Sunday, April 17, 2011

Köln in all my Glory!!!!

Yesterday the daughter and I went to Köln (Cologne) with some friends. We drove for over 2 hours, and my dumb ass forgot the Dramamine and we had to stop because the daughter started to get nauseated. But I did get to photograph people, and I ended up with an interesting photo of my daughter in front of the cathedral that looks like I photo-shopped her in there!


When we first got there we parked up on the roof of a parking garage and had to walk down because there were no elevators; forget taking stairs, we had a tandem stroller and a regular stroller, not fun on stairs (might have been interesting though!). We were hungry and decided to eat at the "Chicago Steakhouse"- apparently having giant murals of Jordan on the wall when you first walk in make it a Chicago type grill.

My daughter ordered a hamburger, and I ordered the Texas something or other that consisted of ribs and a steak. The hamburger was just that, a burger, no bun or anything else you expect a burger to have. My ribs were slathered in some really odd "BBQ sauce", and I put that in quotes because it looked and tasted nothing like BBQ sauce- thinking back I probably should have taken a picture, damnit, oh well... the steak had no flavor so I decided that when Germans try to make "American food", they should not... they. just. should. not.

Right outside of the restaurant was the cathedral.


It is so Gothic, I love it!

Me and my daughter... I just noticed yesterday with this pic that she is almost as tall as me!

I hate posing for pics... and I think I need some sun!

At the entrance of the cathedral

This was right in front of where people light those candle thingies... leave me alone, I am not Catholic!

Inside the cathedral, there were those men in red robes all over with wooden boxes hanging around their necks... I am assuming they were expecting donations?


 The cathedral prompted a lot of questions from my daughter, like how do they make stained glass windows? What is confession? When I explained what a confession was in the Catholic faith she replied "That makes no sense." I told her "Honey, that is Catholicism."

 Does anyone else get depressed seeing these things??
My daughter loved this window, though she says it looks WAY better in person!

It was fun explaining to the little kids what a crypt was. I told them it is where they put the dead people... and when little children do not behave they are thrown down there with them. Yes, I seriously said that.

Not sure what this is, but it was right up front. 


Some tapestry that was VERY old! At least close to 500 or more years old! To be honest, a lot of the things in that cathedral were 500 years old or older.

I had only taken his picture, and left a tip... then he wanted me to take my picture with him.

I love Raymond!

AAAAH!!!!! DUNKIN DONUTS!!!! We were in heaven! You realize this is the first time since we arrived in Germany that we have seen a Dunkin Donuts??? When I bought 8 to bring home they were gone within 15 minutes of me walking through the door!

This was a T-Shirt... I should have bought it for AG...

Ok, next time I go to Cologne I am buying this stuff for AG...

Seriously, I think he would appreciate it, don't you??

I love the graffiti here! If only Americans could be as artistic in their tagging of walls!

A fountain outside of the gelato, Starbucks, etc... it was actually a wall with a fountain and a flower bed in front of it.

The next trip is in the works of being planned. I love to travel, and I love seeing new things. I think the next trip might be to Luxembourg... but I am not sure. My creativity has been sparked again and I have a few new ideas for blogs, so "like" my Facebook page, subscribe to my blog, become my stalker, leave me poetry, send me lavish gifts... you know, whatever makes me feel appreciated!!!!

Köln and people, not too shabby!

So here is my attempt at photographing people. I had fun, and they were happy at my attempts to take pictures... so here goes!
This little girl's eyes had me captivated. I am not sure why, but I could not stop staring at her through lunch!

Such a happy little girl!

My friend's daughter with her tongue perpetually sticking out!

I am not sure how I took this picture and made my daughter look like she was never there and I photo-shopped her in!
Damn the barrier thingie, but she got a good pregnancy pic in an epic spot!

I still have no idea what he was making....

Beautiful! I was thoroughly impressed with her artwork! 

He barked at me after I gave him a donation!

This man was having so much fun playing with and posing with the street artists!

Not quite sure what she was supposed to be, but I love her look; such a soulful look to her eyes.

This was pretty good, but I HATED the nose!

I wonder how much time it takes these people to get ready in the morning??

Charlie caught me sneaking a pic of him!
My daughter eating some strawberry gelato

I swear everywhere we turned there were men standing on the side of the road to take a piss!!!

So there you go, I do think it will take some time and practice but I will get better at taking pictures of people... I just really do not like posed photgraphs!

Friday, April 15, 2011

The question is...

Can I photograph people? I love taking pictures, and friends have asked me to take pictures of them, but I am so scared! What if they look HORRIBLE?!?!?!

Today I went over to my neighbors back yard. Her cats were outside playing and I "happened" to have my camera with me (well I DID get my new lens in today). Cats are so easy to take pictures of...

Take Draco for example:
He just lays around like a lazy ass...it is hard to take a picture when they blink every time the camera flashes though.

Since it was daylight out I did not have to use a flash on her kitties...

Meet Joey!
 He was their rescue kitty!

J.C. was not a rescue kitty... they paid for him.
J.C. stands for Jean Claude by the way... yes they did name him that.

The last kitty, I cannot remember his name for the life of me, but he is a Persian like J.C.
And they are all shaved (with the exception of Joey) because my neighbor did not realize Persians need to be brushed daily... she knows now!!

As for my broken camera lens, I found a repair shop in Georgia that will look at it and hopefully fix it for me! I am off to Köln tomorrow with the daughter... so maybe then I can see how well I photograph people (if she lets me).