Means of Expression

March 31, 2018 Tom Dills 9 Comments

Bus station in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina

It always interests me to see how people tend to refer to their equipment in more specific terms the newer or more expensive it is. I was reading a recent blog post that was commenting on the age-old (at least 10 years!) argument about whether phones were “real” cameras. Never mind the argument (which I think is silly), but the writer stated that “there are significant differences between my iPhone 8’s camera and my OM-D E-M5 Mark II, not to mention some newer full-frame cameras.” Well, no sheet, Sherlock!

The thought that went through my mind when I read that sentence was that, if he were shooting with a 3-generations old Android phone (like me) or a hopelessly obsolete mirrorless camera (like me) he might not have been so quick to mention his gear. Is that what is referred to as “humblebrag? As in, “I had a hard time finding a suitable parking place for my Porsche?” Anyway, my weird thought twists on this Saturday morning.

I hope everyone has enjoyable holiday week/weekend, whichever holiday (if any) they choose to be observing.

Travel

Galley Tour on Celebrity Summit

March 24, 2018 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Another highlight of our recent cruise and part of our chef tour was a tour of the galley. We have done galley tours before on numerous cruises, but ordinarily they are held in the morning, and the most exciting thing you see is someone making gravy! For this tour we were taken through the galley during dinner service, and it was quite an experience!

It’s been a long time since I worked in any kind of restaurant environment, and I’m not sure I actually qualify to say that I worked in any kind of restaurant! But the things we found most impressive were how clean and organized things were, and how friendly everyone was, especially while they were busy. I took a lot of photos on this tour, and these are just a few, to give you a “taste” of the experience!

Escalator from the dining room to the galley

Executive Chef Kuldeep Singh on Celebrity Summit

Travel

Chef Tour in Nassau

March 16, 2018 Tom Dills 2 Comments

In my earlier post about the Conch Guy I mentioned that we had taken a tour in Nassau with one of the chefs from our ship. In addition to the fish market, we visited a roadside vegetable stand, a couple of guys cutting up coconuts for juice and meat, as well as a distillery. Here are a few more photos from that trip.

Our guide was Chef Stephen from Jamaica, and he explained a lot about the different things we saw and how they were used in island cooking. While we or the chef weren’t permitted to bring anything back to the ship due to health regulations and ship policy, Stephen used many of these same ingredients and themes when preparing the meal that we had back on the ship that evening.

In a separate post I’ll share photos from our galley tour. But unfortunately I was too busy enjoying the food to take any photos at dinner!

Sampling fresh coconut and coconut water

Photography

Scotland Photo Gallery

March 10, 2018 Tom Dills 2 Comments

I just published a gallery on my website of photos from our trip to Scotland last year . Check them out, and feel free to explore the rest of my website too! I’ve been trying to keep things fairly fresh and plan to do more in the near future, including more vacation photo galleries.

Travel

The Conch Guy

March 9, 2018 Tom Dills 2 Comments

One of the ports on our recent cruise was Nassau, in the Bahamas. We did a shore excursion there that involved touring some of the island’s fish and produce markets with one of the chefs from the ship. One of the stops on our tour was at a roadside fish market where fishermen brought in their fresh catch. Coolers after coolers with fish of all types – including snapper, grouper, mahi and lobster.

Roadside fish market stand during our Chef’s Market Tour shore excursion in Nassau, Bahamas

Also at this stop was a tent where a man was shelling conch for conch salad. If you aren’t familiar, a conch is a sea creature that grows in those beautiful pink shells that everyone likes to collect. He used an ax to punch a hole in the shell in just the right spot, then dug the conch out of the shell with a knife. The conch was then chopped up, marinated and mixed with veggies for a salad. Delicious!

Watching the conch man work the shells was as interesting as eating the conch. Kathy asked him if he ever cut himself. He just smiled and said, “sometime, mon, but not in a long time!”

Travel

Oh, There Were People in San Juan, Too!

March 5, 2018 Tom Dills

Cedric commented on my last post about how the lack of people contributed to the “Tranquilidad” of the scenes. Of course not all of my photos were devoid of people, as the people are a large part of what makes San Juan special. Here are a few photos “with” people as a counterpoint against those without.

