Shot last week in Vienna. It is virtually impossible to photograph this statute without people around it due to its location on the Ring and right by the Burgring streetcar stop. The darkness of the clouds caught my eye as I approached this stop and I jumped off to catch this photo.
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I shot this as a 5-frame pano last week, which resulted in a 249 mb photo, so I had to reduce it a lot to post it here. This is Belvedere Palace (technically the Upper Belvedere) in Vienna. There is a lot of history associated with this palace, but one of some interest to many is that it was from here that Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie left on their trip to Sarajevo and a date with an assassins' bullets, the act that led to World War I.

The palace was designed and built by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and is considered his masterpiece. It was commissioned by Prince Eugen von Savoy. No less an authority on such matters than Napoleon said Eugen was the finest military commander in European history. He was French, but rejected by the French military for being too short, so he went to Vienna to offer his services to the Holy Roman Empire. He served with distinction against the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, but it was in the years that followed that he won distinction, first against the French in the west and later against the Turks in Hungary.

Today this palace is an art museum and the most famous painting there is The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt. All of the dark box-like shapes in front are the back sides of the booths at the Christmas Market.
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This is a little slice of the Christmas market outside Karlskirche in Vienna last week. We did not have ideal conditions, but my wife held an umbrella over me in the wind and rain. Not as sharp as I would have liked but probably the best I could do in the moment.
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It would be nice to see the original ("store original" option).

Actually, no. I shot one frame and did not process it as HDR.

In the spirit of decals of people on the back of cars, I saw this in Ireland.
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I was attracted to this little scene but I did not have an ND filter with me. However, I had my tripod in the trunk of my car and light was somewhat reduced (this was in a canyon and an early shade), so I ended up shooting at ISO 50 and f22 to get a shutter speed of 1.3 sec. D750 with 50mm 1.8D. I found the contrast of the smoothed water and the stationary leaves compelling. At another season, without the leaves, this would be far less interesting.
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Actually, both Switzerland and Austria have certain roads designated as an Autostrasse. These are one step below the Autobahn, still having restricted access, but not requiring the Vignette needed for travel on the Autobahn. The name makes perfect sense, since both countries actually use that very word. Most European countries have this class of road, although known by various names. (In Germany, this type of road is called a Kraftfahrstrasse.) And by the way, I could point you to numerous streets bearing the "strasse" designation that are not for autos, but only pedestrians (i.e., Kärntnerstrasse or Jasomirgottstrasse, as well as parts of Mahlerstrasse and Singerstrasse in Vienna; or Maria Theresien Strasse or Herzog Friedrich Strasse in the old town of Innsbruck), so Strasse does not necessarily imply auto usage.

I travel there regularly as a host of small groups of tourists. I have driven nearly every road in the country in the past 20 years and lived in Vienna for a year in the 70s. I consider the two most beautiful drives to be the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (well known to tourists) and Highway 111 from Kötschach west to where it hits Highway 100 (not at all well known). My favorite towns are Hallstatt (tourist mecca) and Friesach (north of Klagenfurt on Highway 317 and unspoiled by tourists), with St. Gilgen on Wolfgangsee the regular favorite of my groups. Salzburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but to me Vienna feels like home. One cannot adequately appreciate Vienna unless one has done a fair amount of reading prior to visiting. There is such depth there, of culture and history on every street in the 1st District. Innsbruck is worth visiting, but I also recommend driving south up the Oetztal (west of Innsbruck) then over Timmelsjoch Pass into Italy. The drive from the pass down to St. Leonhard is my third favorite drive, one of stunningly long vistas down into valleys below. One can make a loop back to the Brenner Pass and Innsbruck as a day trip.

This was at the falconry show at Hohenwerfen Castle (south of Salzburg), September 2016. A vulture landed on the lawn about 30 feet from me and was headed my way. I was glad I was not a mouse.

I was shooting at ISO 1000 due to all the motion, so it is a little grainy. Plus it was on my old D7200.

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I visited Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City on Memorial Day. There was a flower I wanted to shoot, but it was difficult to use my tripod due to a wrought-iron fence and the angle of the shot, so I shot it hand-held. Later, while post-processing the photos, I looked at the photo. (see the first photo.) Then I wanted to see how sharp it was, so I zoomed in. Surprise!

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It was Handcart Days in Bountiful, celebrating the arrival of some of the immigration groups from the east (many from Europe) who could not afford wagons and teams but pulled handcarts instead. Celebrated in Utah on the 24th, the fireworks were held locally last night (the 20th). Having staked out my viewing spot, I waited about an hour for darkness and was treated to some wonderful clouds looking out to Antelope Island. That is roughly the view from my house--or would be if I knocked down the house to the west of me plus a few trees!!

I tried shooting the fireworks last year and made a mess of it. Better results this time. Shot at 64 ISO on bulb and dead reckoning on the length of exposure. Just opened the shutter when I saw a rocket headed up and let the fireworks paint the sensor.

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I think the L-bracket I have is one of the best accessories ever for my camera. The problem with tipping the ball head is having to realign the photo. With an L-bracket the swap is faster. Also, when shooting a pano, the pivot of the ball head is no longer below the focal plane. The L-bracket solves that. I leave it on my camera all the time.

I was trying out and working on the configuration of a D750 I bought from a friend. I was shooting in my front yard and using a 24-120mm lens instead of the 105 micro I normally use for this. Both shots were cropped quite a bit. The first was shot as an HDR set and the second was focus-stacked with 8 shots. The first one needs some refinement to get rid of the blown out part of one of the petals, but this wasn't a serious shoot anyway. This was the first of my day lilies to open this year. Although I was just messing around, I was pleased with the results.

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I found a great price on a D750 (from a friend) so I am selling my favorite camera, a Nikon D7200. Also, 2 lenses:

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens (my walk-around lens)

Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR Lens (my favorite lens for landscape and architecture)

PLUS an L-bracket (for quick release mounting in portrait or landscape mode on tripod)

The body (USA model) is very clean, undamaged and unscratched, with protective glass on the LCD and about 53k on the shutter. Both lenses are in excellent condition, very pampered and kept in a padded camera backpack for travel and storage. The lenses have front and rear lens caps and lens hoods. The camera also comes with 1 battery and battery charger.

I will also throw in circular polarizer filters for both lenses (cost: about $30 each) and Darrell Young's book, Mastering the Nikon D7200 (cost: about $40).

Priced to sell at $900, plus shipping to CONUS. I can accept credit/debit cards.