This bird’s eye view of Seventh Avenue seems like quintessential New York City to me with the yellow cabs standing out as a pattern of bright spots in the late afternoon sun. (Another location in Manhattan to get this kind of view is from the pedestrian bridge on Columbia University’s campus.)

New York City is also known for the rooftop water tanks, and these two caught my attention against the blue sky. The tanks and the windows also make a study of same yet different…

This urban art bring whimsy to the view of the monotonous window grid.

Descending from the High Line into Chelsea Market, I enjoyed the display of aromatic spices. They reminded me of my visit to Istanbul, Turkey. New York is quite the international city; you hear foreign language spoken often on the sidewalks.

What could be more traditionally American than apple pie and Oreo cookies? This graphic that looks like a very early advertisement is a wall mural inside Chelsea Market. Does it bring you back 50 years?

New York City is a place filled with visual interest. I hope you enjoyed some of these sights from my Sunday afternoon walk.

From the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris to Central Park in New York, I love to see city residents enjoying their beautiful parks on the weekends. In New York, there is a new and uniquely shaped park space called the High Line. It is a landscaped elevated walkway on the lower West Side that runs one mile from 14th to 30th Streets at times over Seventh Avenue. I had heard about it from friends and seen photos on Facebook, but I had never experienced it myself until April 21. Since it was a sunny and mild Sunday in early Spring, lots of New Yorkers were out enjoying the fresh air and the chance to walk without having to cross streets every block. Some were even sunning on the benches around 23rd Street.

I thought it was really cool to see the design elements that echo the train track theme, since the High Line was originally an elevated West Side Line of the New York Central Railroad. Look how the landscaping fits in around these stone shapes that resemble railroad ties.

Here you can see the old rail tracks themselves amid the new landscaping as well as the pedestrian bridge that leads to a stairway to the sidewalk. Of course, there are elevators for those who need them.

There are lots of cool urban views to see from the High Line, so you may want to bring your camera. I saw many others toting DSLRs. Don’t bring your dog, skateboard, bike or boom box — all of which are prohibited. Check this blog again next week for more photos from the High Line.

After a long gray winter, early spring in New York City’s Central Park is tantalizing. We enjoyed the glorious sunny weekend of April 20 with our daughters in the City. The weekend began with a delightful walk through Central Park from the southeast corner — Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, by the landmark Plaza Hotel. From that busy corner, we wandered the path going northwest to the lake and boathouse. Along the way, we found cherry trees in blossom. They looked beautiful as they surrounded this Art Deco lamp post.

Here is another view of the cherry tree and the lamp post that includes this graceful marble bridge in the background. These two photographs demonstrate how different viewpoints and lenses can provide a completely different perspective on a scene. The following photograph also contains a foreground, middle ground and background — traditional components of landscape photography as well as painting.

I also admired the willow tree. Its curvature adds grace to the scene that includes the lake and tall buildings along Central Park West. Ducks add visual interest, and the blue sky added pleasing coloration to the water.

In my landscape photography, I look for strong compositional elements that occur naturally. In the next photo, look at the curvature of the lake/grass border and how it embraces the lower part of the image. On the top of the photo, the branches of an unseen tree help to frame the top of the image. The pedestrians help to give the image scale and allow the viewer to visualize himself or herself in the scene. These compositional elements are concepts that I learned as I studied Baroque painting, but I apply them to my photography. When I see these visual elements come together in a scene, photography is fun. I say, “Yes!” Fortunately, my family has learned to be patient while taking walks with me and my camera.

We continue to explore the natural beauty of southwest Florida, this time with a visit to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary about 30 miles east of Naples. Friend and photographer Lane Wilkinson and I spent about four hours observing tropical plants, enormous cedars, a variety of birds and alligators and the symbiotic relationships between the many forms of life. One unique plant form that captured our attention was the white and rosy lichen growing on the trees and fences within the swamp. I have observed white and green lichen before in woodsy environments from Florida north to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but I had never seen the rosy shade.

