take a picture of the rain or something inside.  It started around 10am and is yet to let up.  

We walked through the Botanic Gardens and came across what looked like the area of an avian battle to the death.  Either that or some bird is molting.  Drops of what could only be rain, dew doesn't have a chance to show her pretty face here, littered a single feather.  Here it is...

Back From the Lakes

I am back from Michigan.  I actually got back yesterday, but what with unpacking and trying to move after a 14 hour car ride, definitely did not have time to go through 20 gigs of photos.  Since then, I have.  I am not going to write much (there are so many pictures and so many things that could be said of each image) but you will get a slight breakdown of my vacation.  Here it is.

 July 1st

After racing from work to home and speed packing, I had exactly one minute to run out back and take a photo of something.  This is a woodpile that I tried to make slightly more interesting by using glare to my benefit.  I then jumped in a van to leave.

July 2nd

Much like the 1st, the 2nd of July consisted of us getting to the cabin in Michigan at a rather late hour with very little time to do anything but eat and go to bed.  Here is a portion of my family doing just that...eating (on the cabin porch).  I liked the way they were lined up...both the upper and lower halves of them.

 July 3rd
The 3rd allowed for some actual pictures that pertained to the area.  Pictured Rocks is a National Lakeshore that we got to take a boat tour of.  I was able to get some beautiful landscape shots as well as some close ups of the colored rock faces.  The closeups have an abstract feel to them.

3rd Continued
Here is a nice landscape shot of Pictured Rocks from a lookout.  The green and blue water was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  It was so clear yet so green.  This shot was not altered in any way that would change the shade of the lake.

July 4th
We went on an incredible boat tour that had a glass bottom, allowing you to see deep into the water.  The tour was of three different shipwrecks in Lake Superior and each one was fascinating.  Regardless of the fact that none of these are from a pirate ship, I call this compilation "Reconstruction of a Pirate Ship."
 

4th Continued
We tried to see some fireworks on the 4th...they got rained out.  Luckily, we did get to see them on the 5th (a truly spectacular spectacle (especially since it was over Lake Superior)).  I didn't know we would get to see any, so once it got dark, I got my camera out and took some photos of nature's fireworks.   The Milky Way was so very visible.

July 5th
We went on another boat tour on the 5th that took us through Soo Locks, an extremely old but still in use lock situated between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  You are taken past some old coal yards with some massive pieces of equipment.  This machine made me think of some type of iron guardian, waiting for a reason to come out of it's metallic slumber.

July 6th
We started the day off with some decent hiking around Tahquamenon Falls.  The water is filled with tannin, a polyphenolic compound that comes from oak trees and is used in making wine, and gives the water a beautiful "tan" color.  It made me awfully thirsty for iced tea.

 6th Continued
We then hiked through some beach-like dunes until we actually got to a beach.  The beach was covered in beautifully bright colored rocks that littered both the sand and the lake.  The water being crystal clear allowed for some beautiful pictures of people in the water (my brother and his girlfriend seemed to think so at least).  Also, people had used the vibrant rocks to make rock sculptures.  My brother was in the process of completing one in the middle picture.  The last photo is a compilation of his sculptures.

6th Continued
The sun was starting to set as we left the beach.  The white Aspen that can be found all over Michigan was standing tall on one of the dunes and catching the sun's final rays of the day.  As we made our way back, I took a photo of everyone else cresting a dune.

July 7th
We actually relaxed on the 7th.  Even my camera did.  Here again is the Aspen.  Also, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (where we were) is a huge fan of the Pasty.  The pasty is a pastry shell filled with beef, potatoes, turnips, and onions.  It is assumed that it is originally from Cornwall in England.  The vegetarian version was delicious.

July 8th
Another day for rest and relaxation...two things that we normally don't associate with a vacation.  Not having any plans allowed us to swim in a small lake all day, attend a fish fry for dinner, and then go back to that lake and swim in it at night...a fairly frightening but fun experience.  During the day, while swimming, we found a crippled dock and used it to dive off of as well as to hold obstacle course races on.  It is hard to run on a dock that resembles an M. C. Escher drawing.

July 9th
Here is the cabin/house thing we stayed in.  we left rather early on the 9th.  I had about two minutes to take the picture before I had to jump into the car.  We then drove many hours, met up with some friends, hung out with them for awhile, and then continued on our journey home.