Purple

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s an entry for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Purple…

I took this a while back at Clarkes Quay in Singapore. I love Singapore and that area along the riverfront is always a great place to hang out at night. There are all kinds of restaurants and bars, live music and street entertainers. This picture is of a ‘dancing’ fountain where you can play in the water jets, the lights are constantly changing colors. I just happened to catch it when they were purple.

I wanted to pick something other than flowers for this challenge (tho I have a bunch of those too).

Purple

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s an entry for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Purple…

I wanted to pick something other than flowers for this challenge (tho I have a bunch of those too).

Norms Thursday Doors

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Captain Jill

Norm does a photo challenge on ‘doors’ every Thursday. I like to get into these things when I can.

Here’s a pretty blue door. I took this picture last year while I was in Aberdeen for the Freefall Lifeboat Course. It was in an area of town called Footdee, where they moved all the fishermen years ago. This picture is of one of the fishermen’s sheds, where they work on their nets, etc.

Norms Thursday Doors

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Captain Jill

Norm does a photo challenge on ‘doors’ every Thursday. I like to get into these things when I can.

Here’s my ‘door’ picture for this week. I took it outside the ‘Little Hollywood Land” Movie Set Museum in Kanab, Utah.

I had taken a trip to Las Vegas for the Freedom Fest a couple of years ago and when it was finished, I rented a car and drove up to do some sightseeing. I went to Grand Canyon (North Rim), Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.

I had a great time wandering around, hiking through the gorgeous scenery and finding quirky little places like this to stop. 🙂

Old Film Photos

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Captain Jill

I’m asking for advice here. I was out today getting those photos from the other day developed. I figured while I was at it, I would take some of my old film in to get it digitized.

I brought in 6 rolls of (already developed) film, type Kodak Advantix 400 25 exposure “one time use camera film cassette”. The store (Walgreens) told me they could only get the film to come out of 1 of the reels and so they couldn’t do anything with the other 5.

Here’s one of a market in Turkey

Does anyone know of any tricks, techniques, gizmos, etc. to get this film out of their canisters so it can be digitized? Or maybe you know of some other store that would be better at it than Walgreens?

I already asked if I could just break open the film reels myself, but they didn’t seem to think they would be able to do anything with the film then. For some reason I’m not clear on, it has to stay on the reel, in the canister.

Any clues would be appreciated! Thanks!

Norms Thursday Doors

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Captain Jill

I found Norm’s site and this challenge through Cee’s Photography Blog. She has a lot of really great photos and some cool challenges going on all the time. Norm does a photo challenge on ‘doors’ every Thursday. I like to get into these things when I can.

Here’s my ‘door’ picture for this week. I didn’t see this until Saturday so hope it’ll still be good. I liked how the shutters showed up against the windows in the doors. I took this on a tour of some of the plantations outside of New Orleans. If I remember right, it was the San Francisco plantation.

Mural- Dixie Friend Gay

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Captain Jill

I made an earlier post about this mural. I just LOVE it and all of her work that I’ve seen. I thought it was another good one for the Daily Post’s Photo Challenge “Intricate”.

My photo doesn’t do it justice. This mural is just STUNNING. I took this a couple of years ago when I was at the Maritime Education and Training conference at Texas A&M University in Galveston (Texas). There is more to it than just the part I could get in this picture. It’s HUGE.

It’s actually a mosaic, made of millions of little ceramic tiles. The artist Dixie Friend Gay made it. I’m not sure how long it took. There’s a better picture of how it all looks in this link. And another one to more about her art.

I think her mosaics are just incredible. I wonder that her work isn’t more well known. I think it deserves to be. What do you think?

Intricate

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s a picture for the Daily Posts’ Photo Challenge.

This is a photo of the underside of a starfish (I took it at the aquarium). Their little ‘feet’ are very intricate. 🙂

Intricate

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s a picture for the Daily Posts’ Photo Challenge.

I took it a few years ago on an Irish Beach. I thought the patterns the flowing water made through the sand were really interesting.

Yeah, I know I’m weird. 😉

Motion: County Fair

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s a photo I took at the fair last year. I think it’s a good one for this challenge (Motion) from the Daily Post. I always try to go when I’m home from the ship. I don’t usually go on the rides anymore, but I love to see all the people wandering around, listen to the music, and pig out on the junk food! 😉

Motion

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s a photo I took in New Orleans. I think it’s a good one for this challenge (Motion) from the Daily Post. I loved watching this couple dance and listen to the band play in the street. New Orleans is really great for this kind of thing. 🙂

It’s not really blurry, but I hope you can get the idea of motion anyway. The couple was really dancing up a storm (swing, jitterbug, etc.), the musicians were all tapping their toes and swaying to the music and everyone was having a great time.

I didn’t think to buy a CD from this band, I wish I remembered their name. But I did get one from another one that was playing further up the street. Here’s a post I did about that one. Check it out, the music’s worth a listen. 😉

Tarawa Sunrise

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s a sunrise for the Daily Posts Weekly Photography Challenge. This week, the challenge is to show a photo “taken in the early morning light”. Be an “early bird“.

