Corazón del Fuego

Wanting to get a closer look at Fuego, a highly active volcano in Guatemala, Andrew Shepard hiked the adjacent Acatenango Volcano and camped near the summit. “Under the moonlight I set my tripod up just outside the tent, and at around 1:30 a.m. we awoke to the rumbling of the ground and the sound of a breath-stealing explosion,” Shepard writes. “I scrambled to the camera just in time [to] capture a moonlit and lava-covered Fuego as it put on this beautiful display of activity and power."

CDP Theme Day - Camera-shy Self-Portrait

I went with the still-life, in a valiant attempt to show my geeky character, rather than physical appearance. Visit here to check out other self-portraits from the City Daily Photo world.

April 2015 Theme Day: My Camera-Shy Self Portrait

Mein Beitrag zum heutigen Thementag - Fotografenschatten inmitten von Primeln.

My contribution to this theme day - photographers' shadow amongst a lot of primroses.

Andere Beiträge - Other Articles

Circular instructions for the gray wall - on Main Street

Boat at rest - Lake Sumter Landing

Traffic Horizontally And Vertically

Individual- und öffentlicher Verkehr auf der Pragstraße.

Individual and public traffic on Pragstraße.

Spiritual Niche

Construction vehicles work the ground at the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang in Henan Province, China. Situated along both banks of the Yi River, the site’s numerous caves and niches house thousands of Buddhist statues carved from the stone cliffs. Longmen’s works—including nearly 3,000 inscriptions—were carved during the late Northern Wei and early Tang dynasties, with the earliest carvings dating to the late fifth century.

Spring Gardening, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Spring gardening begins at the Colonial Williamsburg nursery with an array of time period appropriate tools.

Busking with a Settimio Soprani, no less!

There are 15 "Busking Pitches" around Circular Quay; this is CQ9 which is a "Walk By Area" only, meaning no gathering a crowd into an arc around you, as you would obstruct the passageway in such a busy area. Busking around CQ is controlled by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, rather than the City of Sydney. This chap, European to his bootstraps, was the most subdued busker I have seen in a long while. Possibly goes along with his choice of instrument. He played mainly European art-house tunes and folk music. The Settimio Soprani accordian is built in Castelfidardo in central Italy, the first having been built not long after the annexure of the Marche area in 1860

Caught on Camera

A camera trap near Yellowstone National Park catches a grizzly bear stealing whitebark pine nuts from a squirrel’s cache. The nuts are an important food for the bears, a threatened species.

See more pictures from the April 2015 feature story “The Bug That’s Eating the Woods.” Photographer Drew Rush talks about the story behind the shot on our photography blog, Proof.

Family Golf Car

Boat ramp with low flying pelican

VDP hors les murs : le salon Oberkampf

This is Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf's drawing-room, that has been reconstituted after a contemporary drawing. The Toile de Jouy on the walls is magnificent (though naturally not everyone would want to live in a flowered interior!)

Le salon de Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, reconstitué d'après une œuvre contemporaine. La toile de Jouy aux murs est splendide (même si elle n'est pas au goût de tout le monde !)

Below is the royal manufacture's signature from 1792 until 1820!

Ci-dessous, la signature de la manufacture royale de 1792 à 1820.

Get me to the church on time!

The roundabout at the bottom of Macquarie Street north. I am standing close to the security booth at the entrance to the Opera House. On the right is the collection of swanky apartments collectively known - by riff-raff like me - as the "toaster". On the left is the quarry wall from which much of the sandstone was hewn in 1838 by George Barney and his convict-gang, to construct "semi-circular quay". Atop the sheer sandstone face sits a railing that marks the edge of the Tarpeian Way, between Macquarie Street and Government House in The Domain. Is this a Cadillac?

