Ballet Le Reve

My wife loves ballet and when the local vineyard hosted the Ballet Le Reve "Ballet in the Pavilion" we decided to make a day of it watching the ballet and then enjoying late lunch on the piazza. The Pavilion overlooking Gervasi Lake was a beautify setting to watch these accomplished dance performers. We took a front row seat to watch the dancers and took a few pictures to capture the performance of the day.

Above is one of my favorite pictures, it captures the feeling of the day brought by these young ballet dancers.

Ballet Le Rêve is pre-professional dance company devoted to providing aspiring dancers with dance training, performing arts education, and a pathway to a professional dance career on regional, national, and international levels.

Want to see more pictures of the ballet? Follow this link to my photo website. If you would like to see more of Gervasi Vineyard follow this link.

You can find Gervasi Vineyard on the map below

 

Night Photography – Fireworks

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I took the above hand held pictures with a Sony DSC-H70 set on the "Fireworks" Scene Mode. These seemed like the right time of year to put up a few pictures from past fireworks shows I attended.

You can see the camera movement in all of the pictures, but it doesn't distract from the pictures in my opinion. It does come up with some interesting shapes and patterns.

See my night shot of the Disneyland Palace in this post.

Click on the pictures above to see a larger version and more information about each photo.

Gulls In Flight

It isn't easy taking pictures of birds in flight. Anytime you point your camera toward the sky you get back lighting, that usually means what you are taking a picture of will turnout too dark. Of course there is also the problem of a blurry picture if you don't have the shutter speed set properly. When everything works out you do end up with some great pictures and sometimes a few unusual pictures as well. The above picture was taken with a Nikon D90 at 1/400s shutter speed. The ISO was 200 which is the sweet spot for the D90.

The little girl was chasing the gull around until he took flight to get away. Photographed at Niagara Falls, Canada. For every good picture I have of a gull in flight, I have 10 others that are worthless. You have to learn to track the birds and keep them in full frame, and that is easier said than done. It is easier if the bird is flying toward you but then you miss out on some other good shots.

Gulls are a medium sized bird and can hover which gives you a good opportunity to get a good picture.

Click on the pictures above to see a larger version and more information about each photo.

 

1955 Packard Up Close

These 1955 Packard photos are up close and personal.  Not a lot of long or medium shots here, mostly close-up shots to reveal more of the finer details.

The 1955-1956 Packards would be the last built in Detroit.

The 1955 Packard was not a new body, but the company did restyle the car for 1955.

Niagara Falls Queen Victoria Park

Instead of the usual pictures of the falls here are a few pictures of Niagara Falls Queen Victoria Park, Canada. There is more to see at Niagara Falls that just the water falling over the Horseshoe Falls. The park has great views, beautiful flower gardens and a very calm and less busy place to relax and enjoy the view.

The first picture in this post of the  flowers and the American Falls is the view from the police department (picture just above). At least the view is pleasant if the work isn't always the same.

Samuel Zimmerman built the fountain for $12,000 just before his death in 1857.

Click on the pictures above to see a larger version and more information about each photo

On The Road – Mbombela Rural

Another example of what you can see while "On The Road". Driving in South Africa in Mbombela Rural we stopped by the roadside to see "Old Joe".

The sign in the picture above explains the story of Joe and his contribution to building the highway that was completed in 1927. Joe was obviously a great man to be loved by his co-workers so much that they put this stone in place to honor and remember him.

As I mentioned in my first "On The Road" post sometimes the drive from one place to another can lead to some interesting finds. Old Joe is certainly one of those rare finds that isn't a destination and many people will never get to see when visiting South Africa.

The map below shows where you can find Old Joe