BH Neely's Photography

Tire & Igneous Rock, Kokkini Paralia, Santorini, Greece

Not only was the Thira volcano powerful enough to hurl these huge boulders a couple of miles, it spontaneously created a tire. Incredible.

Cactus and Sky, Santorini, Greece

I don't know what to say about this, except that it's beautiful.

Starry Night, Imeroviglio, Santorini, Greece

I don't know if you realize this, but star trails photographs take a lot of work. You have to find a compelling foreground subject in a place that doesn't have too much light pollution. Then you have to open your shutter and ignore your camera for a while (in this case 677.0 seconds). I found, taking this photograph, that ouzo and good conversation is a great aid to ignoring your camera. I also discovered that mechanical cameras are far better suited to this sort of thing than electronic ones...two shots and my battery was dead.

Kokkini Paralia (Red Beach), Santorini, Greece

Red volcanic rock and the rich, blue Mediterranean Sea. Even in the bad light period of mid day it's a beautiful scene.

Hazy Sunset, Imeroviglio, Santorini, Greece

It was hazy our entire 5 days on Santorini, but even so, this was the worst sunset while we were there. Not bad, eh?
As a tourist, I recommend a few things. Don't go to Santorini expecting Greece. It's way too American. Don't go to Santorini in high season. We caught the leading edge of high season and it was crowded. By July, when the temps are in the 90's or 100's, there's no place to park and everyone's pissed off from the heat and no parking, it would be no fun at all. If you're on a cruise ship and get two hours of shore time, don't do it. Relax on the boat, drink your cocktail, enjoy the view. It's a half-hour or more wait for the 30-passenger cable car or a half-hour donkey ride or half-hour walk up to the town of Fira, and a half-hour or more wait for the 30-passenger cable car or half-hour donkey ride or half-hour walk back down to the port. So your two hours becomes a one-hour dash through the town trying to find something to buy.
Go to Santorini for the geology. It's an active (though currently asleep) volcano that's been blowing up for thousands, probably millions of years. It destroyed the Minoan civilization in 1640 BCE. In the last 500 years, an island (volcanic cone) has grown out of the sea-filled caldera, created a blasted landscape that only needs a little smoke and some orcs to feel like Mordor. Throughout the island there are cliffs of sandstone studded with igneous rock, cliffs of igneous of several colors and the usual gorgeous marble or limestone hills that you can see all over Greece.
All-in-all, it's a wonderful place to go. Just don't do it when it's busy or expect to feel like you're actually in Greece (dinner time is over by 10 pm - what kind of Greece is that?).

Central Square, Nafplio, Greece

I love Nafplio. It may be my second or third favorite city/town in all the world. It's only 9:15 pm, so the people are just starting to come out, and look how vibrant the square is. In one of the cafes off to the left, you can get the best loukoumades (Greek donuts) you'll ever have. At the one next door, you'll get a pizza nearly as good one from Venice or Florence. Just out of the frame to the right is a newsstand with papers and magazines from around the world. Around the corner is a gelato shop owned by Paola, an Italian woman who speaks several languages well enough to get you into the best gelato or sorbet for your taste. A couple blocks away you can walk along the sea and watch the fishermen deliver their catch or the wealthy have breakfast on their yachts. Straight ahead you can wander down some shopping streets and see a beautiful, old Harley Softtail. We've been there at least 6 times and we never get tired of it.

Natural History Museum, Asklipieion, Greece

People have been living here for more than 10,000 years, and this is the natural history museum?

Flowers, Ancient Corinth, Greece

I don't have anything to say about these. I just like them.

Gate to Akrocorinth, Corinth, Greece

Perhaps more impressive than Athenian Acropolis for sheer size and engineering is the acropolis of Ancient Corinth. It's on a mountaintop from which you can see armies coming from any direction, with at least a day's notice if not more. From the southwest, the Spartans would have to come up a long valley, and from the east Athens or Thebes or Macedon would cross a long, flat plain and the Corinthian Isthmus to mount an attack. Once they got here, they'd have to climb an imposing mountain, perhaps 1000 meters high, then get through the the thick walls. Tough job.
Even better, there was a temple to Aphrodite here, where the rituals were decidedly Bacchanalian. Paul, famous for his letters telling early followers of Jesus not to have any fun, devoted a good chunk of his letters to the Corinthians in railing against this temple.