Accomplished photographer and active conservationist Connie Bransilver helped us to understand and appreciate what we saw. Lane introduced me to Connie, who we happened to meet that day at Corkscrew, and I emailed Connie later about the lichen. Connie explained to me that the rose and white lichen shown here in my photos, Baton Rouge lichen, is plentiful and beautiful in the Corkscrew ecosystem but rare elsewhere. I knew we had encountered something special! As Lane said, “We are likin’ the lichen!” First, see it on the fence and the tree, and then enjoy the detail in the close-ups. I can’t wait to share these with my favorite micro-biologist, Diane Krill!

Welcome back to Cathy Kelly’s photography blog after a brief interruption during which I needed to care for my Australian Shepherd, who fell ill suddenly. (Happy to say she is making a courageous comeback.) We are going to take a short detour from the tour of marketplaces in Asia, but I promise to resume the Asian tour in a few weeks. This detour brings us to Naples, Florida in April 2013 — where the nature and wildlife can easily draw a photographer’s attention and keep her busy. Naples is located in SW Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. All you can find further south of Naples is the Everglades — a national park filled with estuaries full of alligators, birds and lots of amazing wildlife. Even though Naples caters to Snowbirds (Adults from the colder climates of the NE and Midwest looking for warm, sunny weather) and vacationers with a fabulous array of shops and restaurants, Naples offers so much in the Nature department. First and foremost, a visitor can enjoy a glorious sunset just about every evening. Imagine a large orange orb plunging into the Gulf waters…

Today, I will share with you views of the Gulf and beach from the historic Naples Pier — the place where visitors arrived by boat earlier in the century. Today it is a popular place to watch the sun set and the moon rise and to feel the wind in your hair. Both of these photographs look southeast back toward the shore at dusk. I find serenity here.

The marketplace was another scene that fascinated me while I traveled in Asia. Like the farm, the market represents a “down to earth” experience that I find missing in my daily American life. It reminds us of the simplicity of life within small communities before modern transportation, refrigeration, packaging and supermarket shopping changed lifestyles around the world.

While traveling in China, Thailand and Vietnam I found beauty in the natives bringing their food and artifacts to market. This post begins a new theme, MARKETPLACE, for my blog. And I begin with my favorite image — an old woman in Shanghai, sitting with her large cart of fresh vegetables. I share this image with you in both color and black and white. I think the monochrome image helps to make the scene timeless. Was this 2008 or 1958?

And rendered in monochrome with Silver Efex Pro:

I hope you noticed the bikes in the background. This is a foreshadowing of a future theme in my photography. I will be sharing with photographs that feature bicycles and mopeds in the future.

It’s pretty natural to talk about pearl shopping in China, after talking about silk shopping in China. The umbrella topic of shopping in China is one of my favorite topics. As my husband discovered long ago, I love to shop overseas and China is one of the last great places on Earth where the American with U.S. dollars can find outstanding value. Europe has become oh, so expensive.

Prices aside, the selection of both pearls and silk in China (and Vietnam and Thailand) is extraordinary. My daughter advised me to come to China with a list, so I knew who was on my gift list and what types of clothing my wardrobe could use most. A visit to a pearl peddler, a silk shop or a tailor can be mind boggling, as the choices will blow you away.

My Canadian friend Louise was pretty excited about pearl and silk shopping, too. Louise’s friend brought us to this tiny but wonderful shop near the Bund in Shanghai to buy some pearls for ourselves and our families and friends. Yes, they were affordable, and the ladies would even create a new necklace or pendant for us on the spot, if we dreamed up a design that was not already assembled. October 26, 2008 was a very fun day!

If you couldn’t find something you liked here, there would definitely be something wrong with you!

When I was returning to the U.S. by air and passing through U.S. Customs, the agent was suspicious that I was bringing back merchandise to sell. No, I explained, there are lots of girls in my family, and all these are gifts.

