Travel Photo of the Year Contest and Weekly Photo Challenge – Merge

Perito Moreno Glacier Calafate Argentina (Patagonia)
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Travel Photo of the Year Contest:

Bucket List Publications has chosen this photo as a finalist for their Travel Photo of the Year Contest! There are 18 finalists and I have some stiff competition. I would love your help!

You can vote every day for the next week. All you do is go see all  the finalists and click on this picture and click “like” (with the yellow star under the picture) or share to mark it as your favorite! You can send it to friends and family to encourage them to vote though Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and lots of other ways. It would mean a lot to get your vote!

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge

This week’s weekly photo challenge is a complex one. The topic this week is “merge.” The idea is to show items that don’t quite fit together. Here is my best attempt at this theme:

Deer in Boulder, Colorado
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Copyright JC Politi Photography

Baileys on a glacier in Patagonia
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Other interpretations on the theme:

• emerge « yi-ching lin photography
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge | So There’s This Thing
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge « komuter jakarta raya
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge « GrayPencil
• weekly photo challenge: merge « monkeymuesli
• Weekly Photo Challenge: MERGE | 撮影部
• Weekly Photo Challenge : Merge « a weirder fetish
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge | the howler and me
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge « MaanKind
• Merging « Ink.
• Merging Of The Elements | this man’s journey
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge (Panzano) | Adventures of a Carry-on
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge « Cee’s Life Photography Blog
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge « A Happy and Beautiful World
• Weekly Photo Challenge: MERGE (Shadows) « A drifter off to see the world
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge | A Number of Things
• Weekly Photo Challenge : Merge | Carra Design
• Hittin’ the Road Again | Lovin the Trip
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge | The Retiring Sort
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge | Autumn in Bruges

 

 

 

 

 

Travel Photo of the Year Contest and Travel Theme: Sunset

Perito Moreno Glacier, Calafate, Argentina (Patagonia)

Travel Photo of the Year Contest:

Bucket List Publications has chosen this photo as a finalist for their Travel Photo of the Year Contest! There are 18 finalists and I have some stiff competition. I would love your help!

You can vote every day for the next week. All you do is go see all  the finalists and click on this picture and click “like” or share to mark it as your favorite! You can send it to friends and family to encourage them to vote though Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and lots of other ways. It would mean a lot to get your vote!

Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack has issued a fun travel theme this week. The theme is Sunset. Here are a few of my favorite sunset photos and my favorite sunset song from Fiddler on the Roof. I danced with my Dad at my wedding to this song, so it is very special to me.

Ocean City, Maryland
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Grenada, Nicaragua
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Aspen, Colorado
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Sunrise, Sunset
Fiddler on the Roof

Is this the little girl I carried,
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older,
When did they?

When did she get to be a beauty,
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?

Sunrise, sunset .
Swiftly flow the days.

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as we gaze.

Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another,
Laiden with happiness and tears.

What words of wisdom can I give them,
How can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another,
Day by day.

They look so natural together.
Just like two newlyweds should be.
Is there a canopy in store for me?

Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another,
Laiden with happiness,
And tears

What do you think? Where was your favorite sunset? What does sunset mean to you?

I hope you will share your thoughts…and your VOTE! Thank you so much for reading!

Some of the other entries in the Sunset Travel Challenge:

Travel Theme: Sunset | a hectic life
Travel Theme: Sunset « Hunters Holidaying
SUNSET ANYONE? « Zeebra Designs & Destinations
Travel theme; Sunset « So where’s the snow?
Sunset | Canoe Communications
Travel theme: Sunset | One step at a time
Travel theme: Sunset | tahira’s
I can see Africa from my terrace! « East of Málaga
Travel Theme: Sunset « weird & cool stuff seen while out & about
travel theme: sunset | catbird in america
Travel Theme: Sunset | StandingStill
Travel theme: Sunset « Healthcare Updates
Travel theme: Sunset at Mopane | Have you ever…
Travel theme: SUNSET « scrapydo
Travel Theme: Sunset « A year in the Life
Travel Theme: Sunsets | rfljenksy – Practicing Simplicity
Travel theme: Sunset | Even A Girl Like Me
Travel Theme: Sunset | Eluding Ennui

 

 

 

 

Travel Photo of the Year Contest: I’m a Finalist and Need Your Vote!

