Thank you so much for sharing these visions.
It is a joy to see the beauty that was and
I know will return in the days to come.
In the mean time I will have your gifts to
reflect upon.

Beautiful image; beautiful subject; well displayed

I have only this one unique bridge to contribute. It was mentioned way back in 2012.
It is the bridge to "nowhere" in the alaskan wilderness. It was built in hopes of
making a road to help Ketchikan, Alaska. It was completed in 2011 at a cost of $398 million.
Today it is mostly a "walking bridge" maybe used by 50 people and all of the wild animals
in the area. I heard about it, but never thought I would see it. Would have taken more
photos, but I was on a train for the cost. You Know!

I am a daily "viewer" of your postings. I love all of your photos and
discussions. The colors and B&W are amazing. The flowers, the
birds and animals, landscapes and portraits remind me
of how beautiful this creation is. I go along on your visits to
places I will never see. Thanks for taking me along with
your journey.

I like landscape photos.
Your second shot, tells me of a peaceful moment. A transition,
just before a new day. A transition in time. It has the statement
of the past in the background, with the lighted steeple. and the moon.
The bright light front of the house, in the shadows is the sharp transition.
I consider it worth saving for future reviewing.

Depends on what you plan to do with the photos after you return home.
How often will you look at them, printing and/or framing them, etc.?
With how many people are you traveling?

If you are traveling with a known group, you can bet they will be taking pictures (my family goes wild on family vacations). Sometimes the very best equipment is not necessary. It is more about enjoying the trip and the people you are with. You can get more pictures with a large group sharing all of their photos. That give you time to do things of interest, like visiting with friends.

I am a smartphone nut when traveling, for several reasons: The quality of the photos with today's enhancements is sufficient. The phone physical size allows me to carry it with me everywhere. It is light weight, and usually has sufficient storage and battery life to shoot most of the day (I like to carry a battery stick for extra long days - it is also very small).

All of the places that I have visited on a tour have been shot many times, I don't think I am going to take a really unique photo unless it is with the people I am with. And I can enjoy the photos others take, by sharing. This places an emphasis on the experience and not the photos. It is easy to become more engrossed with the photo process than the people. I have taken many photos, many of them about "things", or landscapes. And I have learned. The ones I value the most are the ones with the people that came along the journey.

Also on a cruise, most ships provide telephones in your cabin, but today people on the ship can be in many different places. I found out that using cell phones on the ship is a good way to keep in touch and allows for setting up ad hoc meeting places on the ship. Without the cellphone you are left in the dark. The phone serves as both a camera and a way to communicate between decks, or public areas. I look at the old phone system as out dated, because you have to be in your room to use it.

On my last trip, the cruise line charged for mobile service while on board. (my land service was covered by my ISP carrier). I expect (hope) that the cruise lines will be pressured into providing phone to phone on-board service for free. It is an outrage that the cruise lines are milking their customers for every little thing. With the rise of more mobile networks and longer ranges, (mobile access from shore based sites) they may have no choice, to stay competitive.

Hope you have a very enjoyable trip, enjoy the sites, and the people most of all.

My question: How long do you think the software vendors will continue to support your hardware. The more versions that a vendor has to support the more costly it is to them. It seems hardware lasts a lot longer than the software vendors want to support the hardware. We are moving out of the old generation of information processing, where people bought/owned software on their machines. Then there is the use of the internet, which increases the attack vector for hackers. If you have an old but stable environment, and want to continue to use it without fear of changes, then you should keep it isolated/off of the internet (no network communication). If you want to use the internet, get yourself another machine that is up-to-date, and keep it up-to-date. For this other machine choose a fairly cheap machine. My son-in-law did that for 5+ years, but then the need to transfer images between the two environment (via memory stick) for a professional became just to cumbersome. There is always a cost.

Also, the advances in hardware and software are another cost you pay without internet connection.

