Cruising the Adriatic: Photos and Facts

As I travel, I've come to realize that certain themes emerge in my photographs. This thought first occurred to me in New Zealand. Hiking through its rich and varied landscape, I was drawn to pathways​ and often lagged behind the group to get just the right shot of trails or steps or city sidewalks as we went through the day. I could have turned my back to the group and taken photos of the pathway behind us. To me, however, the shot ahead, with people walking away, was always more interesting. Those pictures were about life. Walking away: It's what we all do from time to time, even as we focus on what we're walking toward. The shots I took when I turned around and focused behind me were scenery, often beautiful, always enticing. But I most liked the photos with people in them.

In keeping with the notion of theme, however, I decided to sort photos I took on this trip by type, with or without people. In a Q and A session after a photo/travelogue presentation I had done a few months earlier, one attendee observed, "I notice some of your photos are really artistic, but others I could tell you took just to suggest a story or convey information."  Of course, he was right. I wish they could all be "artistic," but behind  all these pictures are stories we'll never know. 
click on images to view full photos and captions

Steeples and Bell Towers

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Olympia

Unlike the Acropolis with its imposing remains of massive structures, the ruins of Olympia leave much to the imagination of the visitor, but we caught some action, thanks to the escapades of some young moderns (unlike the ancients, fully clothed). Still, surrounded by fellow travelers in blue jeans and tennis shoes, it requires an active imagination to transport yourself to the Golden Age of Greece,
In Olympia's Archaeological Museum, statues painstakingly reassembled from ruins form an impressive display. One of the few intact statues was the one of Hermes holding the infant Dionysius seen below from the rear (second row, center) for a change of pace. Most of the statues have been "reassembled" with the material used to hold them together artfully concealed. 

Portals and Passageways

Portals and passageways invite the traveler to imagine life beyond what they can see. What lies beyond the shop doors? How many generations have inhabited the cramped apartments on either side of a narrow passageway? Who lives behind that weathered door? What stands at the top of that steep flight of stairs? Stories!

Some of my Favorites

Every trip I take results in a few photos I like just because ... I like them. Often, they don't end up on the website for a variety of reasons; they're too similar to others chosen to illustrate something specific, they're sunrise or sunset or similar "generic" type photos that could be taken anywhere in the world, their appeal is largely a matter of individual taste and might (heaven forbid!) bore the viewer. This time I'm including just a few of those "just because" photos.   

Christmas in Croatia

My knowledge of the areas we visited in our port stops was limited. My most vivid images of Croatia, for instance, were dark ones formed as I attended the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslav president, when he was on trial for war crimes in the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands in 2004. During the session I attended, a witness had given such graphic details of atrocities committed during the conflict after the break-up of Yugoslavia that the mental images I saw that day had stuck with me. Croatia as Christmas approached was a lighter, happier place than it had been in those dim times as evidenced by the festivities in Zadar, below.