Japanese Ladies and Postcards. . . . . . .

My lovely English friend Rosemary at Where Five Valleys Meet, a truly beautiful

 and very interesting blog, recently shared her pretty 100 year old Geisha doll.

Rosemary, like me, is a world traveler. She stuns us with amazing photos from

the historic places she visits so, if you've not visited her blog yet, I encourage you 

to do so, you will really enjoy all she captures with her lens and the interesting

 stories she writes.

Stories of Japan's Geishas have always intrigued me.  

When visiting Japan several years back, I took the above photo of one of those

 lovely ladies who welcomed us to our expedition ship at the dock in Niigata

 prior to sailing away through the picturesque islands.

At one of our island stops along the way - we were headed to the Russian
 Kuril Islands and  Kamchatka peninsula - we were able to shop for
 Japanese mementoes/gifts, and my purchases included this set
 of beautiful postcards depicting not so much Geishas but classic
 Japanese women.  
I think you will agree that their clothes are so beautiful and of course

the artwork is gorgeous.

What do you do with all the postcards you may have collected over the years?

I really have a large collection which I enjoy thumbing through every so often.

I also use them as bookmarks and, of course, now and again still mail one off

to a friend if the right card pops up for a special occasion and I think might be

enjoyed.

Wishing readers a great weekend. Some of you here in the US will be in a

 deeper than deep freeze in the coming days - do take care.

Photo Challenge September - Movement

This was quite a difficult challenge for me. 

Made me realize I should have kept all those dozens 

of blurred photos which I guess expressed movement - 

and perhaps were not really bad pictures - instead of 

dumping them in the TRASH.

Anyway here goes - two, and I admit it, accidentally 

captured movement shots I did keep - and one I created 
myself with assistance from magical PicMonkey. All were 
taken with the Canon 7D.

  

Mumbai, India 2012. The morning commute.

Arrival of a Ladies Train, allowing safe transportation 

for women only.

The Victoria Terminus railway station built back in the 

days of British rule, now named Chatrapati 

Shivaji Maharaja Terminus, is the largest railway station 

in the east. 
If you watched the amazing movie Slumdog Millionaire you 
will be familiar with it as many scenes were shot here. 

Great Egret - Botswana, Africa - 2012

OK, this is one and the same Great Egret taken with 
the Canon 7D - and I was at last able to get photos of 
African birds in flight. 
So, for this challenge, I've taken two of the photos of 
this beautiful bird taking off from its nest on the 
Okavango Delta, merged them using PicMonkey's 'collage' 
option, and that was about it. No blur really needed as 
it's obvious the bird is moving those huge wings and 
experiencing the joy of flight. 
Oh to be able to do that!

Aomori, Japan - 2013

Riding a bus up through the snowy woodland on 
Mt. Hakkoda-san, the name given to a range of dormant 
volcanoes on Aomori Island, was exciting and scenic. 

While moving at quite a clip through the beautiful 
virgin forestland, I was able to catch this shot from 
the window - snow blown against the tree trunks and on the 
ground, but also young green leaves visible on the treetops. 
I think you get the feel of sideways movement here - and 
perhaps I should blow up this shot and frame it as to 
me it's more like a painting.

Be sure to stop over at Donna's September Personal Photo
Challenge HERE, I'm sure there will be some very
interesting shots this month.