When I travel I often do a lot of walking just to familiarize myself with a city or a region. For many years I would go for a run when I would get to a city or town and quickly get a feel for the area. It’s always a great way to learn about a town’s history, architecture, commerce and it’s people. Unfortunately 30 plus years of hitting the road has finally caught up with me so I quit the running bit about four years ago.

I don’t always take a camera with me but I do sport a phone camera ( iPhone 4S ). The quality is impressive and it actually offers pretty good results in most instances. I have a lot of fun with Camera Awesome which is my “go to” app on the phone. The application offers lots features and the really fun part of the app is when you choose and finally “awesomize” a photo. Try it and you will see what I mean. What a hoot!

This time of year I have quite a few road trips and have had some fun and a few surprises on my photo walking tours.

A new acquaintance at the Cincinnati Museum of Modern Art

In Cinncinnati a few weeks back , my travel partner Gabriel Christus and I, while staying downtown, wandered over to the Contemporary Arts Center  to take in a Andy Warhol retrospective.

Thanks to Gabe, I managed to come away with a fun “tongue and cheek” portrait, from a unique art piece on the children’s exhibit floor… hey I am still a kid at heart.

The following week I was with travel partner Ben Hays. We took on a healthy hike over to a breakfast spot on a gorgeous Charlotte fall morning. On the way back we decided to take a detour and walk the Ballantyne Resort golf course to check out the fall scenery.

I had taken a handful of photos along the way but the one that was the biggest surprise happened to be in the corridors of the magnificent hotel.

As we headed down the long hallway filled with wonderful original Charlotte paintings by  artist Tom Vieth, I glanced to my right to see a elegant wedding dress hanging unattended on a mirror in a small cove nestled off the main walkway. I stopped abruptly, looked at Ben and said, “Did you see that?” We both chuckled and I said ” I got to get a photo of that”. Click, click and off we went amused by the find.

Ballantyne wedding dress

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