Duke and Durham in Pictures

I lived for two and a half years in Durham. I suppose you don’t really write about the place you live in, in a travel blog. But then, Duke is so beautiful that I really do have to share a few pictures. Continuing the theme from my last post, this one will also feature 10 pictures. All the photos were taken in 2011 after I graduated in May.

1. The iconic Duke chapel that is the university’s most famous landmark.

2. Duke University from the top of the chapel tower. These buildings are the undergrad dorms.

3. Inside the Duke chapel

4. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens. I love the gardens during the fall. So do couples getting engaged and married – I saw three couples taking their wedding pictures and two couples taking their engagement pictures on  the same day!

5. Another picture of the Duke Gardens taken in the summer.

6. Durham’s sister cities. I hadn’t heard of a single city until I saw this wooden post!

7. I loved Durham’s farmers market. The price was steep, but I loved the colours there. And blue pottery right beside yellow squash = great picture !

8. I met this little guy at the Eno river festival on the 4th of July celebrations.

9. Mr. Mittens, a cat in my neighbourhood.

10. A dendroid at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The museum is in Raleigh, but as Durham and Raleigh are really twin cities in a way, I’ll take the creative liberty of including this picture here.

Reflecting Back and Moving Forward

Happy 2012! This past year has been interesting and eventful. I graduated from grad school in May, took a big road trip across the country in August, and moved to D.C. in December. I am excited about what 2012 will bring, and I have set a few major and minor focus areas in the new year. To begin with, I have decided to focus on taking better pictures by understanding exposure –  the ISO-shutter speed-aperture triangle – better. I have also decided to write (?) about a place through pictures – 10 pictures! I was inspired by Australian blogger Jessica Stanley’s blog where she posts 10 pictures from her life every week. Isn’t it a cool idea? It is also going to be a challenge to restrict myself to 10 photos for a really beautiful place. On the flip side, it’s going to force me to see beyond the mundane when I go to places that strike me as meh. In other words, I will have to force myself to find something worth taking pictures of, which is going to help me be a better observer and photographer. Win!

For this post I decided to post pictures of Tuscany – Florence, San Gimignano and Siena, when I was there in the summer of 2010.

1. A peek at the Duomo

2. The Duomo, that dominates the landscape of Florence. Taken from Piazzale Michelangelo

3. Candied fruits at Mercato Centrale – my lunch when I didn’t have time to grab food, or when I was broke because I spent all my lunch money on gelato!

4. Florence was so festive!

5. Ponte Vecchio at night. I don’t want to toot my horn, but I love this picture. PG who’s really good with words, said of this photo “the particular angles, and the stark reflection, and the play of the light from bright and clear on the right to dappled and mysterious on the left: the, less finished, becomes all the more intriguing.”

6.I love windows in Europe. They are so pretty!

7. The Duomo in Siena. The Italians love their Duomos, but I am not complaining.

8. An arch in San Gimignano.

9. Silhouette of an old woman walking away. This is one of those fortuitous shots for which I am grateful I was where I was.

10. Europe is a mecca for artists. Maybe for street musicians too, especially in the summer. I loved watching them paint or sing or play an instrument.

So these are my 10 photos. How did I do?

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

Christmas candy swap at work, Christmas luncheon with coworkers, cookie decorating at friends, wine tasting thrown in between – yes, I am sugared and liquored up for Christmas!

The city is all purty – ok, so the pictures of the fairy lights on trees and the Christmas tree were taken at National Harbour in Maryland and not D.C., but it’s all in the ‘hood.

And finally, Christmas is a time for dressing up like Santas (and why not?), and candy canes, and reindeer and gingerbread man, and meeting up at the National Mall for Santarchy. How rad is that?