michael_shalter

Buzios was a sleepy fishing village about 190 km north of Rio de

Janeiro before Brigitte Bardot and the jet-set "discovered" it in

1964. It's become another sort of St. Tropez and Torremolinos as a

result, but if you go there in the off-season you can still find a

little charm and a few diehard fishermen.

This is the most brilliant man I ever met. I'm proud to be his

friend and former student

Sunflowers are in bloom all the way from Barcelona to Beirut. This

one I found particularly pretty.

This is an acrylic I did. I'm an amateur painter and an even less

amateur photographer. So you can critique both aspects.

There's something peaceful about stuffing flowers into pockets or

rifle barrels. It won't change...thank Zeus!

A storm was brewing after I had one or two glasses of Gaillac red

when it occurred to me to see what the world looked like thru an

empty wine glass...still crystal clear, but slightly off center.

This house is over 400 years old and fallin' apart at the seams.

Somebody put up a new lantern, and somebody else put some flowers in

the window...trying to keep the old "pretty." Nothin' new about

that...just a little "bittersweet."

When Spanish strawberries sell for less than one euro per kilo in

France, you know that spring is over!

These boats used to bring wine casks down the river for turning the

juice into Porto. Now, they just lie at anchor and attract the

tourists.

In a time when Mel Gibson is in the headlines for his controversial

film, I thought it appropriate to show Christ in less violence. Just

about every village in France has a crucifix, but this one, in a

tiny village somewhere in the Tarn, is far more beautiful than most.

Hope you like it.

I tried to vary the theme of this famous landscape by putting the

green boat tarpaulin in large view in the foreground and shooting

the whole thing from the "wrong" side.

It's time I give credit where credit is due. I took this photo, but

the woman I love and live with (Stella) transformed it into

something better ( she knows more about art and photoshop than I'd

learn in a 100 years!)If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be painting

and photographing today. I'm, indeed, lucky to have such a lovely

companion!

This is the view I have every morning from my kitchen window when I

brew up some coffee...it sure beats the Bronx and makes my day!

This is the Mayan arch at the ruins at Labna, Yucatan. It was in the

off-season so no tourists...just an artist and me!

In Pennsylvania the expression "Do you want egg in your beer?"

means "Do you want everything!?" The painted egg is from Moldavia

Romania where I got just about "everything"! Bottoms up! Down the

hatch! Noroc!

The sun wasn't even up yet, but we were on our way to Tulum. Out of

the mist came this swamp. The atmosphere and colors were far more

intoxicating than I managed to capture on film, but, believe me,

this was a rare sight!

I found it ironic to have lighted a Cohiba cigar and poured coffee

into THIS mug...on a cold rainy afternoon in the south of

France...when it would be far better to have the cigar with a mojito

on a Cuban beach!

Plantane trees line most of the roads in the Tarn. I threw caution

to the impending winds and stood in the face of racing tractors and

racing bikes to get this shot of them

these plantin trees bordering the road reminded me of can can

dancers...tall, long-limbed and French!

the air up here in Andorra was so crackling crisp one could almost

bite it

This ladybug flew in my window and settled on a potted rose where

she spent several days before, by accident, I stepped on her. She

lives on in this photo.

I had just drunk a glass of wine and realized that it hadn't rained

here for weeks. I then imagined how a tree would like to have a

drink. Crazy,no?

You can tell it's spring when Spanish strawberries sell for 3 euros

a kilo in France. Taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4300

The air is thin up there with little or no pollution-related light

defraction or color disortion. This is an untouched photo.