While on the bus tour across Europe, we made a quick stop in Nice for breakfast and a beach walk. The beach is super popular, but the only bad thing is there is no sand. It’s one of those beaches with big rocks that makes walking a little challenging, and certainly not smooth enough to lay out a beach towel and relax. Maybe the French people have inflatable things to lay on out there. I don’t know… I don’t understand the French. 🙂
We were lucky to get a little bonus access to the Sagrada Familia and were able to get into the upper floors. These are quite hidden from the ground level and I never would have known they were there otherwise. I didn’t have to do anything special to get access, just a bit of planning ahead of time with their PR team.
If you ever make it to Portugal, but sure to go here to visit the Pina Palace. Planning ahead, you can reserve this whole place for a few hours of your own personal photography before the crowds come in. It’s not that touristy of a place anyway, but it is nice to take photos and be calm before all the muggles show up.
Here’s one of the first photos I took with my Hasselblad camera when I got to Tokyo. This is kind of a weird thing to like about that machine: the aspect ratio. I mean, it’s not that big of a deal because I can always crop them any way I want. I guess there is just sort of a different feeling when looking through the viewfinder and looking at that 3:2 aspect that gives me a slightly different experience. Hard to explain.
That’s not the official name of this cool rock structure in Skipper’s Canyon near Queenstown, but that’s what I call it. This road around the canyon has many little turnouts and stops where you can see cool formations. This one is right in the beginning, just as you are beginning your downward crawl into the canyon.
While on the European Photo Tour, we stopped in Normandy for the evening while on the way to London. We parked the bus in a car park and I jumped out to walk along the coast to enjoy the sunset. It turned out to be a rather beautiful one. I took a lot of photos of the old monastery, but some of the best light was in this direction.
Okinawa, although an island by itself as part of Japan, is like a country of its own. The culture there is like a small parallel universe of Japan, which is like its own parallel universe. The country does not have much of a “beach culture” where families go out to hang out on the beach, so most of them are quite empty. In the middle of the summer, the weather is still pretty hot, but the beaches are mostly empty and ready for you to explore. Like many islands, the clouds are often multilayered and idyllic for photography.
This is one of my favorite little alleys in Tokyo, and it is very close to Shinjuku. I’ve been there a few times, but I often forget exactly where it is. Sometimes, I purposefully set out to find this place, and I get completely lost and end up in a different area. I mean, that’s okay. I guess I could mark it on Google Maps, but I like the challenge of trying to find this little treasure again.
Well, the first Burning Man NFT (Non-Fungible Token – think “Bitcoin for digital art”) went great and for about 7 Ethereum and you can see how it progressed at https://foundation.app/treyratcliff/burning-embrace-10493 . All the proceeds went to charity, split between 3, with my nomination being a local organization here in Queenstown run by my friend Dr. Rigg called Southern Wellbeing Trust with the tagline “Delivering evidence based innovative community level solutions for Mental health and wellbeing.” Cool stuff… I may have to take all the donations back for my own mental health. Just kidding… fun mental-health humor. Keeping it light, you know… I do wonder how people can get through chaos without a sense of humor. Anyway, it may be clear to you now that I’m not a mental health professional, so it’s probably better to leave that to the experts and support them 🙂
And now there is a new animated Burning Man NFT at Foundation – it’s one of my favorites. Here’ the official description I put on there for this piece entitled “Awakening to what Is”:
“There’s quite an exciting time when one awakens into consciousness, albeit it may indeed be ironically solipsistic. As you ride out into the deep playa of Burning Man, fascinating art pops out of the ground to inspire you while you’re on your own grueling Joseph Campbellesque type quest. “Awakening” by Geurts/Elmendorf makes for the perfect meditation of serenity. As with all my Burning Man works, a percentage goes back to the creator of the sculpture. For the 4K 30s file, contact after auction.”
Also, I have made a new video that describes the weird world of digital art and NFTs. I currently am only working with Foundation, but soon, I’ll be doing drops on Makersplace. I’m also interested in working with Nifty Gateway and OpenSea, but I don’t really know anyone there… so, if you do, hook me up! 🙂
Oh, and we’ve started a 2nd account for Machine Elf animated NFTs on Foundation Check those out…They are quite visually appealing along with the amazing music. Here is a short preview from Machine Elf 36 – Open Heart. Click here to see it in full with original music from Sam Wave.
Stay awesome! 🙂
Daily Photo – The Remarkables on a Saturday Afternoon
I have a small hike I do from my home here that takes me to this place. I usually listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I walk and look at nature. I walk up this fairly big hill, and along the way, there are little ponds. I stopped to grab this photo… I feel like just having a little reflection in the shot gives it a little pizzazz.
After we finished our photo walk in Barcelona, we decided to take the bus to Nice, France, to have brunch. That’s a cool thing about a tour bus, is you can kinda make up plans on the fly and the driver will take you there overnight. Then, you wake up, and suddenly you’re there in the French Riviera! It’s not exactly as easy as I make it sound… but it is worth a little extra work.
