Remains of the Day

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I know, I know, I’m on an Oregon kick.  I’m really hoping to get back soon. We were supposed to go in March. My dear readers will remember that an ill-timed illness prevented us from going. We missed tasting more of the great wines coming out of Oregon these days.  Today’s photo is a blatant advertisement for one of my favorite Oregon/Washington State wineries (not that they are providing me any free wine…hint hint).

Our trip to Oregon last fall included visiting at least seven wineries over two days. I may be missing a couple, but that’s not the point.  One of my favorites is Owen Roe Winery.  They make ~ 18 different wines sourced from great sites in both Oregon and Washington.  They have a few lower-end wines. You can get these in the ~$15-25 dollar range. This includes the Sinister Hand (Southern Rhone style), Abbot’s Table (red blend), and a ShareCropper’s Cabernet Sauvignon.  Then they have some higher dollar Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, and some world-class Syrahs coming out of Washington.  Today’s photo highlights what we tasted last fall. This includes the 2009 Chardonnay. We don’t remember the second one and can’t find it on their website. We also tasted the 2008 Abbot’s Table. We also tried the 2008 Yakima Valley Red Blend. We also sampled the 2008 Cab Franc from Yakima Valley.  This winery is highly recommended. If you want to stop by, make sure to make an appointment. They don’t have an open tasting room.

 Canon XSi | Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 | 28mm | f/4.0 | 1/60th | ISO400

Italian Villa in Oregon

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During our last stay in Dundee, Or, we stayed at the Black Walnut Inn and Vineyard.  I was a great Inn, located down off the main road through Dundee.  There are four rooms in and above the main gate which you drive through to get to the main house.  The Inn was very well-kept. It really made you feel like you were somewhere in Northern Italy. In reality, you are in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.  This place is highly recommended. Find a good reason to make a nice weekend. Make sure you have a bottle of the wine made on site!

Canon XSi | Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 | 35mm | f/7.1 | 1/200th | ISO100

Following in Dad’s footsteps

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We were driving down the dirt road in the Chimp reserve. Our driver stopped for a family crossing.  There were actually about 10 of these guys, but we snapped these two alone.  At one point, one of the adults just sat down in the middle of the road. I will post that one later on.  Enjoy!!

Canon Rebel XSi | Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L | 400mm | f/7.1 | 1/400 | ISO500

Oregon – Domaine Drouhin

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For today’s shot, we’re going back to Oregon (even though we didn’t go back last week).  We spent a weekend last August in Oregon. We tasted wines, lazed around, and ate great food. Oh yea, we also drove around with the top down on the car. That doesn’t work too well on some of those dirt roads.  We stopped by a few wineries. Domaine Drouhin is one of those that has sophistication and class. The wines are just as good.  Lovely grounds. The wines were lovely. I enjoyed seeing the two menus from the White House hung on the walls. Their wines were served there, which is nice validation that you have some pretty special wines.

Canon XSi | Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 | 28mm | f/2.8 | 1/1600th | ISO200

 

St. Paul’s Cathedral

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Today, we’re going back to Melbs.  This is another shot of St. Paul’s Cathedral in central Melbourne.  We spent the day walking around the city. We saw a few of the various neighborhoods. We walked back along the river.  At one point, just after this shot, we were right on the Yarra river. We looked east towards the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and Rod Laver arena. The Australian Open is held there. Additionally, we looked west back into the CBD.  The weather was incredible for most of the day. I think I could follow the summer. I could spend Nov-Feb in the Southern Hemisphere. Then, I could spend June-Sept in the Northern Hemisphere.  I’m not really sure who would pay me to do that. However, I keep hearing about winemakers. They spend the late summer and harvest in California, Oregon, and Washington. They ferment the wine and lay it down in barrels. Then, they travel to Australia and New Zealand. They repeat the process during the summer and harvest in the Southern Hemisphere. Now, that sounds like the good life to me!!!

Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 43mm | f/7.1 | 1/400th | ISO100

Back to Oregon

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Next weekend we are planning on a second trip to the Willamette Valley in Oregon.  This time, we are targeting the mid-Willamette Valley wineries.  I’m pretty excited about the trip. I want to make sure to hit up NW Wine Company. I also plan to visit Wineworks Oregon (they have a great selection of whites). Finally, I want to go to Yamhill.  I’m sure we’ll make it to a few more, but those are on the short list.

Today’s shot is from our last trip to the Oregon Wine country.  There’s a part of me that thinks I could buy a farmhouse. I could grow a vineyard. Basically, I could take it easy and work the grounds.  I think it would be so relaxing to get out of the city, the hustle and bustle and just tend to the plants.  This is an old wagon, sitting by the side of a semi-paved road.  There were so many of these moments as we drove around Dundee and Newberg.

Canon XSi | Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 | 55mm | f/2.8 | 1/1250th | ISO200

The Chimp Reserve

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On our safari, after a full day of traveling, there was an early morning flight from Nairobi to Tanzania. Our safari guides picked us up at the airport. They took us on an ATM safari before our actual safari started (more on that later).  Once we got the cash sorted, we left Moshi. Our first stop was at a chimpanzee reserve.  The stop was likely intended to get us out of the car and stretch our legs. However, there was an amazing reserve where there must have been a hundred chimpanzees just hanging out.  We dutifully stretched our legs. This was the first time we used one of our rental camera lenses. It was the Canon 100-400 mm monster.  That lens was incredible, and anytime that I go on another wildlife trek, I will rent that lens again.  Here’s one of the first looks at the chimps.

Canon XSi | Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L | 150mm | f/5.0 | 1/125th | ISO800

Over the Grounds at the Winery

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During out stay in Australia over the holidays, we went wine tasting in the Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne.  We visitied Sticks Winery, which was good, relatively easy drinking, fruit focused wines.  We visited Domaine Portet Winery, which was much more refined and classy.  Finally, we visited Tarrawarra winery, which was generally good wine, but had a feel of mass-production behind it.  We also had lunch at Tarrawarra, which was really good food, but the service was a little pretentious.  The photo below was looking out from the tasting room and over the grounds, which were beautiful.  Again, used HDR technique to give slightly more depth.

Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 31mm | f/18 | 1/250th | ISO400

Apocolypse over Air New Zealand

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Hi all – apologies for the disappearance, but we’re back with some very special photos.  Here is my very first HDR shot.  For those of you that are not familiar, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range photography. It is a process where you combine a handful of photos. These photos have different exposure levels. They are combined to create a single image.  Opinion is pretty much split on this style of photography.  Many people say that the images are too color-contrasted. They argue that it makes images look flat.  Others say the images are closer to what the human eye sees. This is true if you don’t make the HDR look like a cartoon effect.

I personally like them, and here’s my first one.  We flew overnight between San Francisco and Auckland, New Zealand.  The sun was rising in the distance. I was trying out a new 14mm Canon lens that I bought. I was also adding in the HDR automatic exposure bracketing.  The result is sort of an ‘apocolypse over Air New Zealand’.  Hope you enjoy!!

Canon 7D | Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L | 14mm | f/5.0 | 1/100th | ISO100

Lion sweetness

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Ok, one last lion shot.  This was the best of the bunch.  You can’t help think they are so sweet sitting there, but at some point you realize that both of them could rip you in half…

Canon Rebel XSi | Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L | 275mm | f/5.6 | 1/320 | ISO160