Saturday Scenes

Kiev has been in the news quite a bit lately due to the increasingly violent protests against the government – popularly referred to as Euromaidan, the hashtag that quickly spring up on Twitter. I spent three weeks in the city back in 2012 and I have such fond memories of how beautiful it was. It’s […]

The Stolby Nature Reserve is located in the heart of Siberia, just outside of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Known for fascinating rock formations like the one above, it made for an interesting and exhilarating day hike – especially as it was about -12F outside! If you’re into climbing, the park also offers some good opportunities to climb

Yes, this is a picture of yak poo. This yard happens to be in Gokyo, one of the highest points we reached on our trek in the Himalayas, but it could have been in almost any of the villages we passed through along the way. It is typical for the villagers to collect yak poo,

I visited the SkyDeck at Chicago’s Willis Tower last summer, an experience that included checking out the infamous SkyDeck Ledge for the first time. While I took my time getting up the nerve to step out on the clear glass that revealed a view straight down, this kid jumped right out there. Not content to

Possibly my favorite site in all of Kathmandu was the Swayambhunath stupa – better known to many as the Monkey Temple. We climbed up the steep stairs to the stupa while it was still dark, in hopes of photographing the sunrise. The weather didn’t exactly cooperate, giving us cloudy skies and no sign of the

I took a lot of pictures while trekking in Nepal and, to be honest, after a while, I got a little bored with all of the mountain shots.  After my experience photographing people in Kathmandu, I was eager to take more pictures of people. On our way back to Namche Bazaar after an acclimatization hike,

Most pictures you see of the Chicago skyline come the east or north, zoomed in on downtown. But the Windy City is a huge city and is much more than just the Willis Tower, John Hancock Building, Trump Tower and other downtown office buildings. I took this shot during a helicopter tour of the city as we hovered just north of Wrigley Field (bottom left), looking south to downtown, with Clark Street dividing the frame.

Saturday Scenes is back! After a several month layoff, I am bringing back my weekly photo feature. To start things off, and to counter the foot of snow expected in Chicago in the next 24 hours, here is a shot I took while trekking in the Nepal Himalayas – dew drops on a colorful flower along the side of the trail as we did a day hike from Namche Bazaar.

May 17 was the big national holiday in Norway: Constitution Day. I was fortunate to be in Trondheim, Norway on Constitution Day several years ago and had a great time watching the parades of Norwegians, young and old, decked out in their national or regional costumes and waving Norwegian flags. It made me proud of

During my two week visit to Peru in 2009, I did a three-day, two-night hike in the Colca Canyon, located about five hours outside of Arequipa. I spent the second night of the hike in one of these huts at the Sangalle Oasis on the bottom of the canyon.