Kira

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The English Club visited Amissos on a cool November afternoon. The the wintry sunlight was fading fast, and slid golden over the twin tumuli atop the hill above the old harbor, slowly fading to twilight blues as it sank behind the coastal mountains. The air was cool, a faint breeze blowing in from the sea. Situated  to give panoramic views of the Westwards from Samsun, the city seemed, for once, tranquil in the Black Sea dusk.

Amissos is the name of the ancient settlement which preceded modern Samsun. It was a trading port in Hellenistic times, and famed as belonging to the homeland of the Amazons. Samsun’s modern citizens use the name mainly to mean the site of two tombs and a modern cafe somewhat East of the city, and also to denote the otherwise invisible historic forebear of the ramshackle modern town.

The tumuli are named Kalkanca and Baruthane, according to the Directorate of Culture and Tourism’s Samsun handbook, and may have been used as lighthouses; from a certain angle the two mounds align and only one is visible, apparently indicating an ancient harbor entrance. Claims have been made that the hills were used as temple spots for Roman dieties as well.

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Originally published at Seeking the World's Soul. You can comment here or there.

Statues covered in plastic draping at the Louvre

I love watching art restoration work in progress, especially when the technicians are actively working on things. These statues were in a wing of the Louvre that was undergoing repairs and covered in a great deal of dust. The plastic draped over them made me think of bridal veils.

In other news, I’m updating this site with a new theme (my old one broke) and upgrading to Gallery3 from Gallery2 – not exactly a painless process so far; it’s still in beta and I’m jumping the gun a bit…

Originally published at Seeking the World's Soul. You can comment here or there.

Living history Viking combat

This is my favorite shot from the Gorodets living history festival in 2006. It always makes me think I should title it, “No shit, there I was…” The guys fighting are mainly college students who do this as a hobby. It’s live steel, dull weapons but otherwise real. My husband joined the group and got to find out exactly how authentic Viking re-enactment combat can be when he took an axe direct to his shin bone and had to be carried out of the woods on his shield.

The really annoying thing about that… I mean other than the four months following of bringing him beer and coffee while be propped up his cast… was that we’d just watched “300″ before he went out to the event. And I quoted Queen Gorgo to him as he went out the door, “Come back with your shield, or on it!”. Sigh. And now he’ll never, ever let go of the bloodstained thing.

Originally published at Seeking the World's Soul. You can comment here or there.

Spent the weekend in Ely, up by the Canadian border in Northern Minnesota. I was the “prom photographer” for the Mukluk Ball – buy prints from the event at my PhotoWorks Storefront if you were there! The day after I spent half an hour (far too little time, but people were waiting for me…) photographing wolves at the International Wolf Center. The one in this picture is a yearling pup that was enjoying the sun a great deal! It kept rolling over and putting its legs up in the air to sun its belly.

My favorite photo from the day is this next one, of the alpha wolf, Shadow, walking past the den with a big chunk of deer spine in his mouth. However, I’m not sure that my viewers want something that bloody on the front page so I’m including it lower down here…

Originally published at Seeking the World's Soul. You can comment here or there.

Working on the River

Two boys work on a dredging boat in the Danube Delta, Romania

Some boys working on a dredging boat in the Danube Delta, Romania. Dredging is highly disruptive of the fragile delta environment, but I love the timelessness of this photo – people have always worked on rivers, often starting very young. The boys could as easily have been working on the Mississippi as on the Danube.

Originally published at Seeking the World's Soul. You can comment here or there.