Adjacent to city center and following the waterfront canal towards the east is the Nyhavn district. The area consists of a great row of restaurants and pubs ,located along the northern "sunny side" of the canal. Almost any time of year you can find people sitting outdoors (the restaurants provide heaters and blankets for their patrons in colder weather) enjoying the local seafood fare (typically served as "smørrebrød," or open-faced sandwiches) and, of course, that famous Danish beer.

Nyhavn is also one of the areas from which you can take a boat tour of the city. I opted to pass on the boat tour in favor of continuing my walkabout.

Heading south and west from the city center are several walking streets, pedestrian roadways that are (mostly) off limits to vehicles. Lined with shops and restaurants, this is a great area to spend hours window shopping or just mingling with the crowds. The streets are always filled with people, day or night (up to about 7 or 8pm, when they apparently roll up the sidewalks). Along the way, you’ll find stands and carts set up offering crepes, candy and sweets, including the popular "brandte mandler" (almonds cooked in a sort of wok or pot along with a sweet syrup, and served warm).

Further down the walking street, past many more shops and restaurants, I came eventually to Tivoli Gardens. This combination amusement park and garden is, as I have been told, the second oldest amusement park in the world. Unfortunately for my photo outing, Tivoli was closed for the season (it still being quite chilly in late March in Copenhagen), so I looped back and began heading more north, through the Latin Quarter. and back towards the King’s Gardens, the gardens of Rosenborg Castle. It being that time of year, the King’s gardens weren’t any better off than Tivoli:

North and a little east of these gardens, you come to the open air museum and the Kastellet, a huge pentagonal fortification with walking paths, waterways, fountains, and all manner of interesting old buildings. Given good weather, you could spend hours or even days exploring it all! Along one edge is the Langelinie, or Long Line Pier, where you can find the Little Mermaid, placed in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. Interestingly, the Little Mermaid was on holiday in Shanghai, visiting the World Expo. Here’s a shot from a previous visit, though. She really is quite “little” – the statue is only about 3-4 feet tall:

I hope you’ve enjoyed a little flavor of Copenhagen. There is much to see and much to explore and learn there! I’ll leave you with a few more images (click to enlarge), but if you’d like to see more, please visit my Copenhagen Album on Flickr.

Manaus is a city in Brazil, located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. While it is a bustling city, with over two million people, there are no main highways connecting it anywhere, and nothing but wilderness for hundreds of miles in every direction. Nevertheless, it is a cultural and industrial marvel, having once been the capital of the rubber industry.

In city center is a stately old opera house, quite an architectural marvel:

Nearby, a statue commemorates some of the city’s historical ties with Asia:

And, in the square surrounding the opera house, you can find outdoor food stalls, local vendors selling various wares and snacks, and even some street entertainment:

I especially like the last photo, given the lighting, and the old woman watching over the rail in the background. This was a fun place to visit!

Be sure to check out more of my travel photos on Flickr.

My team meets on (approximately) a quarterly basis, for 3 days of intense strategy discussions, and “Death by PowerPoint.” But, the part of the week that really brings us together as a team are the extra curricular activities. Over the years, we have tried everything from golf to bowling, to dinners, to paintball melees. But last week, we were fortunate to have a really, really great team-building event: White-water rafting.

We were in the Boise, Idaho area, and last Thursday afternoon, trekked off into the surrounding mountains to visit the Cascade Raft & Kayak center on the Payette River, just outside of Boise.

We were torn between anticipation and trepidation, but 13 of us decided to go for it, and we were rewarded for our efforts!

Aesop teaches us, “in union, there is strength,” and we learned that lesson in spades on this trip. Two hours of Class III/IV rapids, and it was non-stop, adrenalin-pumping fun! We managed to lose a couple of rafters overboard, but they were swiftly recovered and we considered it part of the team building experience. In this photo, you can see yours truly (last man on the right side) in our raft, overloaded by one, as we had picked up a man overboard from another raft. Weighed down, we crashed our way through the next set of rapids, and I believe there was as much water in the boat as there was outside:

All in all, we had a great time, and I have to say, thanks very much to our guides, Ryan and Dustin, for steering us safely through!

Afterwards, we enjoyed a cold one on the banks of the Payette, and soaked in the experience. Life was good.

