Rye, Sussex in the Sunshine.

Hi folks,
Guess what an English blog tonight as we went out in the wonderful sunshine with our friend Adrianne and had a smashing day at the seaside.  We ended up not in the town centre but at one of my favorite parts, the Harbour.

This old hulk was looking a bit sad but I thought it would make an interesting scene perched on the mud, abandoned.

This Egret reminded us of the States as they were so tame over there.

This is the marsh with water flowing out into the sea, the wetlands are on both sides of the footpath leading out to the sea.

I think this boat had been on its first outing as the varnish looked brand new. (Adrianne's favourite)

Fishing boat on it's way out to sea to get our supper.

On the other side of the footpath was the wetland as the sun started to set.

As the tide had turned all the water was rushing back into the river.

Well that was a fantastic day, so its good bye from us all.

nite, nite, Luv Mike XX

Ruby Falls

Hi folks.

after the trains, a trip to Ruby Falls and a jaunt underground. This was great except for the lack of a tripod and the American way of rushing about, still it was good.

Just a bit of technical jargon these where all taken handheld with a Panasonic GH2 at between 800 and 1600 ISO as the lighting was not to good. The lens was a Panasonic  F 1-7, 20 mm with no zoom and as I said no tripod.

Arches where the Stalagmites and Stalactites have joined together.

You can just make out the steak and potatoes , sorry the light reflection was there.

Beautiful formations in the Caves.

I think the Elephants leg was a bit thin, but just use your imagination.

Top of  Ruby Falls

The lights were only on for 7 minutes and changed colours all the time which made it a job to get the white balance on the camera quite difficult. I must admit it was very nice to the eye and mesmerizing to watch.

Last a "sunset", the back of the cave was lit with a formation in the foreground.

That's it underground, lets see what the weekend bring here in the UK, thanks for looking.

nite, nite, Luv Mike. XX

Train Spotting

Hi folks,

just to continue on our journey in Chattanooga, we went to a railway siding to find the Choo Choo and this is what we found.

Lots of trains in a siding complete with a ticket office.

These old girls where wonderful even though they were outside they remained in pristine condition.

This was a working railway with a shop run by enthusiasts and amazingly a line at the rear which was actually used for Main Line trains.

We walked through the ticket office and onto the platform, after a minute or so we were greeted with this with a very loud horn.  Notice the two linked engines pulling the wagons, my this must be long.

As the train carried on past the station Sue started to count the rolling stock to see how many wagons there were.

Approximately five minutes later she counted 84 wagons with not a Guards Van in sight.  Wow

We then checked the timetable and a few minutes later our train arrived and we looked at each other in disappointment and it was an old diesel and not a steam loco. The steam loco is only used at weekends.

Still the carriages where nice and we loved the guard with his beard as he helped the few passengers off the train.

I then wandered up to the front to have a chat to the driver, a smashing bloke who was retired train driver and loved his part time job as you can see by the smile on his face.

Back in the town we found this hotel, the sign speaks for itself.

Hope you enjoyed the trip, you have now had trains, boats and planes.

nite, nite, Luv Mike XX

Next Stop Chattanooga!

Hi folks,

well the next stop is this town with loads going on, There's of course the Railway. a River, Ruby Falls, and a really nice town with an Aquarium so this meant a two day stop over.

Those following the blog will remember the "Boris" bikes.

Another clean and well looked after town with lovely buildings.

With it's own Theater.

Wonderful Architecture..

Nice River

And of course a Steamboat.

Short and sweet tonight, thanks for looking.

nite, nite, Luv Mike. XX

Last Night in Atlanta

Hi folks,

sorry no blog yesterday but a few things happened that stopped me from posting it. Still here we are again.

This the last one of Atlanta as after three days it was time to move on up country. As you know we went up the Westin Tower, that big round cylindrical tower I mentioned in the last blog, so up we go, over 723feet into the air with tripod in hand.

Feet firmly on the ground we shot up in the elevator to the 73 floor.

The light streak was from the floor which shot up the side of the elevator on the outside of the building as we traveled up.

At the top this area was above the Restaurant and below the revolving one above with views across the city.

In the distance was Capitol building with it's Gold Plated Dome.

The CNN building was well below us, you can see that it was built in sections of separate buildings with a roof over the top., quite a unique design.

This is Interstate 75 going north out of the city and head tail lights on a 10 second exposure.

As it got darker I started to get reflections from the lights behind me.

Covering the light behind with coats to stop the reflection this was the last shot before darkness fell and it made it impossible to photograph which was a shame.

This last shot show the lights that caused the problem, still I had a good innings and called it a night.

Thanks for dropping by.

nite, nite, Luv Mike XX

Looking into Atlanta

Hi folks,

Well what a lovely Saturday we have had here in the UK, rain and more rain. What do I do you ask, well I thought I would process a few more from our holiday so continuing on in Atlanta with the sun coming out, here's part 2.

Olympic Park with Westin Tower in the background (the round one) which we went up the following day and took the night shots.

Back in the park, the five Olympic rings I mentioned yesterday with the children having a wonderful

 time.

This was the Coca Cola museum also in the park.

It's one of the buildings we did not visit due to the time allowed and all the rest of the places we wanted to go to.

I have seen some sights but this one took the biscuit or fries in this case. (note the facebook name)

View of the Bank of America

The architecture in the city was fantastic with the use of light and glass.

The next three are my slant on reflected glass and the effect it has on the eye, look very closely at the next three images.

Half of the next day was taken up on this Aquarium which as blog followers will have seen is a spectical in it's own.

Well I hope you liked the trip around Atlanta.

Thanks for looking.

nite, nite, Luv Mike XX