Ted goes to the dark side

All the Fish in the Sea

Jeff Hester was drawn to make this image because, he says, “I believe this is what our oceans should look like.” But Cabo Pulmo, a marine park off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, hasn't always been this way. “In 1995, [the] park was established by local citizens to counteract depleted reef fishes and marine life due to overfishing,” he says. “Today, the biomass is booming, and the ecosystem is returning to a healthy state. For this particular image, I wanted to show some scale ... so I had my wife, seen in the foreground, swim ahead of me.”

VDP hors les murs : la coupole du château de l'Eglantine

First things first, once you have entered Sweetbriar castle (you can see the reception desk through the door) you have to look up! VDP loves that Toile de Jouy deer!

Après l'accueil (visible ici par la porte) au château de l'Eglantine, on passe sous une coupole ! VDP adore le cerf en toile de Jouy !

Sydney Skyline - from the Opera House

Taken from the top of the Opera House Steps, facing south-west.

Top of the Ladder

Cincinnati Fire Department recruits participate in a morning drill. The assignment? Climb to the top of a hundred-foot aerial ladder. Adam Schierberg, also a firefighter, positioned himself at the top of a drill tower to get this shot. “My intention was to capture the intensity of the climb by taking a vertical approach that also captured [the] anxiously awaiting candidates,” he writes.

Royal North Shore Hospital - shades of the times

Royal North Shore Hospiatal (see how British we still are!) is the closest public (government) hospital to where I live. I was there yesterday, but arrived by foot rather than ambulance. I was struck by the contrast of the "new" hospital when compared with the main building of the original 1909 hospital. Both my children were born in this hospital. Indeed, I spent the last month of my second pregnancy in here twiddling my thumbs, because I was losing weight.

North Shore means north of the harbour. Sydney is thought of in terms of north, south, east, and west, each area having its own stigma. This is not definitive, just my take: North is for the well-off middle classes, the professional elites; south is for the would-bees, the cashed up middle classes; east is for the monied-class, who primarily inherited it all from dadda; and, west is the hoi-polloi, the great-unwashed, the aspirational working class. Hah! Oh boy, is THAT gunna get me into strife ...

VDP hors les murs: le château de l'Eglantine

For a few days and exceptionally, VDP is taking you out of Versailles! Not far away mind you, the little town of Jouy-en-Josas is a mere three miles South of the city limits and is part of Versailles Grand Parc grouping of local authorities. This is Sweetbriar castle. It was built towards the very end of the XIXth century and houses the Toile de Jouy museum which VDP visited a couple of weeks ago for the first time! It so happens that 2015 is the bicentenary of the death of Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, the genious who founded the royal manufacture of Jouy fabrics in 1759! Below are two interesting paintings exhibited inside the museum.

Pour quelques jours, exceptionnellement, VDP vous emmène hors de Versailles. Pas très loin remarquez, puisque la jolie petite ville de Jouy-en-Josas se trouve à cinq kilomètres au Sud de la limite de Versailles et fait partie de la communauté d'agglomération de Versailles Grand Parc. Voici le château de l'Eglantine, construit à la toute fin du XIXè siècle. Il abrite le musée de la toile de Jouy que VDP a visité pour la première fois il y a une quinzaine de jours. En effet, 2015 est l'année du bicentenaire de la mort de son génial fondateur, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf qui fonda la manufacture royale en 1759 !Ci-dessous, deux intéressantes peintures exposées dans le musée.

View of the Toile de Jouy manufacture in 1807 during a visit of emperor Napoléon I (pictured on the right) by Jean-Baptiste Huet. Next to nothing remains of the place!

Vue de la manufacture en 1807 lors d'une visite de Napoléon I, visible à droite, par Jean-Baptiste Huet.

Oberkampf and his children, 1803, after Léopold Boilly. Sorry this one is a bit blurred!

Oberkampf et ses enfants, 1803, d'après Léopold Boilly. Désolée, celle-ci est un peu floue !

Trapped

An amusing modification of the no entry sign.

Spring Fashion, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Just as the weather warms, dapper young couples stroll Duke of Gloucester Street in Colonial Williamsburg wearing the newest fashion.

