I like looking through my folders of photos over and over, and bouncing around when I'm editing/sharing. These are from our trip in May with family members to Bantayan Island and island hopping to the smaller Virgin Island near Bantayan. These shots are from Virgin Island. The earlier post with the sunset shots were from the beach on Bantayan Island where we stayed overnight. The next to last photo was where we stopped for lunch after visiting Virgin Island, and in the last shot, we were headed back to the island hopping area on Bantayan Island. This trip was special. It was our first time exploring Cebu Island and environs after spending a longer period of time in Cebu City.

Our first evening in Boracay was a mix of travel tiredness and "wow...this is so cool..." Our journey had us leaving our place in Cebu by plane around 1:30pm. After taxi and bus rides to get to the airport, and the plane ride itself to Panay Island, it was late in the afternoon. We got a tricycle ride to the port and hopped on a small boat to go over to Boracay Island. There, we took an E Trike to go to our hotel. After checking in, we walked a short 10 or 15 minutes to the "D-Mall", a large meandering village-like area with restaurants and shops between the main N/S road on Boracay and the 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) stretch of white sand beaches with the hotels, restaurants and shops that parallels the main rode. We had a Thai dinner at the "Thai Basil" restaurant in the D-Mall. Many of the restaurants have open air fronts. Inday is shown here visiting with one of the waitresses who was leaning against the Thai woman statue when I wandered out in front to take some photos. These were not my best photos. I got better after a good night's sleep. We bought one of the coconuts displayed by our table to drink with our meal for p100. The vendors who push their carts by our place in Cebu charge p50 (90c US). Following dinner, we wandered through D-Mall to the beach, and walked down the long stretch of beach front with all the hotels, more restaurants and shops. There were coconut trees all along there, between the beach itself and the hotels etc row. My first Boracay photo post in this blog had some night shots from that walk.

The first photo is a leopard like wood sculpture by a resident's door in the apartment building we lived in when we moved to Bothell WA. I took this shot around xmas time, when I was delivering the newspapers (side job for a retiree :) The second photo is of a real leopard in 2018 at the Safari Park here in Cebu. "You lookin' at me?"

I’ve been on the other side of the world since Nov 2nd, two days before the election, and I try not to follow the news like I used to. Against my better judgement, I’m sharing this because I think it’s funny…

Boracay Road Trip photos #1: Boracay was fun for taking "road trip" photos! Riding around in open air E-Trikes made it easier holding my Canon, and I've gotten better at holding the camera and shooting with one hand. Not using the viewfinder is one reason I have to straighten/level out some of my shots when I'm editing. In addition, being on a small-ish resort island, the speeds of the vehicle were slower.

Happy BD to our son Nathan, who is 29yo today, and to our niece Leslie, Nate's cousin, who is one year younger! Photos: toddler Nate with Dad, with Andrea when she got her Masters, and Neo the cat...

This is from 1 year ago, on 12Jun2024 - very different from where we are right now, but the same in terms of "walking"... "I/we walk the same paths over and over again, and they're different every time. The weather is always a factor, but for me as a photographer, the lighting is the biggest variable. Mr/Ms Weather is always playing around, and that's why I like walking outside"

This is a screenshot of some photos on the sd card from my Canon camera. I love the colors of the water here. I take a lot of photos, often several shots of the same image. When I find one that I like, I might make some subtle changes, but mostly it's just a little cropping or framing, some dark/light contrasts, etc. This place is so beautiful! This was image 0352, just outside of the group screenshot in the first photo. When I opened them on my computer, I liked this one better. The only editing I did at first was to level the sea/island line, and put a border on the photograph. After looking at it again, it didn't look like what I remembered seeing with the bright sun. It looked like In was looking through my sunglasses. In the last photo, I brightened it up a little with a some "white balance", etc. ps - I like the "editing" part of photography because it's like going on the excursion/walk a second time, and playing with/enhancing the images is fun!

