Sunset at Clingman's Dome- GSM

Here are the sunset photos I promised. This was truly a beautiful end to the day. It was surprisingly cold but Sandra and I just couldn't leave. The view was breathtaking.

Amen

Great Smoky Mountains

Here are some of the photos from our trip to GSM in November, 2008. I'll have another post later this week just for the sunset from Clingman's Dome. More to come....

Fall Colors on Display

The bridge and stream at Chimney's Picnic Area

The view from Clingmon's Dome tower.

Sunset - Feb. 22, 2009

I know I have been catching you up on our adventures this fall and I have some nice photos coming this week from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from a couple of trips that Sandra and I made in November. But the sunset last night was really nice, so I grabbed my camera and made these. The photos are straight out of the camera (SOOC) with not enhancement to the color with Photoshop. I simply walked into my neighbor's backyard (I have the coolest neighbors. They had previously given me permission, so I took them up on their offer.) and shot these. Enjoy these and I'll get back to the GSM pictures including some awesome sunset photos from Clingman's Dome later in the week. Stay tuned.....

Smoky Mountains - Nov 2008

Ok where was I? Oh yeah, I remember. I was catching you kind readers up on our adventures this fall. So now the story continues.....

After we returned from the Czech Republic, we had lot of catching up to do (work, school, home, etc) and lots of videos (Over 10 hours of net footage) and still photos (over 800) to upload. It took about 3 weeks to get back into any thing that resembled a normal routine.

Early in November, Sandra and I made a couple of trips to the Great Smoky Mountains National park which is about a 70 minute drive for us. I’ll be featuring some of the photos from those trips over the next several posts here. I hope you’ll check back often to see them. And as always, comments are encouraged. Oh yeah, here is another short driving video. You folks seem to like these. Turn up your speakers and enjoy a relaxing drive through the golden fall colors in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Then send a link to this page to someone who is stressed and encourage them to take a 3 minute relaxation break. They'll thank you for it later.

CZ Trip Day 8 Mon – Clearing Customs with Camera Gear

On Monday, we actually got up early for some last minute shopping, packed our gear and clothes, said good-bye to our wonderful apartment manager and caught a shuttle van to the airport. We had no trouble with security or customs in Prague. The line was a bit long at the check-in counter, but soon enough we were checked in and through security for a quick snack prior to boarding. The plane departed on time and we arrived in Atlanta some 14 hours later. We had to clear customs and security in Atlanta. The only problem we encountered was that for the first time, security asked us to unpack one of the camera bags, but not both. The long flights and standing in a long line made us all a bit grumpy so we were not thrilled to unpack the bag with big camera. But we managed to get through and find our plane for the flight back to Knoxville. Virginia and her son were there to pick us up in their van and take us home.

This wraps up my series of posts on our trip to the Czech Republic. I hope you have enjoyed the journey. If you ever get a chance to visit the Czech Republic, I highly recommend it.

I hope you'll continue checking here on this page in the future. I'll continue posting photos and videos of some of my recent adventures including a couple of trips to Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Washington DC. Thanks for reading.

CZ Trip – Riding the Lift.

Many people are unfamiliar with what Europeans call a lift. It’s a small phone-booth sized elevator. Below is a video where we managed to fit 3 people with 2 back-packs inside. Don’t worry, I checked the weight limit and did the math. It was a bit comical but shows you what riding in a lift is like. You’ll also get to see the entrance and the street outside our apartment.

CZ Trip Day 7 Sun – Prague

This was our final day in Prague. We shot some footage for summary purposes of the trip and took mom to a rather large shopping mall. We then got off the subway near the museum and walked down the new town square for more shopping. We stopped in at the Louve' Restaurant for dinner and their world famous hot chocolate.

Here is a video of our ride on the Prague Metro/Subway. There is no music on this one so you can hear the sounds better. If you are ever fortunate enough to visit Prague, then the subway is the best way to get around in the city. A week long pass gets you on the metro as well as the buses and street cars.

Here are some random photos.

From Prague - Misc

Our Apartment Building and street

From Prague - Misc

The view from our window at night of the street

From Prague - Misc

Cafe across the street from our Apartment

From Prague - Misc

From Prague - Misc

From Prague - Misc

Bread Basket at the Louve' Restaurant

Waiter at the Louve' Restaurant

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – Lesser Town Park

After we walked across the Charles Bridge we made our way along the bank of the river in a wonderful section of Prague known as Lesser Town. There we found a nice park where we leisurely strolled through until we arrived at the next bridge back across the river. In the middle of this bridge, there is a staircase down to an island which has another nice park. The trees were beginning to turn showing off their wonderful fall colors. It was a nice end to a great day of sightseeing in Prague.

