Lately, I've been wrestling once again with what to do when I grow up - maybe I'll figure that out before I grow up, maybe not. One of the trends that I've taken up is that photography should play a more central role.
And with that thought, I've launched a new blog -- http://dklotz.blogspot.com/ -- and this one will become semi-retired. At the new blog you'll find my portfolio and a few new pix every week that show my continued exploration in photography.
It will be interesting to see where this journey ends up, or whether I will actually ever grow up...
- Dan
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
More vacation photos
Continuing to slowly move through the photos, I have a few more from our western odyssey. These were all taken in Sequoia National Park.
CJ among the redwooods:
Taking photos on/next to a fallen giant:
The rest of the redwood landed in a meadow:
The girls share a giggle in front of the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on earth by volume. FWIW, I don't think you really need to clarify that kind of claim...
The moon over the trees in our campground, first thing in the morning:
Yes, I'm missing it!
CJ among the redwooods:
Taking photos on/next to a fallen giant:
The rest of the redwood landed in a meadow:
The girls share a giggle in front of the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on earth by volume. FWIW, I don't think you really need to clarify that kind of claim...
The moon over the trees in our campground, first thing in the morning:
Yes, I'm missing it!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Vacation - Family Style!
It took forever to finally arrive, but Meg, CJ and I spent almost two and a half glorious weeks on vacation in California. We did quite a bit of sightseeing: the really steep hills of San Francisco, the really big sequoia redwoods, the really big cliffs of Kings Canyon, the really interesting history of gold country, the really beautiful valley of Yosemite, and we even managed to go to a wedding at the end. (really, no fooling!)
It will take forever to sift through all the pics, sorry, but instead of posting them all at once I thought to post a few at a time. The whole lot, once finished, will get posted to our flickr account. And at some point soon, Meg will post a longer recap of Vacation: 2010.
Enjoy!
The view from Morro Rock in Sequioa National Park (when focusing on the moss on a dead branch):
.jpg)
The "Tunnel View" of Yosemite Valley, just before sunrise:
Yosemite's Half Dome, from Glacier Point, just after sunrise:
Little tree in the middle of a big cliff, viewed from Glacier Point, just after sunrise:
It will take forever to sift through all the pics, sorry, but instead of posting them all at once I thought to post a few at a time. The whole lot, once finished, will get posted to our flickr account. And at some point soon, Meg will post a longer recap of Vacation: 2010.
Enjoy!
The view from Morro Rock in Sequioa National Park (when focusing on the moss on a dead branch):
.jpg)
The "Tunnel View" of Yosemite Valley, just before sunrise:
Yosemite's Half Dome, from Glacier Point, just after sunrise:
Little tree in the middle of a big cliff, viewed from Glacier Point, just after sunrise:
Monday, July 12, 2010
Morocco, solo again
At the end of June, my job sent me to yet another corner of the globe, this time to Agadir, Morocco, for the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting. To start things off, while I was waiting to switch planes in the Casablanca airport, my wallet got picked -- on Father's Day no less. The meeting was as stressful and difficult as they all are. The World Cup provided a welcome relief, and the locals even tried to recreate a few games on the beach, but without the vuvuzelas.
Afterwards I tried to spend a few days in a very picturesque but crushingly poor town called Essaouira. The town was overrun by a music festival that was at times quite entertaining (and free, fortunately).
I've spent the past few weeks trying to recover, and reconnect with my family after too much travel over the past nine months. I'm going to try to post more regularly here, as it seems to be a better way of communicating than through facebook or twitter. But we'll see what the summer brings -- aside from an actual family vacation, of course.
Photos from Morocco can be found here.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Photos from Cairo
As I mentioned in the last post, after spending two weeks in Doha last month I decompressed for three days in Cairo. Decompress is probably the wrong word to use; Cairo is the most frenetic town imaginable. Great fun if you like to take photos, mine can be found here.
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Name this bird? (and I'm back)
After two weeks of CITES, the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (in Doha, Qatar), followed by a three-day stopover in Cairo and five days of yard work and household chores, I'm getting back into the swing of things.
Work should be interesting -- everything has revolved around CITES for the past six months. We failed miserably, getting absolutely no protections for eight endangered sharks and Atlantic bluefin tuna. It's time to put the experience in the rear view mirror and move on now.
