The Twins Have Arrived!

We are happy to announce the arrival of our twin daughters, Névé and Siena, born on 31 January 2012.  Both mama and the girls are doing great!  A few days prior to the  birth, I was wheeled in for some emergency back surgery.  Not the best of timing, but a certain necessity given my state of incapacitation at the time.  We are all doing well, resting at home, and getting to know one another.  The girls, of course, have now become my number one photo subject, and it's been fun sneaking pictures of them napping and doing things that little babies do.  I have managed to do a little work to this page during this time also.  If you'll look to the right, you'll see a column with the heading, "Poster Categories".  Click on these links to view different pieces of art from varying areas around Europe.  Clicking on the individual posters will then take you to the NW Art Mall where the art can be purchased.  As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!

Now, time to sneak a nap in before the girls wake back up.............

Valhalla

No, not the Norse hall of the dead, but the German Walhalla Temple, located near Regensburg, Germany and perched high above the Danube River.  This Walhalla, created by the loveably nutty Bavarian King Ludwig, is a hall-of-fame celebrating distinguished and famous Germanic people and personalities throughout history.  This was our first time visiting this memorial as it had never piqued my interest enough for a stop while in the Regensburg area or on trips to Passau and places beyond.  I wish now that I would have made the easy detour from A3 to spend 30 minutes scouting this location.  Or had just driven the 10 minutes up the street from our friend's apartment in Regensburg...... The view from the south-facing platform surrounding the temple was easily worth the price of admission (which is free, by the way).  A short hike from the parking lot affords the photographer with an array of unique angles and scenes to shoot.  Even the harsh light of midday provided good opportunities for fun shots.  The unobstructed view over the Danube River Valley makes this a great place for shooting at sunrise, sunset, and during most astronomical events.  I look forward to exploring this site more fully in the future.  Just the little time we spent up there yesterday put my back out of shape and had me knackered, but I'm glad we went.

         

All's Been Quiet on the Home Front

and on this blog......  Although there hasn't been any activity on here from me recently, it doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  Between getting the new computer setup, working on a new photo portfolio, setting up and dialing in the new large-format printer, and finishing my Zazzle site (everything is loaded there now!), I've kept myself occupied.  I've also been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to get my back fixed.  If anyone reading this has ever dealt with debilitating chronic pain, then you're well aware of just how hard it can be to do even the simplest tasks, including sitting at a computer.  Much of the above mentioned tasks were dealt with while either lying on the couch or lying in the recliner in the nursery using my new laptop.  Not exactly ideal, but it allowed me to get a few things done in relative comfort.

All of this takes a backseat to what's really important, though - my wife and the two baby girls she is carrying inside of her.  Currently, she is 36 weeks pregnant.  With twins, this is considered nearly full-term and we've been told we can expect their arrival any time now.  This undoubtedly will change our lives forever, and we are very much looking forward to finally meeting our daughters.

In the run-up to the girls being born, I have been doing my best to set myself up with work that can be done between feedings, diaper changings, and anything else baby-related.  I think I'm just about where I need to be, but I realize that the reality of the situation will likely be different once we get in to the swing of things.  As much as I'd like to write more, I will most likely be concentrating on photo editing and poster creation for the foreseeable future.  For me, writing requires my kind of peace and quiet (which means my favorite loud music to drown everything else out) and uninterrupted periods of an hour at the very least.  I don't think these moments will be readily available for quite some time from here on out.  But, with months and months of backlogged photos to work through, I won't be hurting for things to do!

Here are a few pictures taken over the past week.  We've been sticking fairly close to home recently as these pictures reflect.

  

Playing in the wet snow at home

 

Theuern, Bavaria, Germany - stopped here after a doctors appointment the other day

Pilsen, Czech Republic Christmas Market - the last real day trip taken before deciding to stick closer to home (I still need to process this picture!)

The Season's First Snow

A couple of shots from the snowfall this morning.  It was a wet snow, which made it difficult to get many pictures, and the snow did not last long.  It was still nice to see and it was especially nice to be back shooting again after a month+ of letting my back heal up!  These were all taken within 5 kilometers of our house in Germany.  Looking forward to more snowfall this winter!

          

Project(s) In a Holding Pattern

I just received my new Macbook Pro and am currently in the process of making the switch from PC to Mac.  Actually, it's not as hard or as time consuming as I thought it would be!  I can already tell that this laptop (yes, a laptop) blows away the Dell 420 desktop I have been using for the last 4 years (that's with performance upgrades installed, too).  


While performing this switch, I am also taking the opportunity to clean up my file storage structure and streamlining my workflow.  Now, that is going to take some time!  I hope to have everything set up and in place by the beginning of the new year.  My website portal (adventuretravelart.com), however, will take a bit more time to get things in place as I want them.  I'm pretty much a self-taught hack when it comes to web design and CSS coding.  As I was just starting to get things down using Microsoft Expression, I now find myself switching to yet another web authoring software - Dreamweaver.  At least now, all of my primary software will be Adobe products (Lightroom, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premier Elements...). 


Sometime during the next month, I will also need to take care of my back.  I have a herniated and degenerative L4/L5 disc that is impinging on a few nerves and causing a lot of problems for me.  This has been going on for years, and has finally become so bad that I have to do something about it.  At this point, surgery is the most likely course of action, and I will know for sure in the coming days.  


Even if I am laid up for a few days or weeks or even for a month or two, at least I have this kick-ass laptop that I can work on from anywhere now!  I'm pretty stoked about that!  


I hope everyone has a great holiday season.  Here in Germany, and all around Europe, it is definitely a special time of year.  The Christmas markets kicked off this past weekend in most cities, marking the start of advent.  Although I won't physically be able to get out to photograph any of the markets this year, I do have so great pieces from some of last years markets.  You can view them here:


Adventure Travel Art - Christmas

Cheers!
Nate

Welcome to the New Blog!

Things are starting to take shape with the new sites!  I look forward to getting this web work finished so I can go back to concentrating on the fun stuff - namely, photography and art!  Because it's the fun stuff that makes what I do enjoyable, I've decided to ditch WordPress and use something a bit simpler and much less time consuming for my blogging purposes.  I'm familiar with Google's Blogger and have been using it for a few years.  The main reason for the switch, however, is that using Blogger won't require nearly as much code manipulation and maintenance, and updates will be much easier.  All in all, this will save quite a bit of time and a lot of future headaches!


I hope to have more posted to the blog within the coming weeks.  After this web update is complete, I will be concentrating on the photography end of things for a while.


Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.  Thank You!

Portugal