Conch Shell Juggling

The "Find-Something-Different-To-Juggle-In-Every-Port-Challenge" recently resulted in a cascade of three conch shells up in the air on Coco Cay in the Bahamas.  They weren't the easiest things to juggle but some of the shells are really very pretty.  Some species are sold for $25 per shell.  I spotted several large Iguanas on the island but they didn't seem too keen on the idea of getting tossed around in front of my camera.

THE EYE OF THE JUGGLER EXAMINES TABUAERAN

I was in Kiribati last month with Holland America.  Here is a the final edit for the segment I did on Tabuaeran for my new travelogue series.  I've really been enjoying practicing my skill set...  Shooting, editing, narrating, and hosting.  It really makes me appreciate just how much work goes into video production.  I composed some music too in this segment using Garage Band.  The theme music I licensed from a company called Premium Beat.  I'm now moving on to work on a segment on Bora Bora which was absolutely spectacular and so much fun to start shooting underwear with the GoPro.

BORA BORA AND FRENCH POLYNESIA

Lately, I've been shooting and editing a lot of video.  I am producing a travel video series.  Here is some sweet footage I took in the lagoon in Bora Bora.  I shot it with my new waterproof GoPro4 Silver.  Some of this footage I shot in 4k.  It does 15 fps in the super high definition.  I really like the camera because I enjoy shooting covertly.  It's very small and it's possible to get very authentic moments when I'm on location and people seldom notice that they are being recorded.  I often just clip it on my belt.  It's a cool little video tool.  On this assignment, I joined Holland America's Statendam out of Honolulu and cruised down to the very remote Fanning Island in Kiribati and then south to French Polynesia before returning home out of Papeete.  I'm calling the video series "Eye of the Juggler" and it will be available for sale after my performances when I work on cruise ships.  It's fun.  I get to write, record narration and practice my storytelling and editing skills.

SPRING IN EUROPE

I’m back in the Mediterranean on a three week spring tour on Holland America Line.   Enjoying the process of getting back up to speed with my Canon.  Here are some of my favorite images so far.

This tiny little fella drew everyone’s sympathies on the streets of Ravenna.   

He was shivering and not very comfortable around the other dogs.
They must have seemed like giants to him!

A snail climbs a stalk of grass in Sardinia, Italy.  There were thousands and thousands of them.

A sea gull riding the wind next to the ship while sailing from Naples, Italy.  Simple works.  :-)

A young man in Catonia (Sicily) cleaning up after the fish have been brought to market.  

There is a really amazing fish market there.

A man feeds pigeons in Korcula (Croatia) to the delight of a toddler.

Korcula, Croatia.  It was once home to Marco Polo

Ravenna, Italy has some amazing estuaries where shacks are set up to catch sea food.

CAPRI, Italy

I just recently had the wonderful opportunity to photograph the famous Island of Capri while visiting Naples (Napoli), Italy.  Capri is an island a half hour by ferry from the port of Naples.  Once there, I took the full island tour and shot the beautiful famous natural arches.  The highlight of the tour is going inside the Grotta Azzurra, a cave which illuminates itself with natural sparkling blue light.  To see the clip on Vimeo, click here.

mini.SCILLA

mini.SCILLA from Michael Menes on Vimeo.


I've been experimenting with making "tilt-shift" videos during my travels.  This is one of the picturesque Italian villa of Scilla across the Straight of Messina.

Industrial Ruins of Messina, SICILY

Across the Tracks...

A few favorites from a cool area I discovered across the railroad tracks in Messina.  (Except for the last two images which I shot the same day downtown and in the railway station.)  Really amazing rawness created by man and nature.  The place feels very haunted.  There were also people living off the grid in the ruins...