I have plenty of photos from Cairo that will take a while to sort out, of course, but in the interim I thought we could play a round of "Name this bird."
I also have a photo of CJ amidst the cherry blossoms for those interested...
Work should be interesting -- everything has revolved around CITES for the past six months. We failed miserably, getting absolutely no protections for eight endangered sharks and Atlantic bluefin tuna. It's time to put the experience in the rear view mirror and move on now.
I have plenty of photos from Cairo that will take a while to sort out, of course, but in the interim I thought we could play a round of "Name this bird."
I also have a photo of CJ amidst the cherry blossoms for those interested...
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Crazy trip
At the end of January, I traveled on a crazy, four-city business trip that was probably the least stressful business trip I will ever take. The point of the trip was to meet with journalists, and everyone I work with claimed every single part of the trip. So I got to spin through Madrid, London, Doha and Dubai with nothing to do really but hold my spokesperson's coat.
One interesting side trip we took was to Doha's wholesale fish market. I found it interesting; for all my years in NY I never poked around the fulton fish market, only sniffing at it from a few blocks away (it's just north of the South Street Seaport).
That being said, here's the no-frills Doha fish market:
The "high" light of the trip was the Burj Khalifa, the newest tallest building in the world. To get to the observation deck on the 120th floor will run you US$130 if you just show up, but only US$30 if you book it week's in advance.
Instead, we ate dinner across from the reflecting pool and watched the show:
Not bad for a desert city, eh?
My photos from the trip can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/80262249@N00/sets/72157623294959739/
One interesting side trip we took was to Doha's wholesale fish market. I found it interesting; for all my years in NY I never poked around the fulton fish market, only sniffing at it from a few blocks away (it's just north of the South Street Seaport).
That being said, here's the no-frills Doha fish market:
The "high" light of the trip was the Burj Khalifa, the newest tallest building in the world. To get to the observation deck on the 120th floor will run you US$130 if you just show up, but only US$30 if you book it week's in advance.
Instead, we ate dinner across from the reflecting pool and watched the show:
Not bad for a desert city, eh?
My photos from the trip can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/80262249@N00/sets/72157623294959739/
Saturday, January 02, 2010
hot cocoa greetings
For those who haven't seen this yet, our apologies for getting it out so late!
And here's the appropriate follow-up shot, of course.
And here's the appropriate follow-up shot, of course.
Monday, December 21, 2009
snow day
I'm not quite sure what the official measurement was in our neighborhood, but I think we got about 20" of snow on Saturday. CJ had been sick all week, but needed a little motivation perhaps for getting better.
Our neighbor was quite helpful in showing CJ how to build a snow house.
It took a while to clear the driveway, but I managed.
All in all, it was a good weekend to have a home. But I'm a little sore this morning from all that shoveling...
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Brazil
The highlight/lowlight of November was a week and a half-long business trip to Brazil. It's always interesting checking out a new place. That's why it was a highlight. But if there is an enchanting location in Brazil -- and I'm sure there is -- we were pretty far from it. You won't see the petrochemical refinery two miles up the beach from where we were (I didn't photograph it). But let's just say that the ocean looked more like it does off Jones beach than in your typical pristine tropical venue.
We stayed at one of those all-inclusive resorts, and attended a big fisheries meeting at another. It's kind of hard to tell the resorts apart, although this one liked setting up for the day during high tide.
A large rock shelf blocked off the surf from the sand. It made for interesting photos, but not so much for swimming.
Here's the view with my back to the refinery. Fairy nice, but that water just doesn't have the blue sheen it should.
The egrets seemed pretty content with the place, although the tidal pools didn't hold much of anything except a bunch of sea urchins.
A few miles south of us was the tourist village of Porto da Galinhas. In ten days, we escaped to eat here three times. At least the water was a little cleaner here.
Porto da Galinhas is an hour south of the industrial port of Recife. The name means "Chicken Port," and it was one of the main ports used in the slave trade (chickens being derogatory slang for the slaves waiting to be sold). Now, the town takes its name literally, and chicken imagery is ubiquitous.
The town did have its unseemly parts, of course.
Recife, incidentally, is the shark attack capitol of Brazil. They filled in the estuaries along the coast where the bull sharks breed and built a nice strip of hotels on the beach. The only estuary left has a slaughterhouse upstream that is known for unregulated wastewater discharges. So the tourist hotels basically sit on a beach with a lot of confused bull sharks smelling blood in the water and not sure of where they're supposed to be. Very typical of Brazil, I think.