Wren Chapel, College of William And Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia

The Wren Chapel, located in the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary is the site of many alumni weddings.

People Watch - SOH

It seems to me that, once people are actually in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, they cannot believe their eyes and their good fortune. A bit like wandering The Mall, and wow, there is Buckingham Palace. Or standing aways down the Champs-Elysees, and wow, there is the Arc de Triomphe. And there are no cars. Very few in the forecourt, none around the foreshore. The entire Sydney Cove thing still blows my brain each and every time I wander down there.

Classified by the National Trust - 83 York Street

"Paul Reader" is a winter sport's store at 83 York Street, in the city. The firm was established in 1956 by Paul Reader, who tried most of the major north-south streets, before settling on York Street in 1987, when son took over from father. Classified by the National Trust, this ten-storey building was built in 1913 with a brick and sandstone facade. It was refurbished by Lipman's in 2001 and is currently valued at $90m. The dyadic neon sign caught my eye. They are not much in fashion nowadays, this style of neon sign. There is a very small winter sport industry in Australia, as the arrival of snow is unreliable, as is its quantity when it does arrive.

Symbol of Love

Love is on the fence.

Grueling Coursework

Policemen in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh are put through a grueling commando course at the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College, in Kanker. In India’s mineral-rich jungles, Maoist militants called Naxalites have found a foothold through violence and extortion. Chhattisgarh is among two states with the worst record of Naxalite violence.

See more pictures from the April 2015 feature story “How Coal Fuels India’s Insurgency.”

Lynsey Addario talks about going beyond her comfort zone to make powerful images, on Proof.

Samuel Kummer à Saint-Louis pour le carême

Last Sunday a Lent organ concert was held in Saint-Louis cathedral. The cathedral's great organ was commissioned by Louis XV in 1759 and executed by Louis-Alexandre and François-Henri Clicquot. 12x10 metres (39.37x38.8 ft), it weighs 53 tonnes (116845lb) and has 3131 tubes (VDP had shown it to you before)! It is a wondrous joy to listen to, especially as the guest star of the concert was Samuel Kummer, chief organist of the famous Frauenkirche in Dresden (Germany), who marvellously played four hands with his wife, Irena Renata. VDP isn't a great Camille Saint-Saëns fan so patiently sat through his Carnival of the Animals (admittedly masterfully interpreted) before thoroughly enjoying some Johann-Sebastian Bach, whose 330rd birthday (plus one day) was thus celebrated in Versailles! The concert gave VDP an opportunity to take a few detailed shots of the splendid organ... Too listen to Bach interpreted by S. Kummer in his church of Dresden, click here.

Dimanche dernier, le concert d'orgue de carême avait lieu en la cathédrale Saint-Louis. Le grand orgue (que VDP vous avait déjà montré) fut commandé par Louis XV en 1759 et exécuté par Louis-Alexandre et François-Henri Clicquot. Il mesure 10 x 12 mètres, pèse 53 tonnes et compte 3131 tuyaux répartis en 46 jeux sur 3 claviers et pédalier. C'est un grand bonheur de pouvoir l'entendre résonner, surtout que dimanche, l'organiste invité n'était autre que Samuel Kummer, l'organiste titulaire de la célèbre Frauenkirche de Dresde qui joua à quatre mains avec son épouse, Irena Renata. VDP n'est pas une énorme fan de Camille Saint-Saëns et attendit donc patiemment durant son carnaval des animaux pourtant magistralement interprété, pour pouvoir pleinement apprécier Jean-Sébastien Bach, célébrant ainsi à Versailles avec un jour de retard le 330ème anniversaire de naissance. Le concert fut l'occasion de prendre en photo quelques détails de l'orgue... Pour écouter S. Kummer jouer du Bach en l'église de Dresde, cliquez ici.

And finally, a not so good picture of Samuel and Irena Renata Kummer!

Et pour finir, une photo un peu ratée de Samuel et Irena Renata Kummer !