We went on a "Land Tour" of Boracay Island the day before yesterday. We had our own E-Bike and driver for 3 hours. (our electric tricycle could hold up to 6 persons, but they come in all sizes here - (there are larger ones that are Boracay's counterpart to the jeepneys and taxis in Cebu) This beach is one of the popular ones away from the main white sand resorts beach area where we stayed. Bulabog Beach "is known for its strong winds and is a popular destination for kiteboarding and windsurfing." ps - the e-bikes are so quiet

These shots are from just after we arrived in Boracay on Wednesday evening, the 4th. We've been so busy exploring, beach combing, swimming, etc… this is the first chance I've had to look at my photos. The "Epic" restaurant on the right side in the first photo is where I ate breakfast this morning. #2 was a coconut tree with a strob light passing over it and a full moon, #3 was a shot of some shops on the other side of a small lake near our hotel, #4 is one of two or three sand like sculptures they have on the beach along the 2 1/2 miles every day (they change the date at the bottom daily), and #5 is the dance floor I mentioned in an earlier post (at the "Borac y" ...Hotel haha). They had a "fire dancers" show the next night. More later...

One of my morning computer routines is to look at the day's "FB Memories" for my page, from years past. These are from this morning: sunset in the south Seattle port area, some B&W editing with one of my "tree" photos, the twins when we were at a park (Claire (on the left was a little under the weather), and telephone wires on a cloudy day.

We're in Boracay, one of the premier places to go in the Philippines! Even though I've been over here in the Philippines many times, gone island hopping and other things, when I've looked at the YouTube videos of Boracay, I've always assumed the colors of the water and beaches were enhanced with photo editing programs. Nope! We walked along the long stretch of white sand paths with all of the hotels etc this morning. Those colors are real! I'll get out there tomorrow and take some shots with my Canon. It was dark last night by the time we got to our hotel, checked in, and headed out for a sneak preview. It was fun listening to live music and enjoying all of the colored lights of the different clubs and hotels as we walked along the beach. One hotel has a dance floor outside and a stage with live music. There must have been 15-20 people dancing. I'll look at the few photos I took and post some of them tomorrow.

I didn't know much of the history of the Blue Moon. I do know that the Blue Moon was my favorite tavern in the 70s and 80s. I remember one night, when the three of us were there, and maybe two of my brothers? Daniel Walsh, the one with the white sailor cap in this photo, pulled a claw hammer out of his pocket and pounded in a nail that was protruding from our wooden table. Everything stopped for maybe two seconds, and people looked over to see what the noise was, and then they went back to their drinking and visiting. I miss the Blue Moon... From Wikipedia Blue Moon Tavern The Blue Moon is a tavern located on the west edge of the University District, Seattle, Washington, that has been visited by many counterculture icons over the years. It opened in April 1934, soon after the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933. It is the first and oldest tavern in the U-District. It was an instant hit with students (together with the still-thriving Duchess Tavern in Ravenna); under state law, students had to trek one mile from the campus to purchase drinks.[citation needed] The Blue Moon was one of the rare bars outside of the Central District to serve African American servicemen during World War II. The tavern also provided a haven for UW professors such as Joe Butterworth who were caught up in the McCarthyist purge (Butterworth used the bar as his writing desk).[1] It had further heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Regulars included authors Tom Robbins and Darrell Bob Houston,[2] poets Theodore Roethke, Richard Hugo, Carolyn Kizer, Stanley Kunitz, and David Wagoner, and painters Richard Gilkey and Leo Kenney. Visitors included Dylan Thomas, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg and Mik Moore. A popular story states that sometime in the late 1960s, Tom Robbins tried to call the artist Pablo Picasso in Barcelona from a pay phone at the Blue Moon Tavern. Supposedly, Robbins got through to Picasso, but the artist refused to accept the overseas collect calling charges. The Blue Moon declined in the 1970s. Efforts to "redevelop" the property in 1989 were derailed by community activists led by Walt Crowley; however, an attempt in 1990 to gain landmark status failed. Developers spared the tavern after landmark status was denied. The Blue Moon remains one of the few surviving blue-collar landmarks in Seattle. The Blue Moon (1934) and the Duchess (1934) are the oldest taverns in the University of Washington area. In 1995, the alley to the west of the Blue Moon was named Roethke Mews in honor of Theodore Roethke, a famous poet.

Road trip Photos #2

My walking plan yesterday morning was to walk to the Casa Gorordo Museum located in the old Parian district. That "district was created by Spanish authorities in 1614 for immigrants from the Fujian province of China". I got sidetracked when I was passing by the Heritage of Cebu Monument. I got out my camera. I've done many a photo shoot there, but the time was 10 am, and with the blue skies and bright sun, the dark shadows and contrasts made it more interesting. The Gorordo Museum was closed anyway.