And for those who are curious, here's what the big meeting room looked like where I was stuck for all that time. Note that I was inadvertently filmed while taking the picture...
We stayed at one of those all-inclusive resorts, and attended a big fisheries meeting at another. It's kind of hard to tell the resorts apart, although this one liked setting up for the day during high tide.
A large rock shelf blocked off the surf from the sand. It made for interesting photos, but not so much for swimming.
Here's the view with my back to the refinery. Fairy nice, but that water just doesn't have the blue sheen it should.
The egrets seemed pretty content with the place, although the tidal pools didn't hold much of anything except a bunch of sea urchins.
A few miles south of us was the tourist village of Porto da Galinhas. In ten days, we escaped to eat here three times. At least the water was a little cleaner here.
Porto da Galinhas is an hour south of the industrial port of Recife. The name means "Chicken Port," and it was one of the main ports used in the slave trade (chickens being derogatory slang for the slaves waiting to be sold). Now, the town takes its name literally, and chicken imagery is ubiquitous.
The town did have its unseemly parts, of course.
Recife, incidentally, is the shark attack capitol of Brazil. They filled in the estuaries along the coast where the bull sharks breed and built a nice strip of hotels on the beach. The only estuary left has a slaughterhouse upstream that is known for unregulated wastewater discharges. So the tourist hotels basically sit on a beach with a lot of confused bull sharks smelling blood in the water and not sure of where they're supposed to be. Very typical of Brazil, I think.
And for those who are curious, here's what the big meeting room looked like where I was stuck for all that time. Note that I was inadvertently filmed while taking the picture...
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Making a Jack-O-Lantern
Step 1: take the top off of the pumpkin.
Step 2: take the seeds and junk out of the pumpkin (and separate the seeds for roasting).
Step 3: ask CJ to pick out a design from the jack-o-lantern design book (!) and then spend all afternoon carving out the intricate pattern that she selected.
Step 4: enjoy nifty jack-o-lantern.
Step 5: pose in front of jack-o-lantern before going trick-or-treating.
Step 6: for a nightcap, watch Charlie Brown's gang celebrate Halloween their own special way.
Repeat as necessary.
Step 2: take the seeds and junk out of the pumpkin (and separate the seeds for roasting).
Step 3: ask CJ to pick out a design from the jack-o-lantern design book (!) and then spend all afternoon carving out the intricate pattern that she selected.
Step 4: enjoy nifty jack-o-lantern.
Step 5: pose in front of jack-o-lantern before going trick-or-treating.
Step 6: for a nightcap, watch Charlie Brown's gang celebrate Halloween their own special way.
Repeat as necessary.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Apple and Pumpkin Picking
CJ and Tomoki took everyone apple picking this past weekend. The Pumpkin patch was an unexpected bonus. Everyone had a good time; it was one of those spontaneous and fun outings where nothing is really planned and not a whole heck of a lot actually happens but you have a great time doing it.
The LA Times had an article in today's paper declaring that kids age 2-5 watch an average of three hours and 48 minutes of video content daily (up eight minutes from last year). For what it's worth, we find the outdoors to be much more interactive.
The LA Times had an article in today's paper declaring that kids age 2-5 watch an average of three hours and 48 minutes of video content daily (up eight minutes from last year). For what it's worth, we find the outdoors to be much more interactive.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The fireplace is operational
The one good thing about a week of cold, wet and rainy weather is that it served as a great motivator. CJ enjoyed the first fire in our fireplace.
It's hard to believe we've lived in our new house for less than five months. There is no place like home when it's your home.
It's hard to believe we've lived in our new house for less than five months. There is no place like home when it's your home.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Cranes
One of my brother's favorite excursions was to the Middle-of-Nowhere, Indiana, to watch sandhill cranes fly south for the winter. His wife's family had a bit of a crane obsession, and they found an idyllic marsh where, every October, tens of thousands of cranes stopped for the night.
He would wax euphorically on the beauty and serenity that he found there, and one of my regrets is that I never drove 14 hours to spend a few cold and wet October days in this swamp with him.