Ram's Horn, Markopoulo, Greece

Since it was still oozing a little blood and flesh, I knew Anne wouldn't let me bring it home, so I had to be satisfied with shooting it in the dusty parking lot. My great hope was the animal had died quickly.

Lilies, Studio, Athens, Greece

It took two weeks, but all of these lilies opened in the vase.

Sheathed Knife, Studio, Athens, Greece

The graphic quality of this grabbed me instantly. The darkness of the sharp, angular leaf in the softness of the lily-white flower petal is direct and maybe a bit frightening.

Gina, Studio, Athens, Greece

I love working with Gina. She smiles and laughs easily; she slips into poses very easily and handles my sometimes vague directions well.
This shoot didn't feel right, though. I wasn't seeing what I wanted to see. I didn't feel anything. So I tried several experiments I've had in mind - I shot a few with my 500mm lens. That didn't work, because I like to be close to people when I work with them, and the lens forced me down the hall, shouting instructions. I tried a 2nd C BCE inspired statue idea...there's probably something there, but not on this day. We shot for about an hour, which is usually enough for me to get into a groove and shoot fluidly. Just wasn't there. I got a few good pictures, but nothing like what I had hoped for.

And then for two weeks I hardly picked up my camera. Or did anything constructive. I feel like I'm back to myself, though. It was no reflection on Gina, just wasn't myself for a while.

Flowers and Mylar, Studio, Athens, Greece

Sorry about the extended absence. Got a little lost in my own mind for a couple weeks.

I've been hoarding the mylar that our flowers come wrapped in, waiting for something to do with it. I spent an hour or so using a sheet of it as a reflector, but for this shot, I just liked the look of the mylar itself.

Pansy, Athens, Greece

Another shot with the 500mm lens, this time from about 15 feet away - right near the limit of how close I can get with it. One of the things I'm loving about using digital for black & white work is that I can do a wide range of effects, some of them comparable to film+developer combos I've loved, others can make things happen that I've never imagined before. Now if I could only afford several thousand dollars for one of the medium format digital cameras and the computer it takes to process those monstrous files.

Flowers, Athens, Greece

Nikon has a great lens - the 500mm f/8 reflector lens. It looks like a small telescope, because that's what it is. By being a reflector lens with a fixed aperture, it's only a few inches long, rather than the 1/2 meter (20 inches or so) it would have to be if it were a regularly-designed lens. It's old, heavy and very touchy manual focus. With my D200 its focal length equivalent is 750mm, due to the size of the sensor. I've had it for a couple years now, but I don't use it very much, because I haven't been able to think of what to use it for. I decided to just start shooting with it. You learn what a tool is good for when you use it, and I've learned a lot about lenses and cameras by using them indiscriminately until I could see the value of the thing. It's how I learn. So from my balcony, I shot these flowers that are about the size of your thumb and 60 or 80 feet away.

Too Green, Olympia, Greece

Sometimes you don't get what you're looking for, and it's a good thing. The summer of 2007 was a devastating one for Greece, particularly on the Peloponneses, and especially so around Ancient Olympia. Wild fires raged across the country in two waves, destroying hundreds of square miles of forests, olive groves, farms and grazing land. Around Olympia, there were hills upon hills of wasteland.

This spring, Greece has had crazy amounts of rain, getting whole months worth of rain averages in one or two days. April, for example, averages just over an inch of rain, but we got that much or more at least twice in the month this year. With all this rain, Greece is grassy and green and humid, when usually it's semi-arid, as the eastern halves of Washington and Oregon, or most of Utah.

So when you want to take a photo about devastation, and you're faced with a beautiful, lush, green landscape that happens to have a lot of dead trees in it, you can be forgiven a little disappointment.