BRUGES 

Following our stay in Amsterdam, our tour group spent a couple of days in Bruges, a Belgian town with medieval roots.  The town oozes charm, and virtually everyone on the tour fell in love with it.

There was lots to photograph.  Here first are some street scenes, including in the town's main square as a rain storm was approaching. it.  

The town is filled with interesting sculptures and other distinctive architectural features that I tried to capture with my camera.

One that I particularly liked was this poignant sculpture of two men who appear to be consoling one another.

But my favorite was the following of an arrogant, judgmental figure situated in an elevated location.

Then there was some miscellany, including swans, a wedding we happened upon, store merchandise, a sign for a bicycle garage, and an ornate lamppost.

JOHN

KINDERDIJK

On our European tour after Amsterdam we spent a few days in Bruges. En route we visited Kinderdijk, home to a series of 19 windmills built around 1740.  The original purpose of the windmills was to drain water that infiltrated the land.  The windmills have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  They no longer serve to pump water, but they do serve as apartments for tenants who, as part of their lease arrangement, have a responsibility to maintain each windmill's mechanical functionality.  We took a boat tour of the windmills and also toured an apartment of one of them.

I just liked the composition of this shot of an outbuilding at the site.

JOHN

AMSTERDAM

I returned recently from a small group tour in Europe that began in Amsterdam and ended in Paris. I plan to do a series of posts of some of the photos that I took. Here are a few of the photos that I took in Amsterdam, a city known for its museums, canals, bicycles, and red light district. 

Rembrandt house and museum.

Ornamented bicycle on bridge over canal leading into red light district.  (No photos from stroll through red light district.)

Views of war memorial.

An early major stop was at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam's world class art museum, featuring works of Vermeer, Rembrandt, and others, as well as a beautiful series of stained glass panels.

Vermeer's "Milkmaid."

Rembrandt self-portrait.

Portion of Rembrandt's "Night Watch," currently undergoing major restoration.

Bust of Rembrandt.

Interesting macabre sculpture over building entrance near our hotel.

We also visited the Van Gogh Museum.

I also visited the Dutch Resistance Museum and the Anne Frank house but do not have photos from those visits.

JOHN

SKY PHENOMENA

I have always had a fascination with astronomical and related sky phenomena.  And this spring within the space of five weeks I was able to witness two rare and awe-inspiring events, a total solar eclipse and a dazzling display of aurora borealis.  Here are a few images of each that I captured with my cameras.

First, I traveled, along with friends, to Indianapolis to photograph the solar eclipse that occurred on April 8.  We were fortunate that the weather turned out to be favorable, with only a slight haze in the sky where we had positioned ourselves to witness the event.Here is series of photos showing the progression of the eclipse:

I shot all but the last two photos with the solar filter on my camera.  I took the filter off once totality was close and fortunately got the "diamond ring" shot, as well as the final corona image.

Then, less than five weeks later, a confluence of sunspots resulted in the most dramatic display of northern lights in 20 years.  In the middle of the night on May 11, I found myself awake and got up and drove to a local park to witness the event.  I only had my iPhone, which did a decent job of capturing the show.  Here re a couple of shots that I took looking almost directly overhead.

 

These two shots were taken of the same portion of the sky only seconds apart, indicating how rapidly the display was changing.

One interesting note is that with my eyes the display had little color, but my iPhone camera picked up dramatically the aurora's different colors.

JOHN