Introduction

Lake Zurich

Hi!  My name is Lisa and I love to travel and document my adventures through photography. Currently, I work as a research analyst in several cancer studies, but I am always planning the next trip.   I moved to Nashville, TN in 1997 with a friend where I got a job at a travel agency.  This enabled me to go places I thought I would never see otherwise.  My very first overseas trip was to Australia to see an old roommate.  Several trips to Europe followed.  In 2003, I met my husband, Jim.  Luckily, he shared my love of travel.  I would have not married him if he didn’t!  While I enjoyed taking several rolls of film everywhere I went, it didn’t occur to me until 2009 to combine travel and photography on a more serious level.  I got a second job so I could get a professional-grade camera, and it went everywhere with us.  Since then, I have been trying to perfect my skills on location, with a few still-life and my cats thrown in.  I would like to share stories behind the photos and hope that someone would like one of my images for themselves.  I sell these on www.etsy.com/shop/longworldphotography.  My husband is a great photographer also.  You can see his work in this shop too.  Thanks for taking a look!

Christmas in the Windy City

Abstract lights along Michigan Avenue

reflection of the skating rink in the Bean

ice skating-Millennium park

Last year at this time, my husband and I took a

Christmas shopping trip to Chicago.  Even though I

have done a lot of traveling, I have never traveled during

the Christmas season, and have always wanted to see

Chicago or NY for the decorations.  Here are a few

I took of the lights along Michigan Avenue, and

ice skating at Millennium Park.  A must do!

Substitute Italian Cats

Niko watching me make tea

When we went to Italy, there were cats everywhere!

We rented an apartment in Positano, where 2 cats

were hanging out in the front courtyard.  We have two

cats at home, and when we travel, I miss them terribly.

I decided these were going to be our Substitute

Italian Cats.  I even named them.  The black one is

Luciano, and the other is Niko.  I don’t know if

they were stray, or just belonged to the neighbors.

We were very high up on the cliff, so that’s quite a

Niko by front gate

climb for stray cats, I think. 

Room with a view

view from the front gate

We went to Italy last month, and it was one of the best

vacations we ever had!  I will start off with the first place we

stayed:  Positano.  We rented this lovely apartment

from www.vrbo.com called Villa Fior di Limone.  We

had the best view from our balcony.  I would make tea

every morning, and just sit out there and enjoy the

boats on the water, or the village below.  At night, we

could hear music from one of the restaurants.  One

night we even heard a party boat in the water.  They

were blasting dance music, and I am sure the whole

town heard it!  Positano is a vertical city, with many

levels.  One day my husband decided to count the steps

up to our apartment from the main street level (the beach is

a few levels down), and there were 443 steps!  I can walk

on flat ground forever, but I was never good with uphill, or steps,

so it was a little challenge for me.  But the view was so worth it!

If you go to the Amalfi coast, I recommend this place, or at least

this town!

me enjoying the view

Max, aka “Rambo cat”

Christmas basket

I have done a few posts on my cat, Lou.  I realized I never

did the same for my other baby, Max.  I love him very much,

but he isn’t as funny as Lou.  He is more my husband’s cat.  If

Jim is out in the garage, Max will sit on the counter right by the

door and wait for him.  But I wanted to give some attention

on my blog to Max.  I renamed him “Rambo cat” because the other

day, he was running around like crazy and went to jump on a ledge

at the top of our stairs (on the second floor of our house), completely

missed, and fell to the first floor.  He knocked the thermostat off the wall

on the way down.  Jim and I were watching a movie, and when we ran

downstairs, he was hiding under the dining room table.  He was

playing with his ball a few minutes later.  I guess cats really do land

on their feet!

sunbathing

sitting in the window

Max’s first day with us!

Close up of Max

What do you think of my new software?

After

I just got Nik software’s Silver Efex pro 2!  The bulk of my

work is black and white, and I got inspiration from another

blogger to improve on my favorite type of photography.  The first

photo was done in photoshop, with a sepia filter, as I am quite

fond of sepia also.  The second photo is using the software.

There are so many options, I have a hard time settling on the

final image, but this is what I ended up with.  Look ok?  My

photography club is holding a charity auction at the end of

September, and I am going to contribute it.

Adventures in Babysitting Building

I learned something the other day.  The famous building in Chicago with the diamond-shaped

roof is called the Smurfit-Stone Building.  Who knew?  I had just always called it the

Adventures in Babysitting building.  Remember that scene where the little girl climbs

down the rope out of the window and is hanging there until her brother rescues her?

I personally think the scene was ruined when after he gets her, she says “Oh Brad”

in this breathy, creepy way no one should ever be saying their brother’s name.

Oh well, I love this movie anyway, and think its one of the classic movies of the

80′s (of course way down on the list from the Brat Pack movies).