Joe Paterno said, “When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.” We learned this lesson many times over while rafting. In fact, we lived it!

If you happen to be in the Boise area, please do stop in to see the folks at Cascade. Tell them I sent you! You won’t get a discount or anything, but hey – you’ll be white-water rafting, so who cares?

Nature didn’t cooperate, however; as we drove north we could see the clouds rolling in, east to west, and before we got there the entire sky was a gloomy grey. Rain was threatening, and sure enough, just as we arrived, the drizzle began. But an hour’s drive is an investment, and we decided to go ahead and have dinner anyway, and see what we could find worth photographing.

Being indoors, in the scenic Greek restaurant (The Parthenon, 751 Dodecanese Blvd; excellent food!), gave me a chance to try some high ISO images with my new Canon 7D. At ISO 12800, the images came out a bit on the noisy side, but Photoshop CS5’s Camera Raw features made quick work of it.

But the best was yet to come…

Later, as we enjoyed a cup of coffee and some Baklava at Hella’s cafe, lo and behold! The sun came out, and that elusive golden light made an appearance after all! Leaving Carol with the cappuccino, I grabbed my camera and tripod and raced back outside to see what I could see. With the light and shadows, HDR seemed to be the way to go, and I managed to capture some great images.

And, wouldn’t you know it, with the light streaming in before sunset, and shining directly on the gloomy clouds in the east, we got a rainbow!

All in all it was a lovely evening, great food with great company in a historic area, all capped off by nature’s best light show. Patience does pay off!

I like to bring my DSLR with me on trips (when possible) and I had it this time. But, I opted to favor my phone for photos. In addition, I made use of the Phone’s GPS and apps wherever practical. The results are here in this blog post.

Upon leaving my hotel the first day, I found myself in front of the Space Needle. I was able to capture this unique viewpoint, with the bruised and sullen clouds providing a dramatic backdrop.

I went downtown and found the Pike’s Place market. They were closing for the day, so I didn’t get to see the guys tossing the fish around. Maybe next time.

I did get a chance to visit The Pike brew pub. If you go there, try the "Kilt Lifter." A great beer!

While downtown, I decided to visit Starbucks. Perhaps even more interesting than seeing the original Starbucks was using the Starbucks iPhone app to locate it. Seattle loves their coffee!!

I had a chance to visit some friends I had only met online, Joe and Heidi Hendricks. I met Joe on the forums of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and he and Heidi have been an inspiration to me for quite awhile. Read his blog or friend him on facebook to find out why. Tell him I sent you!

Joe paddled me around some beautiful waterways in his 2-man kayak, letting me sit in front and take pictures (with my real camera!). We saw all sorts of interesting birds and beautiful scenic vistas. They live in a breathtaking area! Thanks, Joe, for a memorable visit!

Back in Seattle, things got a little crazy at a downtown dance party in an open park. I couldn’t quite figure it out, until I realized it was 4/20.

I finally made it to the top of the Space Needle my final evening, and grabbed a couple of pictures. Just missed a beautiful sunset but it was still a wonderful view!

While bopping around Seattle, I made sure to check in at most of the places I visited using the FourSquare iPhone app. I earned the Adventurer and Bender badges, and became Mayor of my hotel. Not real proud of that last one!

Finally, I wrote this entire post and published it to my blog using the WordPress app for the iPhone. I had to cheat right at the end and make some final edits online, as I can’t get the app to do two things: allow inline pictures (the app appends all the images at the end) and add hyperlinks (must be possible, but I can’t figure it out).

So, In conclusion, I faced the technology challenge of capturing my Seattle trip with the tiny computer I carry in my pocket. While not 100% successful, I was able to get most of the job done. Mobile computing is a bit of an art, but technology is definitely a great enabler.

Penang is an interesting place, with deep ties to British colonialism as well as its roots of Malay, Thai, Indian and Chinese culture. Once known as the Pearl of the Orient for its beauty and tranquility, Penang today is a juxtaposition of modern technology and industry with ancient and primitive traditions.

Penang is one of my favorite places in the world, due to its variety of cultures, interesting and often eclectic mix of new and old, and especially its food!

