Saving His Skin

I took this photo several years ago when I led a Watertown High School student trip to Rome. We had a free afternoon and one of my students and I made the trip to the church of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome. This church is remarkable in many ways but I was captured by this statue of St. Bartholomew, carved in 1712 by Pierre Legros.In brief, Bartholomew was martyred by being skinned alive. But during the Second Coming, he is resurrected with a new skin. The artistic version of this story that I am most familiar with is in the Sistine Chapel in Michelangelo's brilliant Last Judgement of Christ. In that version, too, he is holding both his old skin and the knife that was used to flay him. In Michelangelo's version, some art historians say that the face on the old skin is the face of the artist.I don't know whose face is on the sculpted version I am showing here[smugbuy gallery="http://scottshephardphoto.smugmug.com/Fine-Art-Photography/Fine-Art/21122937_fHW9Lh"]

Spiral Stairs

Is this a chambered nautilus shell? No, it's a carved stone spiral staircase in the "government building" in the amazing German town named Rothenburg o.d.T.

A View From Rothenburg

Ambulanza

This is what a Venetian ambulance looks like. The pilot races down the Grand Canal, weaving through gondola traffic. And he looks cool and poised in his Italian sunglasses. . .

Pelekes Beach, Corfu (Greece)

This little beach is tucked in against the fairly steep western central banks of the Greek island of Corfu. Corfu doesn't match the stereotypic view the of Greek islands. It isn't real glitzy. Whitewashed buildings are not the norm. And the place isn't over run by tourists. It's a wonderful destination.

A View From the Eye

It's the London Eye, of course. This is a shot I took several years ago on a trip with students that took us to London, Paris and Rome. The Thames looks really brown in this photo, but some of that is due to the HDR and contrast process I applied to this photo.Canon 5D 1/200s f/10.0 ISO250 24mm

Split Harbor (HDR)

This is not a true, layered HDR photo. Instead, I made it using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro 4.0 and Nik Efex HDR. It creates a bit of a surreal effect, I think.Are you a photography student wanting to know more about the process that leads to photos like this? Here's a tutorial I created this morning fresh off the video "press."

12-01-11 Live To Eat?

This is a beautifully served creme brûlée that my wife had while we were staying in Rothenburg O.D.T. Here's what I had. (Click)Do we live to eat or eat to live? When Deb and I travel, it's a little of each. (And that's not Cool Whip on the right - it's real whipped cream!)

Backroads Bavaria

This is a photo I took a few miles west of Rothenburg O.D.T, Germany. The crops look like crops you'd find in South Dakota. But you wouldn't find a road like this because traffic safety officials would never allow the trees to line the road.My observation about Europe is that one difference is that from time to time aesthetics will trump safety - as in this great road. (For those wanting to see this photo in geographic context, go to "Backroads Bavaria" on my Panoramio site. If yo zoom in on the satellite map view, you will even see the trees from the satellite's point of view.

Field Trip

Here's a candid photo I took as Deb and I strolled around in Bruges, Belgium.

A Quiet Morning On the Canal

Here's another one from Bruges, Belgium.

NSFW!!!

I don't know what you see when you look at this photo, but I see Belgian chocolate. Titillating Belgian chocolate. And the big question I had was, "Do I want white chocolate or do I want dark chocolate?" I have read that dark chocolate is good for the heart, the brain and the joints so I guess that's my choice.And if you didn't know it, "NSFW" means "Not Safe For Work." I hope you didn't open this at work. It might just make your co-workers crave chocolate!(In case you are curious, this is a window display. I didn't cut and paste body parts in Photoshop. That would be a little creepy, don't you think?)