Time to climb back down

Posted on 17 June, 2011 by Eric

Two women start their descent of Structure I (as seen from Structure II) at the ancient Maya (no, not Mayan) ruins of Calakmul, México:

Structure I (a.k.a. Pyramid I) is the highest at Calakmul (by virtue of its being built on a small hill), but not the tallest. Its neighbor Structure II (a.k.a. Pyramid II) is the tallest at the site, and the largest (in bulk) too — standing about 50 meters / 160 feet tall (these numbers vary depending on the source you’re looking at). Structure I is just a few meters shorter than Structure II, meanwhile Structure II’s base is some 120 meters (390 feet) square.

Translation: they’re both really big…

Iguanakeh

Posted on 15 June, 2011 by Eric

An iguana strikes a dramatic pose in the ruins of TulÃºm, México:

The funny thing about this shot is that the iguana wasn’t nearly this well posed until somebody with a point-and-shoot camera intervened. I was working from a distance to get a good shot of the little critter, when the cruise-boat tourist started fiddling and fussing with his P&S, trying to get a head-on shot from about 3 feet away. He made such a sight that this little guy pivoted around to watch the show — lining up perfectly for a profile shot!

About the only time on our recent trip that I was grateful to see one of the cruisers…

Palenque’s Palace

Posted on 12 June, 2011 by Eric

Shot with a long lens from the Temple of the Cross, about 1/4 mile away:

You might think I framed this shot the way I did to heighten the contrast between the structure and its background — but actually, I was avoiding a line of tourists just off the bottom of the shot!

Mother and child reunion

Posted on 9 June, 2011 by Eric

Spider monkeys in the trees of Tikal, Guatemala.

As if in a dream

Posted on 6 June, 2011 by Eric

Seen somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico, on the way back from our recent travels:

We’ve just returned from a 2+ week jaunt through the Yucatan, checking out Maya ruins and lots of interesting cultural attractions. Buckle your seatbelt, I’ll soon be deluging you with travel pictures (and more than a few things I’ve learned about what gear you can / can’t count on while on the road)!

Lost in the Caribbean

Posted on 8 May, 2011 by Eric

A few weeks back, Denver held its latest annual “Doors Open Denver” weekend. The point of these is to encourage people to get out and get familiar with some local architectural points of interest. This year’s theme was “modern architecture,” roughly speaking things built in the past 50 years.

I took this shot in the lobby of the Cable Center Building — a pretty posh place that’s a local hub of the cable TV industry. I have no idea who this gent was, but he definitely seemed to be feeling a bit… at sea.

Margaret Mary

Posted on 27 April, 2011 by Eric

A “Margaret Mary” Water Lily, seen at the Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens in Houston, Texas:

Taken with an Oly E-PL2, and the “kit” lens.

Green and shiny

Posted on 20 April, 2011 by Eric

Anybody know what kind of beetle this is?

Seen at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center; Houston, Texas.

The start of a new tradition

Posted on 3 April, 2011 by Eric

Once upon a time, I thought an “easy” way to sell some of my photography would be by way of iPad and iPhone wallpaper. But it turns out I really don’t have a lot of time to devote to learning how to program for the iPad, and besides there are a lot of free wallpapers out there.

And it’s hard to compete with free.

So my current plan is to find some other way to help pay for my photographic equipment, and just give away iPad and iPhone wallpaper. I’m going to give away one piece of wallpaper each week — and it’s free both as in beer (no cost) and as in speech (do what you want with it, within Creative Commons limits).

Here’s the first free wallpaper (click on it to get to the Flickr page where you can download the full-size image). It’s a backlit shot of a glass block (part of an art installation) at a local light rail station.