I like to personalize my posts and travel stories. Here I asked my daughter to pose with the pearls we had laid out on the counter to purchase. Louise and I were taking a long time to make all these decisions. I hope someday I can go back…

I was telling a friend about Louise and I venturing off to Longjing China to hike the tea plantations in a taxi, where we had an impermeable language barrier with the driver. She laughed and shook her head, and said, “I would probably go shopping or something!”  I admitted that Louise and I did go shopping the following day . Hangzhou is also known for its silk market — a few miles of outdoor stalls selling countless variety of scarves, ties, pajamas…mostly scarves. Well, I can go just as crazy shopping for silk scarves as I can shopping for pearls in China. I came home from this trip with enough pearls and scarves to open a small shop. I had to assure the customs agent that I did not in fact plan to restock my retail shop!  Oh yes, I have a few stories about passing through customs.

Anyway, I thought we shouldn’t leave Hangzhou without sharing our fantastic day of scarf shopping. Louise and I decided on this day that we were perfectly matched travelers, and  that our husbands would not have gone along with a full day of shopping before it was time to catch the train back to Shanghai. This photo sets the scene.

I found many beautiful scarves that became wonderful gifts to family and friends when I returned home. They are so easy to pack: taking little room in the suitcase and of course non-breakable. As a gift, a beautiful scarf always gets “oohs and aahs,” and they are much easier to select for others than jewelry. Gee, talking about it makes we want to go back!  Louise was also looking for a yellow and black scarf at a good price point to give to members of the cross country running team when she returned (Quaker Valley colors). In this photo, you can see that she finally found it — after hours of searching

While shopping, I still kept my eye out for interesting scenes on the street. I am always attracted to the marketplace in my travels. In China, the marketplace is everywhere, thanks to street vendors. This one was selling fruit — pomelos perhaps?

Just wondering today if I had photographed another farm in a faraway land…and I remembered that October day (2008) when my friend Louise and I hiked a tea plantation in east China. So, how did this plan develop for the unlikely pair? We are one Canadian and one American, neighbors in Pennsylvania (USA), English speakers and pretty good French speakers, but not Mandarin Chinese speakers. Louise and I flew to Shanghai to visit my daughter Caitlin, who was working there for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Both Louise and I love to travel, and I visited Louise when she lived in Paris (2004). Like me, Louise is an intrepid traveler and was experienced traveling in Asia (since she once lived in Taiwan and Indonesia). So, we took the high speed train out of Shanghai for an overnight trip to Hangzhou during the week. We had reserved a room at the Sofitel and had plans to follow Caitlin’s tips on what to do in Hangzhou. (Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province in the Yangtze river delta, is 110 miles SW of Shanghai and home to 21 million people. It is famous for its scenic West Lake and pagoda.)

Caitlin had recently visited two of her American friends in Hangzhou (all three speak Mandarin fluently), and they had enjoyed hiking through the tea plantations in Longjing — a rural area about 30 minutes by taxi out of Hangzhou. The concierge at the Sofitel was able to explain to the taxi driver to please drop us off at a tea plantation, and wait for us, and bring us back to the hotel a few hours later. So, without a common language between us and the cab driver, off we went to hike and photograph the tea plantations.  Upon arrival, we were impressed with mountainsides lined with rows of tea bushes.

So we walked the paths up one mountain and then the next, looking for different vistas and tea workers. Here is a photo of Louise along the path.

Of course, all we could do was wave and smile when we encountered a person. Fortunately, the farmers didn’t seem to mind.

The vistas, the shapes found in the fields and the simplicity of the rural scene were beautiful. It was a good location for some candid photography.

Next week, I will post a few more photographs from the tea plantations including one of Louise and myself sitting down to taste the Longjing tea where a nice lady invited us (with sign language), apparently hoping we would buy some to take home.

While traveling between Hanoi and Halong Bay in Vietnam, we came upon some men and women working in flooded rice paddies. It was planting season. We were fascinated to see the water buffalo dragging the plow, and the women bending over to pick and separate the seedlings. Surely, we were far from home, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.  The climate was much warmer in Vietnam, too. It was early February, 2008. I hope you enjoy these photos I took after I hopped out of the van for a closer look.

I saved the best for last. I captured the graceful curve in the worker’s arm. This image reminds me of the grace and beauty of the farmer in 19 century French painting. I have made a beautiful and unique auratone print with this image. It is a gem, in my opinion.