I was out late one night and got a shot of an empty Van Buren train station.

The skyline with the Smurfit-Stone building in the background is a bonus,

in my opinion.  What do you think of this movie?

Adventures in Babysitting-the movie

My baby is famous!

tangled up

view from the fridge

let me in!

Well, not really.  But I am proud that I sold my first photo of my kitty, Lou.

I have some pictures of his paws on etsy.com, and someone else will

get to enjoy my photogenic cat.  So I have show off other cute photos:)

sleeping on my lap

the photo that made Lou “famous”

Beautiful Venice

Bridge of Sighs

Continuing Countdown to Italy 2012, I thought I would share a few pics from 2006.

Venice is a very beautiful city.  We were surprised to see a lot graffiti in different

places, but that still didn’t affect its beauty.  We stayed 3 nights, and it was bright and sunny

every day.  A highlight of the trip includes discovering gnocci.  Now I make it all the time!

Watching a glass-blowing demonstration on the island of Murano, where I bought my still

favorite earrings, going to the Venice film festival (but didn’t see anyone famous), and taking

a cruise down the Grand Canal.  Now being in Venice, they say you should take a gondola ride.

We didn’t.  It was really expensive, and just riding boats down the Grand Canal, and to other islands

was enough for us.  One of the famous bridges in Venice include the Bridge of Sighs, which was

built in 1602. It connects the prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace.  They say

prisoners passing over the bridge on their way to lock-up would sigh, knowing it was the last

time they would see the beautiful sights of Venice.  One of the things that really helped me

appreciate the beauty and history of Venice was reading a book by John Berendt, called

The City of Falling Angels.  He also wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  He lived

there for 10 years and really got to know people in the city, which the characters in his book

are based on.    I highly recommend a trip to Venice.  It is truly a unique city.

St. Mark’s right before sunrise

Batman?

St. Mark’s at night

La Fenice Opera House

laundry day

Siena, Italy

            Continuing the countdown to Italy 2012, I am looking back at Italy 2006.  We decided to stay in

Siena, which is not far from Florence.  We wanted a smaller, more relaxing town to stay in, rather than navigating through a large city like Florence.  One of my favorite days on this trip was the wine tasting

lunch.  We booked it from home with a walking tour before arriving in Italy.  I remember having lobster tail, I never eat lobster, but this was the best I ever had.  It’s too easy to make it rubbery, but this was

perfect.  We were in the Chianti region, so we were to taste 4 wines.  Our hostess was Alessandra, and she treated us like we were her family.  I apologize, I can’t find the name of the company we used.

I mentioned that I like dessert wine, so she went down to the cellar and brought a red and white up.  Yum.  We ended up shipping about 10 bottles of wine home, a couple we still haven’t opened!

Siena is a medieval town, surrounded by walls  that is famous for its twice yearly horse race, Corsa del Palio,  which goes around the  main square, Piazza del Campo.  One of the most beautiful churches in the town is the

Siena Duomo, which was built between 1215 and 1263.  A distinguishing feature is the black and white striped pillars along with the walls of the clerestory.  Part of our walking tour included a tour of the

nearby medieval hill town in Tuscany, San Gimignano.  Since it is high in the hills, there are beautiful views of the Tuscan landscape.  We were going to take a day trip to Florence, but never made it.

Instead, we rented a car and toured the Tuscan countryside, where we ended up in Pisa and Volterra (previous post).  First time I had ever seen grape vines!  So if you ever decide to visit Tuscany,

I recommend renting a car to explore on your own, if you don’t take part of a tour.

view from San Gimignano

yes, we tasted all that wine!

Main square

Siena Duomo

Bike in front of shop window

street in Seina

An unexpected surprise-Volterra

Volterra street

Sunset over Volterra

Jim on a Volterra street

Volterra up ahead

View from Volterra, Italy

As my countdown to Italy continues, I am looking back at our first trip

together to Italy in 2006.  We were staying in Siena for a few days, and decided

to rent a Smart car to explore Tuscany.  We headed north to Pisa, and on the way

back, took a route closer to the coast.  We were driving along and saw this town

high in the hills.  We decided to stop and check it out.  Wow, Volterra is a

beautiful little town overlooking Tuscany.  We parked in a garage and started

walking around.   Above the town, we saw a really cool  building and wondered

what it was.  It turned out to be the Medici Fortress, a high-security prison.

I found out later, that on Fridays, a gourmet restaurant inside is open to the

public served by inmates!  It is quite popular, and reservations are required.

But we ate a different restaurant, and it was one of the best meals I had in Italy.

Volterra is known for selling items made of alabaster. Personally, I was not

interested in those souvenirs, even though they had some really nice things.

My favorite part was being able to see the sunset over the hills of Tuscany.

Some of the best things that happen on a trip were never planned!

high security prison in Volterra