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This is from my very first Eurotrip back in 2007, a photo of Lake Mondsee in Austria, originally shot in color on my old pocket cam and converted to black and white. Keen observers will note that a heavily photoshopped version of this photo appears on the cover of my novel.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
I always liked this photo taken at Disney World with my old pocket camera back in 2006. The cloud/sun combination, in addition to producing some nice colors and patterns, looked to me like some kind of monster emerging from the horizon.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
The next installment of my The Eyes of Mictlan Origins series is now available as a free ebook at Smashwords. Additional booksellers like Apple and B&N will have it soon. As with the other ebooks in the series, this short story is excerpted from my novel, The Eyes of Mictlan.
Marina strolls along eerily quiet streets in the foggy slums of Whitechapel, London. Jack the Ripper has just brutally murdered her friend and lover, the latest victim during a reign of terror that has forced many of Marina’s fellow prostitutes into hiding. Any woman walking the streets of Whitechapel alone in the middle of the night is practically begging to become his next victim—which is exactly what Marina is counting on, for she is no ordinary woman, and on this night she is the predator, not the prey.
Also Available
Old West judge Dalton Freely awakes under a scorching desert sun in a pool of blood-soaked dirt, a noose around his neck, his arms bound behind his back. He turns his gaze upward to find the bodies of his wife and children hanging from a tree. Only then does he begin to recall the horror of the previous evening when a gang of outlaws murdered his family. On the verge of death himself, Dalton desperately drags his broken body back toward civilization, a single thought on his mind: revenge.
Xavier is an ancient vampire who has wandered the world for over a thousand years in search of a talisman that will give him the power to rule the land of the dead. His quest has led him into the heart of the Aztec Empire as the right-hand man of Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés. Now in the majestic capital city of Tenochtitlan, Xavier has finally discovered the talisman’s location, but to get his hands on it he must set in motion a chain of events that will lead to the destruction of the Aztec civilization.
And Coming Soon
Caesar: A senator of the Roman Empire discovers the monstrous nature of his friend and colleague.
Jeanette: A Depression-era speakeasy singer struggles to survive the hell of a tuberculosis sanatorium.
For more information on my novels and short stories, visit my author page.
I thought it might be a neat exercise to hone my black-and-white conversion skills on some of my favorite older color photos that haven’t aged well (due to being shot with low-quality digital cameras). This is my first attempt, a photo taken during my foggy hike up to the top of Clingmans Dome in the North Carolina Smoky Mountains back in 2004.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This is a shot of the Pyramid of the Magician rising above the jungle in Uxmal, Mexico. This was my favorite of the pyramid sites I visited: more remote, less crowded, and less touristy than the more famous sites of Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan. When you walk around here you can really feel like you’re in the middle of an Indiana Jones film.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This photo taken in Kensington Gardens near Hyde Park in London reminded me of a level you might see in a Mario Kart game. Can you picture the little cars racing around either side of the water?
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
I don’t often get to take long exposure shots while on vacation because it involves lugging around a tripod, but this beach was located just outside my cabin on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, so it was a perfect opportunity to set up the tripod and try out the neutral density filter I bought last year. These types of filters enable you to take long exposures during the day without blowing the highlights. I’m still getting the hang of it, but I like the effect here of smoothing the ocean and blurring the clouds while keeping the rocks in focus, almost like a painting.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
The night skies over the Canadian maritime provinces are spectacular, particularly in the remote areas where these two photos were shot–the skies are packed with far more stars than most of us are used to seeing on a regular basis. Although my astrophotography remains a work in progress, I feel like these are definitely an improvement over some of my earlier efforts.
The first photo was taken outside of the inn where I stayed on Prince Edward Island. In setting the building against the night sky I tried to capture the remoteness of the inn, which is located by itself out on a cliff overlooking the sea. I always feel weird going outside for night photography, setting up the tripod and everything while people are wondering what I’m doing out there. The women in one of the downstairs rooms kept looking out the window–I think they thought I was up to something nefarious. 🙂
The second photo of the Milky Way was taken outside my cabin on Cape Breton Island.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This was taken during my hike of the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton, Canada. It’s not a very vibrant photo due to the rainy conditions, but I like the imagery of a solitary figure standing at the top of a mountain gazing over the sea and the Cabot Trail. I didn’t have time to complete the entire trail myself, but had I done so, I would have been standing in the same spot as the person in this photo.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This lighthouse in Souris on Prince Edward Island was built in 1880. We visited after hours, so I didn’t get a chance to climb to the top, but I snapped this photo, capturing the lighthouse partially silhouetted against the setting sun peeking out to the right.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Michael Rappa 