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – The Charles Bridge

Once we left the Old Town Square, we made our way through the ancient streets towards the river. We then walked across the Charles Bridge. This bridge is now pedestrian only and is famous for its statues that line the bridge. The statues depict various scenes from the Bible. We walked out on the bridge to where an old-time jazz band was playing. I surprised Mom by asking her for a dance. We danced on the Charles Bridge to an old song that was popular when she was a teenager. For a moment, she was 20-something again. She still talks about it to anyone who will listen.

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – Old Town Square

After our river cruise, we walked into the Old Town Square. The square is a huge pedestrian only space flanked by two large churches. One of the churches has two large towers called the Adam and Eve towers. The other church has a single large tower with a large astronomical clock at the base. In the middle of the square is a statue of some of the founding fathers and past heroes or Prague. We stopped off at one of the many sidewalk cafes for a cold drink and a pastry.

CZ Trip – Day 6 Sat – Prague – The River Cruise

Sandra and I got up early and hopped on the subway with some of our gear and went out on our own to film some B-roll footage of the town. Ava had to catch her train to Stuttgart, so we missed saying good-bye to her. When we got back we took mom for some lunch. That afternoon, we took a river cruise. Our tour guide spoke 12 languages. On our tour, he narrated in German, English, and Russian.

CZ Trip – Day 5 Fri– Prague at Night

The giant Cathedral and surrounding Castle are especially magical at night. Ava and I went out for a walk at night and of course, I had to take my new Nikon and a tripod with me. Thanks to Sandra’s thorough research of apartments and hotels, we stayed just a short walk from the river and perfect view of the Cathedral on the hill and the Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava River. After taking several pictures of the Castle, we walked out onto the Charles Bridge and then into the Old Town Square for some more night photography.

Thank You

Thank You

Let me start with a great big “Thank You!” for stopping by my website/blog. I really appreciate you taking the time to visit. Those of you that I see regularly have been very encouraging and kind with your words. The rest of you, who I don’t see as often, are beginning to make use of the online comments which is awesome. I really enjoy hearing from you! Comments are great and in some ways are like a fuel that powers blogs onward. So if you haven’t left a comment yet, give it try. It really helps me knowing that you like the photos, videos, and stories.

If you are new here, I’ve spent the last week chronicling my recent adventures in the Czech Republic. You may want to refer back to the last 7 – 8 posts and check those out if you’re interested.

Tomorrow, I’ll continue the Czech Republic story, focusing on our last few days in Prague where we did lots of sightseeing. There are many pictures to post as well as some videos. I hope you will stay tuned and thanks again for stopping by.

CZ Trip – Day 5 Fri– Prague: The Castle

With our major day trips behind us, we could relax a bit and do some sight seeing around Prague. We did take the cameras with us and occasionally filmed some scenes for B-roll footage and to simply document the vacation aspect of the trip. Ava volunteered to drop us off at the castle in the rental car while she returned it to the airport. She would take the subway back and stop in visit the Czech National Museum while we took mom on a leisurely tour of the castle grounds and then a slow walk down the hill and back to the Old Town Square in Prague. Ava and I went out at night after dinner for some night photography of the Charles Bridge, Castle, and Old Town Square. I've got lots of photos from this day of sight seeing that I'll post over the next couple of days. For now, here are some photos from the Castle with it's fairy tale like Cathedral that dominates the Prague skyline. Enjoy.

CZ Trip – Day 4 Thur– Cseke Budejovich

We were tired this morning from two long days of shooting and did not get started as early as we would have liked. We experience some bumper to bumper traffic in the Prague morning rush-hour as we tried to get out of town going south this time to Cseke Budejovich, home of Budweiser Beer. The morning traffic delays made the trip take nearly two hours. We found a good parking place near the town square and had lunch and then started a great day of filming. Cseke Budejovich has a beautiful town square. Here are some photos.

As we were wrapping up the day we noticed a police escorted motorcade pull into the town square where were. The big black limousine had American flags on the front. So Ava and I followed by Sandra and mom walked over to say hello. It was the US Ambassador to CZ! The embassy is of course in Prague so it was quite a coincidence that he would in the same town at the same time as us.