In this new (today's) environment, the vendor cost to support older environments is becoming too costly. Google has moved to a limited support period for its operating system (6+ years). Microsoft is also moving into this direction for the same cost reason. Adobe has already abandoned it ownership program for photoshop, in favor of a rental service.

Also if your old environment is not on the internet, any recovery after hardware failure will be possible if you keep very good back up. Depending on the type of failure, you may not be able to recover your data. You may not be able rebuild your system as it was (some of the hardware or software will not be available). The 1960's space program had this problem. The data was in unknown formats, there was not existing program that could read it. The format of the data was unknown. If you take backups, make sure they are in a format independent format, so that 5 years from now you will be able to move the data to a new environment.

For these and other reasons, I try to stay reasonably close to the current tech environment. (the days of building your own systems are over - but then we still have black smiths even today - but their usefulness is very near zero - nice for nostalgia) I now expect to replace my systems every 5 to 10 years. I have moved to cloud storage, and let the professionals take care of backup and recovery. This requires an internet connection, which makes an isolated environment obsolete.

I have worked in IT environments for 35+ years. Just like an automobile, I no longer want to or can maintain an IT environment like an auto mechanic. I have no problem driving a car, and using it for its purpose. The IT environment has moved on just as the auto environment has changed in the past 20 years.

If you are focused on Photoshop, then you know that this product is by rental only. It use to be a purchased product. Since I don't use it after its conversion, all I can assume is that it is either an internet app via browser, or an app that you down load from an app store.

In the case of an app, you will go to either the Apple or Android webstore
to install it. (assuming you don't buy a Windows laptop).

At a minimum RAM is would shoot for 8Gig or above. For storage, I would choose 128G SSD. The screen size is important, unless you have an external monitor. I would go with an external monitor, it will last a lot longer than the laptop you buy. Laptop system OS software is not like it use to be. In the past 20 years of OS life was not unusual. Today, because of the rapid evolution of hardware, OS vendors do not want to have to maintain compatibility with old hardware. OS update are limited to 6 years or less. And security updates can run from 10 years or less.

I am an Android fan. I don't like MS because it has a legacy customer base that it needs to maintain. Those big Enterprises are not going to shift all of their hardware in one big cost bullet. Only today is Windows 7 ending its support. I don't like Apple because it is a closed system. You buy into Apple and everything should be from that same vendor. They don't like to play with other hardware vendors. Android and Chrome OS from Google, has a large market of vendors from which to buy, competition.

I would do all my photo editing on a very good (large 4K or better) monitor. The screen size of the laptop is not too important (11"+).

I would not spend $600+ for the laptop machine, considering its OS end support date. I would look into the $300-400 range or $500. Realizing that in about 3 or 5 years you are going to replace the laptop. The same goes with smart phones. You also want to buy a smart phone that is compatible with your laptop, so that you can keep both in sync. Therefore if you buy an Apple laptop, be prepared to buy an Apple phone. If you buy a chromebook (chrome os), then buy an Android phone. I don't believe Microsoft has a smartphone that is in market competition, but I could be wrong.

That's my opinion. I know others will disagree. Like I said I am an Android Fan Boy, only because of the competitive market for these products. Always remember "buyer be ware".

#3 - The virtual sails of sunset

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed to images and colors. And the subject was very enticing. Thanks again

I find the color image has more impact. The B&W harks back
to the early 20th century. To me the B&W is time gone by. The color
impact says this is happening today. This buffalo is real. The situation
is real today. Don't fence me in! I am a prisoner, just because I am real
today, and have not been eliminated by human actions. So sad.

Great demonstration of just how good the smart phone cameras are becoming.
Like all of the colors. Good shots.

I like both scenes. And I am glad to see shots from a cell phone.
These show just how far cell phone photography has come.
And it keeps getting better.

Keep up you use of the phone and sharing.

Love to look at flowers. This is a good one.

And I appreciate the information about the bloom,
That makes it even more rewarding to see.

Thanks

Great job; can't wait for the next one. Keep up the great work