MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

Favourite 2011 Photos Overall!

These are my favourite 11 photos taken by or of our household this year.

11.  The Holy Family Shrine peeks above the grass in this autumn picture from Nebraska.

10.  I enjoyed taking this photo and enjoy the whimsy of it.  It is from our church's Neighborhood Carnival this June.

9.  This photo captured a fun moment during Jason and Amie's visit when Amie and I communed with one of the young gorillas at the zoo.  

8.  This photo of downtown Omaha after the first spring thaw is almost postcard worthy.  Notice that the canal is still partially frozen.

 

7.  Michael took this glorious photo of the dome of St. Peter's.  The and colour and sharpness of detail all are just right.

6.  The Campidoglio in the rain, with the guard walking just past the statue of Marcus Aurelius.  I feel like I was standing at the perfect point just down the stairs.

5.  The shadow of the torso of the David copy projected on the Palazzo Vecchio in the slowly setting sunlight.  The two-dimensional image shows the perfection of form -- one doesn't even need the third dimension to see how exquisite the sculpture is.

 

4.  On Holy Saturday we ventured to the zoo with Tarae in town, and I tried out our new camera.  This spectacularly fun picture of a starfish was one of the results.

3.  This lovely picture was another result.  I delight in the motion captured in this photo.

2.  A delightfully well-framed image of Michael staring up into the dome of the Pantheon.

And my favourite photo of ours from 2011 looks like a 19th century painting done by an Englishman on his Grand Tour of the Continent.

Favourite 2011 Photos of Italy

Of course lots of pictures from Italy have already appeared in these lists, and you can bet that some will appear in the overall category.  Even with that I have so many pictures to choose from that narrowing them down has been a task.

10.  The Basilica of Constatine overwhelms in monumental size.  I like this picture of Michael gazing up into it.  It conveys some of the wonder that is the experience of being there.

9.  Michael took this lovely photo of the facade of the Duomo in Orvieto.

8.  The Temple of Saturn with the sunlight shining behind.

7.  Great angle on one of the statues in the loggio of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

6.  The duomo in Orvieto peeks through the narrow streets leading up to it.

 

5.  I enjoy this shot of the clerics walking across St. Mark's Square.

4.  A classic image of the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio.  The boat raises this photo to another level of quality.

3.  A nice shot of Marina Grande.  I like all the colour from the boats and houses, the light on the water, the path up the hillside, the hotels and trees along the ridge, and the curve of the beach.  

2.  When I have showed this picture of the evening light in Sorrento to people, some have audibly ooo-ed.

And my favourite in this category (though some Italy pictures will be in the overall) is this one of St. Patrick's Well and the valley beyond from the walls of Orvieto.  The burst of green, the rock face, the cloudy sky, all convey some of the sheer beauty of the moment.

Favourite 2011 Photos of Us

This one is short.

3.  The best moment of our Italy trip, sitting watching the sun set over Florence.

2.  The really fun picture that Edie Godfrey took as she dropped us off to depart for Italy.

And my favourite picture of us this year was taken outside Sorrento.

Favourite 2011 Photos of Me

Okay, there is going to be a theme in half of these photos.  You'll figure out my favourite something else of this year.

10.  Me with my namesake, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in down St. Paul.

9.   I don't think it looks too much like me.  Too innocent.  Too clerical.

8.  Looking all sporty and butch in this one.

7.  We noticed other folk started jumping in their pictures in Italy.   It is a way of relieving just taking a picture of yourself in front of something.  Here I'm jumping in Pompeii.  It's rather silly, I know.

6.  I sat down beside Pinocchio outside a Sorrento toy shop.

5.  Eating an apple donut at the Apple House in Linden, Virginia.  I like the ironic, almost sarcastic, and definitely playful look on my face.

4.  Okay, this one only tops the one before it because I'm standing in the Piazza Navona in Rome.  And my look is even more playful.

3.  This one makes me giggle inside every time.

2.  Ah, sitting in the loggia of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, I look completely content.

And my favourite picture of me from this year was also taken in downton St. Paul.

Yeah, I do have other shirts.

Favourite 2011 Nature Photos

9.  In early October, Rob Howard and I drove along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park and took many, many pictures.  This was from our morning drive, when, unfortunately, we never got the best morning light, as it was an overcast day.

8.  I've taken many zoo photos the last couple of years.  I could probably create a flipbook of the Omaha Zoo.  This was my favourite critter photo this year, though you'll have to wait for the overall category to see my best zoo picture from 2011.

7.  Walking one morning in August along the nature trail at Lake Okoboji, I snapped this photo which to me reveals the subtle beauty of the prairies.

 

6.  I like the bright, bold colours of this tree.  Also taken along Skyline Drive.

5.  The walk through a citrus grove in Sorrento, Italy.  Even more wonderful than the cool tranquility of this space was how good it smelled.  I find the photo inviting.