CZ Trip – Day 3 Wed.– Klatovy and Pilzen

Being able to park the rental car right outside the apartment was very convenient. Back-packing all of our gear on the subway was not fun. There was some concern about parking downtown in Prague. Our apartment was in the old city a short walk from the river and the Charles Bridge. Apparently, only permanent residents who have special permits are allowed to park on the streets in that area of town. Others will be towed at least during the business day, when parking is scarce. But we got in so late and left so early each morning it was not a problem. On Day 3, we were up early and loaded and on the road ahead of the morning traffic.

We headed west for an hour to the outskirts of Pilzen and then turned south to the town of Klatovy. I should mention that my sister Ava did the driving each morning and through out the day. She did an awesome job. Sandra and I would read the maps and road signs to help navigate. Sandra would also talk us through the shot sequence for the day. Here are some photos of Klatovy.



Pretty much every where Sandra went with her big camera she drew a crowd. Here are some photos of us setting up in a park to shoot a scene in Klatovy. The school must have dismissed for lunch because soon there was a crowd of middle schoolers watching us film.



We got the shots we needed in Klatovy and headed back to Pilzen. As you have seen in some of the videos, I occasionally, would get out the little Panasonic camera and use the mono-pod to film us driving from the passenger seat. The Czech country side is really beautiful and the best way to show you is these little driving videos. I hope you like them. This one was filmed on the drive from Klatovy to Pilzen.


CZ Driving from Klatovy to Pilzen from Jim Walker on Vimeo.


Some of you may not know that Pilzen is home to Pilsner Beer. Once we got into Pilzen, we got the video shots we needed and found a small little restaurant for some dinner. I drove us home at the end of a long day of shooting. Here are some photos of Pilzen.

CZ Trip – Day 2 Tues. – Usti nad Labem and Lovosice

This would be a good time to mention, that I am under strict orders from my producer (Sandra) not to spoil any of the story details from the “Jonne Project.” Fortunately there are plenty of other interesting stories from the travel, sightseeing, and vacation aspect that I can tell you. I should also mention that we chose to stay in Prague because it was in a central location to our 3 main filming destinations. Each destination was just over an hour away from Prague. So the first order of business was to rent a car. Driving in Europe is not recommended for most Americans. While all of Europe does drive on the right side of the road (except England) the signs are very different and some of the customs are different. But, I lived in Italy three years, and Ava has been to Europe frequently, so driving in CZ was not going to be a problem.


Now that we were unpacked, our batteries charged, cupboard and fridge stocked we were ready for our first day of filming. The breakfast cereal with buttermilk was quite a rude awakening. We ended up eating the cereal dry. We left our apartments, with our bulging backpacks loaded with equipment and walked down the streets to the nearest subway. From there we went to the end of the green line and caught a shuttle bus out to the airport and rented a car. This took nearly two hours, but soon we had loaded up our little black Skoda sedan and we were on our way north to Usti nad Labem.



The first location that we needed to find was on the outskirts of town, down some rather small country roads. Sandra had turn-by-turn directions and we did a good job finding all the streets until we got to the last road called “unnamed road”. We went by it twice, but finally found what turned out to be a little dirt field-road, which explains the unnamed part. We bravely inched the little Skoda over the ruts in the road praying we would not meet anyone, because it was definitely a one lane road. But since there were no signs of civilization, we figured the odds were pretty good we were the only people around. We found our first location and got our shot. We packed up and headed back into town to see if any other locations looked familiar to mom. But so much has changed she didn’t recognize anything. The Elbe River passes through the town and there is new modern bridge which we managed to drive across.



Driving in Usti nad Labem from Jim Walker on Vimeo.


We then moved onto the small town of Lovosice for more filming and a good dinner. Then it was back to apartment in Prague.

Czech Republic Trip – Day 1 Mon.

