Category: Photography

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The Artist at Midnight in Paris – It’s Oscar Night at the Academy Awards

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Funny how two of the movies that are in the running for the Best Picture at the Academy Awards – “The Oscars” – are throw backs to times long since gone.  The Artist is a silent film shot entirely in black-and-white as it explores George Valentin’s angst at the arrival of the “talkies.” Midnight in Paris is a modern day film, but is it? Suddenly we’re in 1920s Paris. Or are we? Is that Cole Porter? Hemingway? Carla Bruni? Wait – Carla Bruni?

Tonight’s Oscar gala reminded me of a photograph of mine. A photo of the artist in Paris. Perhaps an artist to be remembered some time in the future, but an artist nonetheless.

The girl seemed to be about 10 or 12 years old.  She diligently worked, unperturbed by the tourists who stopped to photograph her openly – and perhaps critique her work privately. As the overcast sky threatened to send us all running for shelter, she began to flesh out Notre Dame de Paris while its imposing Gothic presence entranced all comers.

After five trips to Paris I feel as if I can play tour guide to its major attractions, and yet also feel that I’ve only begun to sense its culture.  Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the funicular railway ascending the hill to the magnificent Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart), the Arc de Triomphe, and tour boats on the Seine – all are familiar to me.  What is missing is the aura of the time when the wonderful artists of the past livened the streets and studios of Montmartre – Dali, Modigliani, Picasso, van Gogh, Camille Pissarro.  Ah, the life they led.

Getting back to the Oscars, just tonight I watched Midnight in Paris, the modern day movie by Woody Allen that takes us back in time and regales us with the music of Cole Porter.  In a way it felt like Forrest Gump for the artistically acquainted.  I’m rooting for it to win Best Picture and will update this post after the announcements are made.  The money seems to be on The Artist taking home the big prize though, at least according to all those folks who claim to know these things.

Either way, I’ll always have the artist in Paris, even if it wasn’t really midnight at the time.

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Pap of Glen Coe – the Bonny of Loch Leven

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Aye, the highlands of Scotland.  You read about them, fancy yourself galloping across them with William Wallace, and perhaps spoil a good walk near them (i.e., play a round of golf in the Mark Twain sense).  For me, I admired them up close.

To be honest, I can’t imagine a good walk spoiled in the highlands. On a summer day in 2005 I hopped into my Vauxhall Corsa, remembered to drive on the left, and headed north from where I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland. The drive itself was amazing, in part because the day started off a wee bit foggy – actually almost completely immersed in clouds – but blossomed at the most opportune moment.

And that moment was the Pap.

The Pap of Glen Coe is the mountain you see above to the left.  It gets its name from the conical shape resembling a female breast (apparently the Scottish winters were quite dreary and imaginations were active). The Pap sits in the valley created by Glen Coe above the point where River Coe enters Loch Leven.  Nearby is the intriguing Bidean nam Bian mountain ridges, including the famous Three Sisters of Glen Coe.

To say that these views were awe-inspiring is to engage in severe understatement. The glen has a distinctive U-shape, the result of glacial action during a past ice age.  The area is what is left of an ancient supervolcano, long since gone extinct but imposing nonetheless.

I lingered in the Glen, admired the Pap, marveled at the mossy grass that seemed greener than naturally possible.  My mind hiked high into the mountains, though my feet stayed closer to the narrow road.  I took hundreds of photos that day, most of which are unfortunately lost due to the vagaries of my computer hard drive.  But the memories remain with me as if it was yesterday.

Until next time, my bonny lass. Until next time.

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David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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The Great Wall of China and Mount St. Helens – A note about the header photos

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I’ve been asked whether I took the photos you see in the header.  The answer is yes.

As of this writing there are several photos that alternate in the header as you click through the various pages.  I’ll write separate posts on each of these as this site develops – including showing the full photo (they had to be cropped to fit the header size). Click on the photo title to get to posts that have already been written. Here’s a quick synopsis:

The Great Wall of China: Taken on film in December 2000 on my first trip to Beijing, China.  The day was freezing. Actually, below freezing.  In fact, 5 degrees F.  But the experience was something that I couldn’t get out of my mind even if I wanted to (which I don’t).

Mount St. Helens: A special access visit to the Park Service location in Washington State as part of a scientific conference. You can see where the side of the mountain blew out in 1980. The hot vapors you see are from new volcanic activity occurring while I was there in November 2004.

Palau de les Arts and L’hemisferic: Two of the amazing modern buildings in the ancient city of Valencia, Spain. Taken in 2008, they are part of the “City of Arts and Sciences” that also includes a world famous aquarium. As with the other photos, the original is even more impressive because there is a reflecting pool in the foreground.

Sunset in Fairfax: A spectacular sunset I encountered by chance one day upon arriving home from work.  The photo is shot from my back deck and the moment was gone within a minute after taking it.  The jet contrails add some intrigue to the reddest sky I have ever seen.

Stonehenge: The famous archeological site about two hours west of London. Seems they still can’t figure out for sure what its purpose was, but that doesn’t stop everyone from guessing – everything from a celestial clock to a sign that we once had alien visitors. It’s actually pretty cool for a bunch of big stones.

Gondolas: The photo was taken near Piazza San Marco – St. Mark’s Plaza – in Venice during a beautiful late summer day. The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore can be seen in the background.

El Teide: The third largest volcano in the world, El Teide sits on Tenerife, the largest island of the seven Canary Islands. This was taken Christmas day. At the base it was hot as the tropics; at the peak it was below freezing and snow covered.

Perito Moreno Glacier: Perito Moreno is in southern Patagonia, Argentina. I went there in February (their summer) to visit and travel with a long-time friend from my days in Bermuda. The site truly is breathtaking.

James Joyce: The photo that accompanies this post is a detail of the James Joyce statue taken in downtown Dublin, Ireland in 2010. This photo plays an important role in my “Adventures in Europe” photobook.

The book Stack: This photo shows a stack of my published books through September of 2016, including the two Fall River Press books, the two e-books, and the photo book. It will be replaced with each new book that joins the stack.

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Adventures in Europe

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Ah, Europe.  Before the recent financial collapse, the kind of story book setting that I once read in, well, story books.

Spring to spring for the three years beginning in 2008 and ending in 2011 I had the good fortune to have been seconded to Brussels by my employer.  Not the first time I had lived overseas – I had short periods previously living in Bermuda and in Scotland – but at three full years it was my longest opportunity of ex-pat living.

And live I did.  Europe by its very proximity of nations offers a chance to experience  a wide variety of languages, and cultures within a few mere hours. A one week driving tour, for example, took me into five different countries speaking four primary languages and through some of the oldest and charming cities in central Europe.  More on those in later posts.

The purpose of this present post is to introduce a book of photography I published near the end of that three year European experience.  Called “Adventures in Europe,” the book has 46 pages of photos I took at venues across the continent.  Dedicated to my parents, it was my way of sharing my experiences with them and my extended family back home.

Click on the photo below to see the book.

See more travel stories here.