Random street scenes in San Juan, Puerto Rico during our cruise on Celebrity Summit

Scenery near El Morro Fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico during our cruise on Celebrity Summit

Lunch at Barrachina, allegedly the birthplace of the Pina Colada. In San Juan, Puerto Rico during our cruise on Celebrity Summit

Travel

An Unexpected Visit to San Juan

March 2, 2018 Tom Dills 6 Comments

Kathy & I recently returned from a cruise to the Caribbean. We’re getting pretty good at the cruise thing – this was our 23rd cruise – but we’re still practicing!

This cruise was on Celebrity Summit. Celebrity has become our favorite cruise line, mostly because they just know how to do good food and good service. While all of the lines are good, we’ve come to really like Celebrity.

Summit is one of Celebrity’s older ships, but we chose it because it is one of their smallest, at just 2,000 passengers. The ship we were on last year was over 4,000 passengers, while we saw a ship this time that was over 6,000! While I would love to experience one of those ships, that’s just a shipload of too many people!

This cruise was supposed to stop at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, but Punta Cana doesn’t have a dock for the cruise ships so it is one where they need to take passengers ashore using tenders. The seas were too rough there for tendering, so we ended up in San Juan, PR instead. While we looked forward to Punta Cana, we love San Juan and were not at all disappointed to end up there.

Kathy & I spent our time in port walking around Old San Juan. We had lunch (and Pina Coladas!) at a nice restaurant that claims to be the birthplace of the drink. More to come on that, but for now, here are a few random photos from our time walking the streets of the old city.

Photography

A Few More

February 11, 2018 Tom Dills 11 Comments

Views of uptown Charlotte from the Seventh Street Station parking garage, Charlotte, North Carolina

Nothing to say today, important or otherwise. I just processed a few more photos from the same folder as the last post and thought I would share. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Staying warm where it’s cold and dry where it’s wet. 😉

Views of uptown Charlotte around the Imaginon Children’s Library in Charlotte, North Carolina

Random Thoughts

Cultural Awareness (or Lack Thereof)

January 30, 2018 Tom Dills 4 Comments

One of the many advantages of not being a television watcher is that I don’t have to put up with all the commercials and mindless programming, including the so-called news. One of the disadvantages of not being a television watcher is that I miss out on a lot of the sayings and expressions that come from both the commercials and the programs themselves.

Case in point – last week I sent an email to a co-worker about something good that had happened, and he replied, “dilly dilly.” I was puzzled but figured if he wasn’t making some obscure reference to my name that it was probably something I missed from television. I get pretty good at recognizing things like that. 😉

Charlotte Transit Lynx Light Rail at the Seventh Street Station in Charlotte, North Carolina

Just today I came across an article about a guy with Charlotte roots who had found recent fame by being the “dilly dilly” guy, and it turns out he is the actor that plays the king in a series of Budweiser commercials where he replies “dilly dilly” whenever someone brings him beer. Little did I know, but “dilly dilly” is this year’s version of “WHASSSUP?” 🙂

The things I miss. Sigh….

The photos – by the way – are more from 2012. I took this during an outing with a digital point & shoot class I was teaching. Although it appears I “cheated” and was using my then-new Canon 5D Mark III. 😉

Photography

Looking Back – January 2012

January 25, 2018 Tom Dills 2 Comments

As part of my project to recover drive space by deleting photos that didn’t make the cut, I get to go through those folders again, looking for photos that made the cut but that I had never processed. The year I’ve been looking at most recently is 2012. These photos were from a trip to Hilton Head Island that year. It’s interesting to see that I used three different cameras at that time.

Beach at Sunset, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina – Canon 5D

Tom Dills Photography Blog

Means of Expression

Galley Tour on Celebrity Summit

Chef Tour in Nassau

Scotland Photo Gallery

The Conch Guy

Oh, There Were People in San Juan, Too!

An Unexpected Visit to San Juan

A Few More

Cultural Awareness (or Lack Thereof)

Looking Back – January 2012

Photographs and stuff!