Indeed, the mix of cultures is very evident in the unique food, which is vibrant and exciting. The Chinese food borrows from Malay, the Thai borrows from Indian, they all mix and match and the result is something to be enjoyed! Street food, or “hawker food,” is excellent, the best in Asia in my opinion… Seafood is bountiful, and the sign at this hawker stand say it like it is:

Some food, however, may be best left to only the most adventurous eaters:

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures, and next time I’ll talk a little more about the Malaysian people – a friendly lot!

In addition to some fun travel photography, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a chance to be a beta-tester for the forthcoming release of Adobe Photoshop CS5, which is scheduled to be announced on April 12. I’ve been digging in to the new features, so watch this space after the announcement for some new tutorials and demonstrations of the great new capabilities to be found in this latest version of my favorite software!

I’ve not been totally idle online during my blog’s hiatus, however – I’ve been authoring a series of Monday tutorials on the ins and outs of Photoshop’s powerful Blend Modes, and you can find them on the fun and informative TipSquirrel blog. Just go to the blog and look for the link to posts by Mike Hoffman, including my latest, demonstrating 3 ways to use Luminosity blend modes for sharpening. While you’re there, be sure to check out the many other great tips and techniques shared by the great TipSquirrel authors!

That’s it for now; I’ll be back soon!

OK, I’ve been on the road and traveling for over 2 weeks and across 10 time zones, so maybe it’s me that’s a bit schizophrenic. But, bear with me a little bit as I relate a tale of many cities, and when we’re done, we can compare notes. I think you’ll agree that there are strange things afoot.

We’ll start with a simple little trip to Photoshop World, which is a twice yearly conference where about 4000 geeks like me come together to cram as much creative knowledge as we can fit into our brains in just over 72 hours. This particular conference was in Las Vegas, which is some three time zones west of my Florida home.

While I was there, I had the opportunity to to a little bit of photo-blogging, and I’ve posted my shots of Photoshop World, the Keynote Address, the pre-conference Forum party, and even the surreal taping of Martini Hour Live with Deke McClelland and Colleen Wheeler, in which Deke and Colleen interviewed Scott Kelby, Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski. It was great fun.

But, I digress. While in Vegas, I was able to get out and do a little photo-walking as well, and I was somewhat taken aback to find many strange things there.  For example, I learned that Paris is located in Las Vegas, complete with the Eiffel Tower! My school teachers have taught me a different story over the years, but hey, seeing is believing, right?

Now, finding the Eiffel tower in the middle of the Nevada desert, of itself, might not be such a big deal. I mean, so my teachers fibbed a little in the name of education. Perhaps Gustave Eiffel is rolling over in his grave.. But, little did I realize, the confusion was only just beginning…

After flying home from my trip to Vegas, I left the very next day on a business related trip. First stop: Budapest, Hungary. Now, Budapest is an ancient city, largest in Hungary, and is actually a collage of two cities: Buda, and Pest. The two cities straddle the Danube, and one the west you have the ancient Buda with its Palace hill, the Citadel hill, and many ancient and wondrous buildings and castles. One the east, you have the hustling, bustling city centre, with restaurants, bars, and… and… Las Vegas Casino?

OK, I thought, this is very weird. Paris is in Nevada, and Las Vegas is in Hungary. The jet lag must really be getting to me now. My solution? Take a short hop over to Copenhagen, in the heart of Denmark. Coincidentally, I happened to arrive on the eve of a MAJOR football game between Denmark and Sweden. The Swedish fans, dressed in blue and yellow, stormed the city and made a brave attempt to take over the park and “adjust” the statuary in the city centre, but all for naught as the Danish team won the game, 1-0.

The interesting thing about Denmark, as I discovered while having a pint of Tuborg and mixing with the crowd of crazy football fans:

It is a little known fact that Hong Kong is located smack in the center of the waterfront district of Nyhavn in Copenhagen. I know, I’ve seen it:

By now, my head was spinning, and it wasn’t just from the Tuborg. I’ve traveled a lot, and I’ve even made a few trips to Hong Kong, and I’ve learned a lot. One of the things I’ve learned in Hong Kong (and other destinations far and wide) is that, despite the possibility of Yummy Shanghai Crab, there are only a few things that remain constant in this world.

Thank goodness for the universal constants of KFC, 7-Eleven, and McDonalds. Other than that, the world is all mixed up…