Back from the NW...and a profile

My wife and I were able to spend the first part of this month back in the Pacific NW--friends, family, familiar food and landscapes...


...and my new 'favorite hiking panorama' is this, stitched together from 8 photos, taken above Lake Colchuck during a hike in the central Cascades, about 2h45 out of Seattle, and not far from Leavenworth:

A perfect summer day: the peak in the middle is Dragontail Peak, with Aasgard Pass to its left...the jade color of the lake is caused by the presence in the water of 'rock flour'--glacially ground...

I also played with my iPhone a lot; to see some of those images, click here.

And, while up in Seattle, I was informed (and flattered) that I am being 'highlighted' with a little profile article on the website of the travel magazine AFAR...

"early blooms"...

...always a fun surprise to find a photo published in the morning paper:

"Around the World in Color"...two out of twelve...and voting still possible!

Afar, the travel magazine, recently posted this album on its facebook page:

...photos from yours truly...

--the first one circled is of the Astronomers' monument in Griffith Park, in the hills above Los Angeles:

(took and edited this on my phone)

The one underneath is one of my favorite photos from the year my wife and I lived in Nicaragua:

I was biking around the colonial university city of León, Nicaragua, running errands...a colorful building across the street caught my eye, and since I had my camera in my backpack, I stopped, got off my bike and took a couple of shots. But then, when I turned around to get back on my bike, I noticed that it was parked against THIS vibrant wall. Wow--COLOR! A humble wooden building, instead of the more typical stone-and-stucco structure--when I leaned the bike against the wall I hadn't even noticed it; I'd biked up and down this street many times without really seeing it. Stop and park. Notice.

AND--you can still vote for us for the 'Dream Trip Photo Contest!' 
(please please please...yes, this is shameless...)

Condé Nast tweeted this earlier today:

Thanks for your support!

"slow food in a fast country"...highlighted

...if you go to afar.com during the upcoming week, 

you'll get to the source of the staple of Korean food--rice paddies:

...and clicking on the link, here's the text of the highlight:

Here's more from that day...

(And please don't forget to go to condenasttraveler.com/dreamtrip from May 22 through June 11 to vote for the photo,"changing of the guard in Seoul," in the "Dream Trip" contest!)

finalist in Condé Nast Traveler, and...

Last summer, I took this photo while in Seoul--the re-enacting of the medieval changing-of-the-guard at Gyeong-bok-gung Palace:

Well, it turns out that this photo is now a finalist in the Condé Nast $25,000 Dream Vacation contest!
(I just found out this morning.) Out of the thousands of photos submitted, this will be one of twenty-five finalists that will be featured from May 22 to June 11 on their website...Unapologetically, I'm asking you to go to the Condé Nast website during those dates and 'vote.' Merci, gracias, & ko-map-seum-ni-da!

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...and,

This week, on the afar.com homepage:   

...and below is the highlight:

(always a thrill to be published)

the bird in the middle; from Costa Rica

...another week, another home-page feature on afar.com!

The selection of thumbnails of highlights changes weekly, but at least for this week, my parrot photo from Costa Rica is being featured...It's been fun to catch the eye of the editors at that travel magazine website...Below is the full highlight. 

lost in the desert spring; a highlighted photo

On the homepage of afar.com this week,

note the bottom middle thumbnail:

...a larger view of the photo-highlight,

taken a few weeks ago: