Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Photo Friday

  • Photo Friday – Castillo San Felipe del Morro

    One of the challenges that every photographer faces frequently is shooting popular sites that are photographed over and over (and over and over). I still shoot the obvious or traditional angles at least for my own documentation purposes, but I do like to try to see if I can find an original or less common way to frame things. When Chris and I were in Puerto Rico, we visited Castillo San Felipe del Morro and I tried to find an interesting perspective to photograph the fort. In an attempt to keep tourists out of my image, I settled on this shot of the front framed by a palm tree, but it sort of makes the fort look miniscule! So it doesn’t quite work to tell the story of an impressive impenetrable fortress standing guard on the coast, and I’m not crazy about the lampposts in the foreground. This composition does set the scene in a tropical locale though so there’s that, and plus I still like it. That’s what counts most, right?

    castillo_san_felipe_del_morro_blog

  • Photo Friday – The Path to Gullfoss

    The photo below shows the meandering footpath to the iconic Gullfoss in Iceland. The waterfall, translated to mean “golden falls,” is on the Hvítá river, fed by Iceland’s second biggest glacier, Langjökull. On the day we visited, the weather wasn’t particularly cooperative and it rained most of the time we were there, but we still followed the slippery path down to the waterfall and took in the sheer power of it. If you look down the path in this image, you can see the top of the spray coming off of the falls.

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  • Photo Friday – I’ve Gotta Stay High

    I know that Tove Lo isn’t referring to her sleeping accommodations when she sings, “…I’ve gotta stay high, all the time,” but that’s how I feel about where I sleep, especially when it comes to hotels. The higher the floor the better! I love the view, I feel safer (although perhaps that’s because I’ve never seen The Towering Inferno), and I appreciate the quiet of the upper floors. All of the apartments I’ve ever rented were on the top floor as well. The image below was taken from our balcony at the Hilton Caribe in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I can’t remember what floor we were on, but we were pretty high up and I took this photo by leaning over the edge and peering down onto the roof of another building.

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  • Photo Friday – Sea Star

    Just a lone little sea star at Starfish Point in Grand Cayman. What is it about these echinoderms that makes them so endearing? It simply must be their shape. Adorable.

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  • Photo Friday – Funicular Fun

    While digging through my b&w negatives I found some more images from Switzerland. This one is from the day I spent on Monte Brè where I rode the funicular (or funicolare in Italian) to the top for a beautiful view of Lugano. I’ll scan the rest of the negatives from that excursion to see what else I shot, but in the meantime this one just made me laugh because it reminded me of a little snafu I got myself into that day.

    After taking the funicular to the top of the mountain and enjoying the view, I decided to hike back down the mountain in a moment of spontaneity. I didn’t have a trail map, but there were hiking trails marked with signposts so I figured it should be easy enough to find my way back down. I had walked the path down for about 30 minutes when I realized how late in the day it was and that since I didn’t know the length/distance of the trail, I might end up on the mountain in the dark. Plus it started raining, so I decided it would be best to turn around and go back up. However, part of the way up the trail split into two directions and I couldn’t remember which way I had come from! I started to panic a little because there wasn’t a soul in sight, there were no signs or markers to indicate the way, and I knew the funicular would close fairly soon. I took a wild guess at which path would return me to the funicular and made my way back up. Thankfully, it was the correct path and I made it to the funicular in time for the return trip, but not without a little stress!

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