We took a quick flight from Knoxville to Atlanta and there we caught a direct overnight flight to Prague. We were late out of Atlanta due to technical difficulties. When they disconnected the Plane from terminal power, the engines died. Not the best feeling in the world, but we were thankful it happened on the ground instead of in the air. They reconnected the plane and ran through the pre-flight check list again and this time things worked and we pushed back from the terminal and were soon in the air. We arrived in Prague at about 11:30 AM Monday, over an hour late. We had arranged a ride to pick us up and take us to our apartments, but they had given up waiting on us. There were several professional looking shuttle vans for hire so we decided to take a chance. Fortunately, most of the drivers spoke enough English and we had a map to the apartments which helped. By the time we made it to the apartments, the manager had gone to lunch and so we had to wait around on the side walk with our bags of gear. Fortunately it was a quite one-way street with little vehicle or pedestrian traffic. Eventually, the manager returned and we hauled the bags up to our apartments.

Ava flew from Washington DC to Stuttgart, Germany and took the train to Prague. She arrived just after lunch. We rented two apartments, one for mom and Ava, and one for Sandra and me. We took a quick nap then headed out for a short work to a nearby supermarket to stock up. We would later discover that we accidentally bought buttermilk for our breakfast cereal. The labels were not in English. We hung out in the apartments for a while, getting all of gear ready to go (charging batteries, labeling tapes, etc), unpacking our clothes, and just generally resting and trying to get used to the new time zone. We went over our filming plan, which was to travel to 3 to 4 different towns where mom grew up. We would attempt to hit this hard for the first 3 days. If the weather cooperated, and we completed our shot list, then we would have the remaining 3 - 4 days in Prague for site seeing. Later, that evening we went out to eat. Filming would start the next day. The video shows our apartments and the restuarant where we ate.




Prague - our first evening from Jim Walker on Vimeo.

Snow in Knoxville, TN

Here is a quick post about the weather in Knoxville. We had snow today, which rarely happens. Here are some photos and video that I shot at sunset today on the PSTCC campus. Both the video and the still photos were shot with Nikon D90.

Snowy Pond from Jim Walker on Vimeo.

Czech Republic Trip – The Back Story

The next day after the Concord Village film shoot, Sandra (my wife) and Jonne (my mom) boarded a plane in Knoxville to fly to Atlanta, then on to Prague in the Czech Republic (CZ). My Mom is from Czechoslovakia (which is what it was called back then). The following is short summary of how the trip came about.

Sandra and I have been working on a documentary/biography about mom. We have many good interviews shot on our back porch. While the storytelling is great, the video is all “talking head” which can be quite boring to watch even for nice looking lady like my mom. Sandra and I discussed how nice it would be to take Mom home and film some of the same story telling “on location” which would make for much better video. But Sandra was a school teacher and the new school year was about to begin, and taking off a week for trip to Europe, was not going to be possible until at least next summer. So we had pretty much given up on the idea. As the school year started, Sandra did not get called back for a teaching job. The budget cuts in Knox County schools had affected quite a few teachers. We waited for several weeks, thinking that eventually a slot would open up, but nothing happened. We enrolled in the film class at PSTCC and Sandra decided to work on the “Jonne Project” during the day while she waited for the phone to ring. And then one day, the phone rang.

It was my sister, Ava. She found out she was going to be in Germany for a work related conference for a week in October, and thought it would be a good idea to take mom back to her birthplace to visit. However, Mom didn’t want to go without Sandra and me. This turned out to be a huge blessing that we had actually dreamed about. The month of September was crazy. We had to figure out how to get all of our filming gear on a plane and through customs. We had to find a place to stay and plan out our day trips (what scenes would be shot where). Sandra is a tremendously talented producer. She did all the research of locations and hotels. She even had google maps for location in the CZ. She made several detailed checklists for packing gear and setting up for each shoot.

We bought special camera backpacks for carrying the most fragile gear. Other gear was stored in a big gym type bag. We hauled all this gear to the federal building in downtown Knoxville to the customs office where they meticulously logged each serial number of each piece of gear on a special form. We put copies of the form in each bag to hopefully avoid any problems with customs on either end of the trip. We bought lots of extra DV tapes. We carried 3 cameras (Panasonic DVX100B, Panasonic PVGS90, and a Nikon D90), 2 tri-pods and mono-pod, digital audio field recorder, microphones, head phones, portable video monitor, and the wall-wart chargers and extra batteries and misc. cables. Oh yeah, we took extra clothes too. On Sunday mom’s friend Virginia picked us up in her van and took us to the airport.

Czech Republic Trip Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow, I'll start a series of posts on our recent trip to the Czech Republic. In honor of the occasion, I changed my banner graphic at the top of the blog. Hope you like it. See you tomorrow.