At the beginning of this month, I attended the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin (an interesting affair on its own merits). Journalists being journalists, they spend one day of their conference checking out various environmental stories where ever they are. And for this year's meeting, one of the field trips was an exploration of the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge and efforts to reintroduce Whooping Cranes into the wild. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. (You'll find a few photos are at our Flickr page)
True to the spirit of the outing, the day was cold and wet. But I couldn't recommend it more. The International Crane Foundation is working closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to repopulate the whooping crane species. At one point after world war 2, there were only 14; now there are several hundred.
When the cranes are hatched, scientists and staff dress up in hazmat suits with a crane head puppet attached to one hand -- the mommy cranes, if you will. They train the cranes to fly south behind an "ultralight" plane cranking out crane songs while wearing the hazmat suits. And then one day in October, when the weather is as right as it can be, they head south. They fly 30-60 miles a day, land in pre-arranged backyards or parks (the whole journey is elaborately choreographed), and then in the spring the cranes magically head back north on their own.
Climate change threatens the whole operation, of course. Rising sea levels are driving out the cranes' favorite winter food, blue crabs, from their winter wetlands. In fact, projection show that these wetlands, in Texas regrettably, will be under water by the turn of the next century.
But despite this ominous future and tenuous present, the reintroduction program has had much success. And, for a day, I felt wonderfully close to my brother.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Remembering Bill Brainard
There are people you see in life whom you never quite go out of your way to connect with, whom you know would enrich your life but for whatever reason – distance, the routines of your respected lives, work, whatever – it takes far longer to make that connection than it should.
Bill Brainard was one those people, a completely honorable man who eschewed the pursuit of money for the pursuit of helping as many people as he could. He passed away several weeks ago.
While the loss I feel, for not connecting with him as best I could, is substantial, it pales in comparison to the loss that those in his immediate yet broad circle feel, for he helped an incredible number of people directly and substantially.
He was an attorney who worked on housing issues. I once worked on housing issues – trying to insert plans and incentives for affordable housing to be built into the luxury housing that the Bloomberg administration propagated throughout New York, a hypothetical tilt at windmills that never quite worked out (hence our flight to DC because it was more affordable).
The housing issues that Bill worked on were real and immediate, working to keep ordinary or hurting Americans in their homes as the inhumane banks and landlords tried to force them out when rents or mortgages went unpaid. He was a people person, and he embraced both his cases and his clients. Countless colleagues spoke at his memorial service of how special Bill made everyone feel – even as he performed the invaluable service of making sure they did not become homeless.
There is so much to be learned from such an unselfish life. And perhaps the worst of it is that there is one less teacher in the world today.
---
Photos from the reception after the memorial service can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/80262249@N00/sets/72157622291173687/.
If folks want access to other family photos, please shoot me an email.
Bill Brainard was one those people, a completely honorable man who eschewed the pursuit of money for the pursuit of helping as many people as he could. He passed away several weeks ago.
While the loss I feel, for not connecting with him as best I could, is substantial, it pales in comparison to the loss that those in his immediate yet broad circle feel, for he helped an incredible number of people directly and substantially.
He was an attorney who worked on housing issues. I once worked on housing issues – trying to insert plans and incentives for affordable housing to be built into the luxury housing that the Bloomberg administration propagated throughout New York, a hypothetical tilt at windmills that never quite worked out (hence our flight to DC because it was more affordable).
The housing issues that Bill worked on were real and immediate, working to keep ordinary or hurting Americans in their homes as the inhumane banks and landlords tried to force them out when rents or mortgages went unpaid. He was a people person, and he embraced both his cases and his clients. Countless colleagues spoke at his memorial service of how special Bill made everyone feel – even as he performed the invaluable service of making sure they did not become homeless.
There is so much to be learned from such an unselfish life. And perhaps the worst of it is that there is one less teacher in the world today.
---
Photos from the reception after the memorial service can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/80262249@N00/sets/72157622291173687/.
If folks want access to other family photos, please shoot me an email.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Out and about...
...and really enjoying the Mini...
Sorry for the delay in posting. FYI, I've started to upload more and more photos and video to our flickr account. If you want to see those (they're not available to the public, sorry) please join flickr (it's free, and simple if you already have email or something with yahoo) and let me know.
Sorry for the delay in posting. FYI, I've started to upload more and more photos and video to our flickr account. If you want to see those (they're not available to the public, sorry) please join flickr (it's free, and simple if you already have email or something with yahoo) and let me know.
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