Perito Moreno Glacier, Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina
Copyright JC Politi Photography

I am so excited! Bucket List Publications has chosen this photo as a finalist for their Travel Photo of the Year Contest! There are 18 finalists and I have some stiff competition. I would love your help!

You can vote every day until the contest ends. All you do is go see all  the finalists and click on this picture and click “like” or share to mark it as your favorite! You can send it to friends and family to encourage them to vote though Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and lots of other ways. It would mean a lot to get your vote!

As I have mentioned here many times, I have a lifelong dream of becoming a “real” photographer some day. This blog has inspired me to focus even more on this, through fun photo challenges like Ailsa’s Where’s Your Backpack and WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenges.

I turned 40 earlier this year and am dedicating my 40’s to my more creative side. My intellectual self has been well exercised in the past 30 years and it is time to give more attention to creative pursuits. I have invested in a “real” camera and am taking every class I can find.

The Canon in the National Park Series helped me learn a few more technical skills and has taken my photography to another level. Really, the sky’s the limit and I am going to put on my wings and get there! I would love your help.

What do you think? What have you dreamed of doing for years? What is stopping you? What is the next step to reach that dream?

I would love you hear your thoughts….and get your vote! Thanks so much for reading.

If you liked this, you might also like:

Canon Photography in the Parks and You Are Invited to a Photo Blog Party! 

Tuesday Tunes and Canon in the National Parks: Kodachrome

Travel Theme: Flowers and Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside and Purple

Travel Theme: Food

Where’s My Backpack’s Travel Theme this week is – one of my favorite things – food! So, without further delay, here are some of my favorite food photos:

 

Home, sweet home

With my Dad
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Patagonia, Argentina
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Handmade Pasta: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Copyright JC Politi Photography

An unbelievable, but typical dispay of meats in Buenos Aires
Copyright JC Politi Photography

El Cuartito Pizza, Buenos Aires aka the best pizza in the world!
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Remote Village in Nicaragua

Copyright JC Politi Photography

Local Bakers in remote Nicaraguan Village
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Copyright JC Politi Photography

Copyrght JC Politi Photography

Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement and Travel Theme: Night

I thought I would use one post to respond to both the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement and the Where’s My Backpack Travel Theme: Night.

First, movement:

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
– Muhammad Ali

Coyright JC Politi Photography

Copyright JC Politi Photography

Copyright JC Politi Photography

Next, night:

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lucerne, Switzerland
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Patagonia, Argentina
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Granada, Nicaragua
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Venice, Italy
Copyright JC Politi Photography

Travel Theme: Secret Places

Copyright JC Politi Photography

This week, Where’s My Backpack’s Travel Challenge post includes an enchanting description of a secret place in Times Square in New York City, where, simply by standing in the right place on top of the subway grates, people are serenaded by a symphony of bells and tonal sounds, which drowns out the noise of the city and creates a “secret peaceful island in the middle of a sea of chaos.” Please go check out her story – I dare you not to want to visit this secret space in New York City!

Copyright JC Politi Photography

When I thought about this travel challenge, I was immediately transported to one of my favorite places on earth – Patagonia, Argentina. Hundreds of miles down a dirt road, on our way to Villa Pehuenia, exhausted after hours and hours of driving, we were awestruck when we came upon the magnificent area in these photos.

As I thought more about this challenge, a song that we used to sing in Girl Scout Camp kept coming into mind. I have not thought of this song in over 25 years, but I loved the song then, and it still resonates with me. In fact, I think the song is even more special now, as I understand the words better than when I was younger.

I know a place where no one ever goes
There’s peace and quiet, beauty and repose
It’s hidden in a valley beside a mountain stream
And lying there beside it
I find that I can dream
Only of things of beauty to the eyes;
Snow-capped mountains rising to the sky.
Now I know that God made this place for me
For me, God made this place for me.
One can imagine herself as in a dream
Climbing up a mountain or down a small ravine
The magic of the peace and quiet ever shall stay
To make this place a haven every day
Oh how I wish I never had to leave
All my life such Beauty to receive
Now I know that God had made this place for me,
Oh yes, for me.