Belated graduation photos.

Here are some photos from Graduation weekend, May 18, 2008.






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Marché Grenelle.

Some pictures from the market underneath the Blvd. Grenelle metro tracks, just down the street from my sister's apartment.




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Hail storm.

Dad and I hit a serious hail storm as soon as we walked out of the airport. An incredible sunset followed westbound on Hwy.80 to Pennsylvania.





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Ma famille parisienne.

My sister and her husband live in Paris with my two nieces. I took about a hundred million pictures of them on my recent trip. My dad was along too, sleeping mostly.












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Paris moins visible---the less visible Paris

I wanted to take pictures atypical of the normal Paris scenes (Montmartre, le Tour Eiffel shot from L'Ecole Militaire, for example, and, of course, beautiful cafés and beautiful people, for example). Paris hosts an astounding amount of bizarre architecture reminiscent of a bygone socialist-futurist-utilitarian era. Set against a frequently bleak, grey sky, illuminated with the soft, diffused light that seeps through the cloud cover, these buildings take on a stark and seedy tone. I've always been fascinated by these buildings, so here are some shots of them and of other interesting sights from my recent trip to Paris.

Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park, Bois de Vincennes

Tour Eiffel shot through the Blvd. Grenelle metro tracks

My favorite, an abstract angle of this smokestack thing near my sister's place

Night scene outside my sister's place

Mannequins modeling Oum Khultoum's show clothes

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Getting started.

So this is my second blog. The first one was called Beyond the Wire: Notes of a Former Guardsman. I started the first one with the intent of regularly reporting on foreign policy and domestic issues of particular interest to me, both as a veteran and as a regular citizen. With all of my schoolwork and other assorted time-devouring activities (like surfing the net and playing with my new camera), I just couldn't keep up with my own demands.

I'm starting this second blog with a different objectives in mind: fun, exploration, beauty. I'll post quite a few photos and hopefully figure out how to embed photo slideshows. I'll also use it as a journal during my time in Cairo, and hopefully in perpetuity.

These blogs are such exciting resources for travelers these days, it's really quite remarkable how much distribution we have at our fingertips. We are only limited by our own energies. This time I'm keeping it simple, setting goals I can live up to, writing less and photographing more, at least for now. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway, right?