4.  How deeply moving are the pines of Rome.  This image is from the Borghese Gardens and captures the sense of elevation that one had when physically present.

 

3.  This photo was taken on a gorgeous, sunny day in May near Cozad, Nebraska, which is in the southwestern part of the state.  Hills and gorges dot the area and give one vantage points up over the plains, which are not quite as flat and boring as people think (that's Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado, for instance).  I like how the sunlight, the various shades of green, and the details of the grass moving in the wind are all captured in this photo.  I took a number of lovely pictures that day.

2.  This ultimately became my favourite photo from Shenandoah National Park.  This sunset image is looking toward the Alleghenies in the distance.  I like how the sunlight washes out the center of the image in shades of yellow, and then along the fringes of the light, one gets the colors of the trees and sky, with that one burst of red hidden in shadow in the bottom right.

1.  The grotto at Bagni Della Regina Giovana on the Capo di Sorrento.  We had such magical moments there, but one doesn't need to know the stories to appreciate the beauty.

Favourite 2011 Photos of Random Stuff

12.  I think this photo from the Plattsmouth Harvest Festival is hilarious.  The scout playing alone in the street, looking up in the air.  The beach blankets spread out on the asphalt.  the overall emptiness of it all.  It received lots of fun comments on Facebook when I posted it there.

11.  I find this out-of-focus night photo of power line pylons across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis cool.

10.  This is my favourite photo of all those I took at church this year.  It was during the Spring Cleaning and a group of folk are dusting and oiling the screen behind the choir loft.  There is just a whimsical jumble of chairs and bodies at different levels and the difference between the unoiled and oiled parts, all with the light from the stained glass pouring in overhead.  I like Bernie reaching up.

9.  As Michael and I were walking outside the Vatican one day, we got behind these women who were having a pleasant chat and walk.  Michael snapped the photo, which, to me, communicates friendship and sisterhood.

8.  Along the bank of the Arno in Florence the chains were covered with these padlocks with the names of lovers inscribed on them.  We contemplated trying to figure out where to buy one to leave our padlock as well.

7.  Walking back to our hotel in Florence one day, we twice encountered this gentleman wheeling this bust along.  It sure was a strange sight.  At this moment the street he is coming to, which is one lane, is packed with cars going both ways facing each other and trying to get around each other.  It's not every day you see a ceramic bust caught in a traffic jam.

6.  Nor is it every day that you see a giant shopping cart being pulled by a vintage tractor.

5.  This photo from the big cat building at the Omaha Zoo speaks for itself.

4.  One of my favourite things to do in Florence was to go through the main plaza and stomp on the name of Savonarola, marking the site where he was executed.

3.  I like the charm of this row of peddle cars in the Borghese Gardens.

 

2.  I just like this picture of a bunch of crocks (with their price tags) arranged on shelves in an antique store in Nebraska City.  There is something both fun and comforting in this picture.

And now for one of the funniest pictures I've ever taken and my favourite random stuff photo of 2011:

Final stop

The final stop on my Virginia trip with Rob was Minneapolis.  Yes, I know that is not in Virginia.  

On October 12 we flew from DC to Minneapolis, where Rob stayed for a few days and I spent one more day with him and other friends.  Our friend Tom was hosting another Danish open-faced sandwich lunch.

Holocaust Memorial Museum

Our final stop in Washington was at the Holocaust Museum.  I had never had my bag tested for explosives before.

I had heard so much about this museum, that some of the things which others told me about didn't have quite the impact on me, but the museum still did.  I felt it from the main hall and the quote from Isaiah etched on the wall.

The exhibits are very well done, with good points to stop every now and then and watch a movie or listen to audio.  There is a great variety in the displays.  And they don't overdue the emotion, but let it arise naturally.

The thing that really got me was when I walked up to the display case showing canisters of Zyklon B.  I was overcome with disgust and had to turn away.

The FDR Memorial

It did rain on us while we were taking a Ranger-guided tour of the FDR Memorial.  I was very surprised by it.  It is quite large -- too large I think.  And there is too much too it.  Many of the individual pieces are nice, but there is so much.  Some of it is a little too abstract for a monument -- like the the mosaic tiles representing New Deal programs.  Though I was intrigued by this more artistic and less traditional form of monument.  Some of it is too abstract -- like the various fountains and waterfalls which are supposed to represent different features of the terms in office.

King Memorial

The hesitancies I had from looking at the memorial on-line were completely unfounded.  In person it is Damn Impressive.

 

Here are a few of the things which struck me:

• Its position across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Memorial
• That he's looking South
• That the quotes on the wall do not include some of those you would expect; they are generally stronger, more controversial
• That the way one enters is from the street, walks through the "mountains of despair," and then circles around in front of the statue is all very powerful.
• That I was touched by a visitor's center filled with African-American history being on the Mall
• That the African-American's visiting really seemed to be enjoying themselves