Memorial Day 2012

In honor of this weekend's Memorial Day Holiday...

Below are three pictures from a set of shots I've taken over the years at places where members of the U.S. military have sacrificed all. You can see the entire set HERE.

Battlefield at Yorktown, VA

Point du Hoc in Normandy, France

Inside the Citadel in Hue, Vietnam

My Top 10 Viewed Pictures + Observations

Now that we're in Q4 of 2009, here's an update on the most viewed pictures on my Flickr Photostream and some observations on what might be driving the traffic to these pictures.

Before getting started, you can click on the above link to see my full Photostream or you can click here to see the Top 10 set...or click here to access all my photo sets.

OK, first up, the Top 10...

• Overtaking the #1 position as most looked at is my picture Close Up of the Taj Mahal Detail with 410 views.





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• The #2 most viewed is the Beijing "Birds Nest" Olympic stadium. Another very similar picture I took of the stadium clocks in at #10. If combined, views of these pictures would make the Bird's Nest the #1 viewed picture.


• #3 and #8 are pictures of participants from the 2009 Seattle Gay Pride parade. Below is the one that came in at #3.

#4 is a picture of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown that I took in Charleston, SC.

• #5, #6 and #9 are pictures of places in Ho Chi Mihn City - the modern skyline, the former Republic of Vietnam presidential residence and US military vehicles.


• #7 is a picture of a "Don't Tread on Me" flag I took in Charleston, SC.

Here are a few observations about the top 10...

• Although it's only been on my Photostream since May, the picture I took of a "Don't Tread On Me" flag in Charleston, SC has shot up and into 7th place with 261 views. While I'm sure there are any number of reasons for this, one that I'm pondering is that this iconic Revolutionary War symbol and saying have been adopted by right wing "tea-baggers" as part of their real?/fake?/ignorant? protest against all things Obama and all things to the left of Glenn Beck. Hence, perhaps there are people out online looking for examples of this symbol.

• Six of my top ten most viewed pictures are from Asia - specifically Vietnam, China and India. So, people are interested in that area of the world it would seem.

• Two of the top ten are from a set of shots I took at the 2009 Seattle Gay Pride Parade. Diane and I went to the parade, I took pictures and posted them later that day. Well, over the next 48 hours I got thousands of views - in fact, my #1 most views in one day occurred as a result of that set with 2,954 views on one single day. The fact that two of these made the overall top ten is just a testament to how many people viewed the pictures.

• The fact that the the Bird's Nest stadium is still clocking in at #2 and #10 on this list a year after the 2008 Games concluded certainly speaks to how popular the Beijing Olympics were and how many people wanted to see a picture of this magnificent structure.

OK, that's it for now. I'll be back right at the end of December to report on a full year 2009 Top 10 Most Viewed list and observations associated with them.

Pictures for the 4th of July

July 4 marks the date that the former British colonies declared independence from the British in 1776. What followed was a long war between the Americans and the British that as we know ended with the defeat of the British and the birth of the United States of America.

To commemorate this on July 4, 2009 below are a couple pictures I took this past spring at the location where the War for Independence ended - Yorktown, VA.

Above: Revolutionary War cannon at the Yorktown battlefield.

Below: The Yorktown battlefield. Note the fortifications in the middle of the picture behind the tree. American forces stormed this location as part of the battle.

It was here in 1781 that General George Washington's army, with the help of the French navy soundly defeated British General Lord Corwallis' army to effectively seal the victory for the Americans.

Yes, people...we owe A LOT to the French military for helping us beat the British. We returned the favor in spades in WWI and WWII.

At any rate, I thought that these modern day pictures would be appropriate on a day and weekend when we try and remember how our nation started.

You can see other pictures that I took at Yorktown and nearby Colonial Williamsburg in a set of pictures here. The pictures of Yorktown and Williamsburg are near the bottom of the set.

Pictures for Memorial Day & D-Day Anniversary

With Memorial Day coming on May 25 and the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in France coming up on June 6, I've posted a set of appropriate pictures to my Flickr Photostream. 

Click here to see the set.

Included are pictures I took while visiting the Normandy coast in the fall of 1994. On that trip I visited Omaha Beach and Utah Beach where Americans landed, as well as Point du Hoc where U.S. Rangers scaled the cliffs, killed Germans and took out a series of cannons. 

Also included are some pictures of other American battlefields I've visited - including the bridge at Nijmegen in Holland, as well as Belleau Wood (World War I) and Yorktown (Revolutionary War). (Left: Point du Hoc - Normandy, France)

I've also thrown in some pictures of Pegasus Bridge where British paratroopers landed in gliders and took the span on D-Day. And, I've put in an image of Arnhem bridge in Holland where those same British paratroopers fought it out with Germans a few months later.