Walking home from my grandmother's house in the late morning we ventured into the soggy woods, where the ground was still covered with a few inches of heavy, wet snow. But since the weather had warmed up nearly 10 degrees since the early morning, there was a mysterious and intriguing fog rising slowly from the ground. As we weaved our way along the thin path that snakes through the trees, we stopped to appreciate the quiet that had settled around us. No car noise, no airplanes, no man made noise, only the occasional bird and the dripping water from the departing snow. Very rarely do we get to witness the absolute quiet.
I rushed home to grab my camera to capture the ghostly fog that was leaving almost as quickly as it had come. I walked through some of the more unknown places in Cotuit, between the young trees in an abandoned field, behind an ancient red barn, and anywhere the fog was intertwined with nature. After getting battered by the snowstorm and freezing temperatures, the trees were looking for a respite from the harshness. Looking across the overgrown field, one could see the trees relaxing in the Winter Haze.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Winter Haze
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Preparation For Greece
It's been a nice few days relaxing on Cape Cod, getting to stay inside because of the snow storm on Sunday, and catching up on various books that I didn't have time to read when I was at school. Another good thing about this snow storm is that I've had the chance to organize all of my photos from last summer and this fall. Thankfully iPhoto has made all of that a lot easier and has put dates on all of the photos and the program even has tools such as red-eye reduction, a re-touch button to blur out imperfections, a crop tool, and a photo straightener.
Now that I have myself a lot more organized, I can start to think about my trip to Greece. What I need to bring, what I need to pack etc. Thankfully I've done a few trips overseas and I've got some of the basics down, but this time I wanted the trip to go a little differently than the other times. As people from all generations are getting more and more connected through landlines, cell phones, Skype, Flickr, Blogger, Facebook and Twitter, I decided that it was important to keep all of my friends and family updated about what was going on while I was in Greece. This meant getting a Flickr account that would be connected to my Blogger account.
Quick note for those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about.
Skype is a program on your computer that allows you to make voice calls over the internet. If your computer has a webcam, even better. Skype allows users who both have the Skype program to talk to each other for free. Calls to landlines and cell phones from Skype can be made for a small fee.
Flickr is a website that allows users to upload their photos to the site and then keeps the photos stored on their site. There are limits to the amount of photos you can upload if you don't pay, but for a small annual fee you can have unlimited storage.
Blogger is essentially a personal web site where you can write about what you are doing, your opinion on something, a diary of a trip etc. It allows people to talk about themselves and let other people know about it.
Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to stay connected with your friends from different "networks" of your life. For example, I have networks of Cape Cod friends, Hofstra University friends, and any other random acquaintances I may have made. Some people argue that you can do this all through email, I have found that Facebook makes it easier to follow what someone is doing just by checking on their Facebook page, and even lets you send messages to those friends if you don't happen to hav their emails.
Twitter is also a way to stay connected with your friends, and even lets you "follow" other people like celebrities, news sites, travel sites, sports reporters and a multitude of others. In 140 characters or less people can update their Twitter page to let people what they are doing at that instant in time.
Back to the point of this post. After putting together my list of things I needed to take with me to Greece, I realized, why not keep friends, family and anyone else updated on what my trip to Greece is all about? By taking pictures and keeping notes on what I did and then offering advice on what was fun and then what not to do, anyone that went to Greece would have somewhere to go for advice.
So while this Blog was originally set up to showcase some of my photography, it will expand into a blog about my experiences in my travels and hopefully offer some helpful advice and travel tips. It will be an interesting experience and I hope that everyone finds this interesting and will keep coming back for more updates.
