Washington DC - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

I went on a trip to the US in 2013. I spent nearly three weeks there, most of it on the east coast.

I stayed with friends in Baltimore and went on an overnight trip to Washington DC, the nation's capital.

No tour of the city is complete without a look at the Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian is a museum which started off in this building below:

These were all taken with a Kodak instant digital camera.

I have to be honest, I'm not a big fan of space. I don't take much interest in happenings at NASA. Yet, I admit I have seen some Star Trek and I'm a Star Wars nerd, although not a fanatic, but that's science fiction.

I won't go into detail about each exhibit as let's face it, it's already available online elsewhere and I'm not about to show my lack of expertise. So I'll just give basic info. 

The air and space museum

Astronaut: 

CORE

This was a picture of a picture. I just liked it enough to photograph it.

Mapping

Information display on Astronomy

Mars Explorer: When something is in a case of some sort, it's difficult to get a good angle without the light bouncing off. It's also difficult when you have people milling about, getting in your shot.

Another explorer shot. Here's what I mean about the light bouncing off. It can affect the way it translates on your camera, and it's hard to know when to use the flash and when you don't. Some cameras have a setting that can, I suppose, measure the amount of available light and gauge whether the flash is necessary, but it can change the look of the final photo. 

Space shuttle: I can vaguely remember one of the first shuttles, just as I remember the one that exploded on lift-off killing everyone aboard. The Columbia, I think. Well, it was thirty years ago. I think my brother had a model of a shuttle when we were kids. 

  Another information board. As you can tell, another problem with light reflecting off.

Not sure what this was but it looks cool. 

Ditto.

Sputnik

As I say above, I'm not a space nut, but I do love flight. Mostly because I started flying lessons when I was very young and loved it. Unfortunately I'm too short-sighted to actually get my licence so I couldn't continue with the lessons. Maybe some day though. 

A plane cockpit. I forget if this was a specific plane. There was a plexi-glass shield preventing people from actually getting in the cockpit, so it may show a slight reflection. 

The Spirit of St Louis

Various planes, mostly around World War II. 

I'll continue in the next post with more Smithsonian. There were already too many photos for the Air & Space Museum. For someone not that big a fan, I sure took a lot of photos. 

Cape Reinga

New Zealand is a very beautiful country. There are some parts I have yet to see but I do intend to take a road trip one of these days. A few years ago I went with a friend to the Bay of Islands and we took a day trip to Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach.

Cape Reinga is at the very top of the North Island and a lovely place.

Overlooking the ocean

The lighthouse from the road

The Cape Reinga Lighthouse

I had a M*A*S*H moment

The lighthouse placard

The lighthouse with the signs

I think this was my attempt at getting a picture of where the Tasman and the Pacific meet

The rest are of course views from the hilltop

Melbourne, 2007

I went to Melbourne with a friend back in 2007 and stayed for a week. I love Melbourne. There's so much to see and do, and of course, Melbourne museum is famous for having the hide of Phar Lap, a legendary racehorse that won a number of races in the early 1930s and died in tragic circumstances. Sadly I cannot use the photo here as I have a friend in it, and don't have her permission to use her photo. I'm very strict on this.

I'll be posting photos in random order and not all of them will be perfect. As I said in my introductory post, I am strictly an amateur and I think it's a good idea to post your bad ones as well as your good ones.

In Melbourne, I was using a Fuji digital, similar to the 8600 Ultra Zoom out today. I liked this camera. It looked and felt like a 'real' camera. By that I mean the ones used by professional photographers as opposed to the 'Instant Photo'. Don't get me wrong, those cameras are good, but even as an amateur photographer I like feeling the camera lens in my hand.

I was once in a class at university on news journalism (about 20 years ago) and we had a newspaper photographer come in to give us a talk. These guys are fantastic and have a great eye for what works visually. This photographer told us it's not the camera, it's the photographer and I do believe that. He said it is possible to take even a disposable camera and take artistic shots with it, if you know what you're doing.

I don't have a lot of photography experience, so my photos do tend to look amateurish in comparison. I also don't have the confidence to take pics with a disposable camera, although One day, perhaps, I will be able to take a course in photography to take it to the next level, but meanwhile I will keep doing what I'm doing.

So without further ado, here are some shots from my visit to Melbourne.

I love tigers, at a distance, of course. Very beautiful animals. This was a trip to Melbourne Zoo. 

Also at Melbourne Zoo. 

Yes, Melbourne Zoo again. 

My nephew at the time loved helicopters (he was two), so I took this shot for him.

We took a boat along the Yarra river and I took this shot as we were passing. This was in October and it was amazing how dry it looked. 

A close-up shot of the fountain at Melbourne museum (cropped)

Outside Melbourne museum (cropped)

Introductory post

This blog is specifically for my photos. These are photos taken by me and copyrighted by me.

Let me start this off by saying I am strictly an amateur photographer. I have no photographic knowledge.

Some of my photos can be found on my Facebook page, although this page is strictly for New Zealand photos.

This blog will be for photos taken in New Zealand and elsewhere.

No person viewing this blog has permission to copy these photographs. Should you wish a printed copy of the photo, please contact me through this blog. Should you wish to link to this blog, please also contact me for permission. I don't mind if you do wish to link, but as a courtesy, please ask first.