Tag Archives: cruise ship

July 21, 2021 · 5:35 am

Northern Ireland — Roaming the Giant’s Causeway


Welcome once again to the Giant’s Causeway, an area of Northern Ireland consisting of some 40,000 volcanic basalt columns rising from the Earth. And, yes, you can even climb onto this alien landscape:

Perched atop basalt columns at Giant’s Causeway

Normally I’m not a fan of people getting into my shots, but Giant’s Causeway is the exception. The crowds give these columns some perspective of size:

Giant’s Causeway

Even so, one does enjoy catching this wonder sans people as well:

Basalt columns at the Giant’s Causeway

That’s especially true when you get to those columns displaying a splash of color. Here I managed to defocus the less interesting foreground rocks in favor of the orange columns:

Orange columns

As the columns approach the salt water, they begin to lose their color and darken:

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July 19, 2021 · 5:35 am

Northern Ireland — Reaching the Giant’s Causeway


Over this week and next I’ll be presenting mostly images from an area that has amazed me since I first saw pictures of it many years ago. This is Northern Ireland’s surreal World Heritage Sight (designated: 1986) known as the Giant’s Causeway.

Even the approach to this magical area is filled with enchantment. Below you start to get a hint of what awaits you here:

Giant’s Causeay.

The Giant’s Causeway sits atop an old volcanic fissure, and here you will find an incredible series of 40,000 interlocking columns of basalt:

Basalt columns of Giant’s Causeway

Even those columns which do not fully protrude from the ground give one an other-worldly feeling:

Giant’s Causeway

The very ground here appears as one giant mosaic of naturally occurring basalt tiles:

Nature’s basalt mosaic

But it’s the columns thrusting into the air that provide the most visually striking features:

Basalt columns

Perhaps you can see now why I’ll be devoting the next two weeks to this mystical place. I hope you concur with that decision. If so, I’ll see you Wednesday.

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February 26, 2021 · 5:35 am

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating New Zealand; Auckland Favorites 3


Queen Street Backpackers

Today we bid farewell to this long series covering an equally long journey. Along the way you saw Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. You got to see a circumnavigation of Australia. You then viewed another circumnavigation, this time of New Zealand.

Ferry Building Reflection

My next travel series will be another cruise. That journey originated in the Mediterranean and eventually went transatlantic. But until then I’ll be doing a photo run of sunsets taken here in El Paso, as we’ve had a spectacular series of them over the past several months. Look for a sunset a day over the next several weeks.

Mirrored Yachts

After the sunset series I owe my firearms friends some articles as well. Those I’ve yet to decide upon, but I’m leaning toward showing off a pair of classic Russian Mosin-Nagant 91/30 rifles (1938 and 1943)and a Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine (1944). I may throw in a First Look at a Ruger AR-556 MPR that week, or perhaps instead a First Look at a Ruger Mark IV Hunter or SIG P226 Enhanced Elite from2012. Whatever I choose, it’ll be fun. Alas.

007’s Aston Martin DBS

At any rate, we’ll be back to travel articles following those sunsets and firearms. I’ll close today’s Fun Photo Friday with this last image of our 2019-2020 Oceania Adventure:

Akdeniz Bar Café, Devonport

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