I’m most definitely NOT an early bird! Last time I can remember really enjoying early morning was as a kid getting up for Saturday morning cartoons. 🙂

I was always a night owl. I used to stay up ’til 2-3 in the morning. I used to go out partying a lot. Or, I might stay at home reading a good book. Sometimes I just couldn’t put it down ’til I finished.

I’ve cut back a lot on keeping those kinds of hours now a days. Mostly because I have too much to do now. Things that have to be taken care of during normal business hours (9-5). Now I try to get to sleep by midnight (and it really isn’t too hard to do anymore). 😉

I only see the sunrise when I’m working the midnight to noon watch like I am now. I haven’t seen many good sunrises (or sunsets) this trip yet. Since we made arrival off Congo, it has been overcast. It clouded up a few days before we got here and hasn’t cleared up yet.

I took this photo while I was working on the tuna boat a couple of years ago. We were coming into the lagoon at Tarawa. The sunrise was just stunning. I had to run and get my camera.

This is one of my all time favorite ‘sun’ pictures. I keep one of my others as my header.

Weekly Photo Challenge: My Home- Afloat

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat. I have LOTs of good pictures for this one. I’ve spent most of my life at sea. I’ve already posted a few photos, here are some of my latest ‘home’ afloat.

These photos are from my latest ship, the Ocean Rig Apollo. I’m actually aboard right now. We’re delivering the ship from the shipyard in Korea to it’s first job offshore Congo. I joined the ship with the rest of the crew onboard right now in Mauritius about 3 weeks ago.

These are some pictures from our voyage. The first one is our departure from Port Louis, Mauritius, the ‘cliffs’ are the coastline of South Africa, after we passed Cape Town (I was asleep for that so missed getting any pictures from there).

Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat. I have LOTs of good pictures for this one. Here are some pictures of the kinds of ships I see daily while I’m at work.

supply boats

3- odd number of boats

DSV Global Orion

Yeah, they’re all afloat, tho I sure don’t know how a couple of them manage it. 😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat. I have LOTs of good pictures for this one. Here are a few sea creatures to start off with. 😉

A Word A Week: Arid

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Captain Jill

I saw this challenge from Sue over at her ‘A Word in Your Ear’ blog. The word of the week is: arid. I don’t have many photos that would fit this weeks word, since I spend most of my time at sea. But I did happen to have a couple on my computer.

I took these last summer, we hadn’t had any rain for a while and everything was drying up. I was on the way back home from Galveston. I always like to drive the beach road, especially when I’m not in a hurry. It’s a nice drive, right along the beach with some pretty scenery and some good places to stop and enjoy the day. 🙂

Daily Post: Blur

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts’ Photo Challenge: Blur.

Normally, I wouldn’t have kept these pictures, they’re too blurred. They work great for this challenge tho. 😉

I took them at the ‘festival’ going on next door to our hotel in Mauritius. The belly dancer was very good. I never did get a decent picture of her while she was dancing. I was lucky, I saw her later and she posed for me. 🙂

Ephemeral

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s my take on the latest prompt from the Daily Post (Ephemeral).

I chose these photos for 2 reasons. The paper origami boats are themselves ephemeral, and I took the pictures earlier this evening in Port Louis, Mauritius.

Why does that make it ephemeral? Because I only got here yesterday afternoon after a looooooong flight (too tired to go out). Today I spent all day in a ‘workshop’ with the rest of my new crewmates. Tomorrow morning (early), we will be leaving to join the ship. So my time in Mauritius sped by and was very short-lived.

It looks very beautiful (I’ll post more pictures later). I hope I can come back again someday. 🙂

Photo 101: Glass

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Captain Jill

I’m still trying to participate in the Photography 101 Challenge. Today’s assignment is: glass.

I’m leaving for work tomorrow and pretty busy, so not able to get out to take any more photos. I took these when they sent me to Aberdeen (Scotland) for a lifeboat class. I had enough time after class each day to wander around town a bit.

I love the creativity of the little fisherman’s cottage in the top row. Tom, Dick and Harry 😉 and the model ships behind glass.

I got to try a glass of whiskey at the Glenfiddich distillery and the brew at the Moorings Bar.

I didn’t get to see the inside of the stained glass windows, they looked like they would be gorgeous with the light shining through. Maybe next time…

Photography 101: Rodeo Moments

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Captain Jill

I haven’t been able to get out to get many new pictures lately, so I’m looking through some old ones for the Photography 101 Challenge: Moment.

The idea is to ‘”capture a fleeting moment and experiment with blur and movement”.

I did try this last time they ran this challenge, but I found some different pictures this time. I took these at the Brazoria County Fair a couple of years ago. I don’t think these turned out as good as the earlier ones I just posted. It was SO hard to get a good shot of the cowboys once they came out of the gate on those bulls!

I’m thinking of going to the Houston Rodeo tomorrow tho, so maybe I’ll be able to get some better ones this time. I really love going to the rodeo. I’m lucky to be home for this one. I’m in Houston tonight anyway, so might as well do something here in the morning before I go home. It’ll be either the rodeo or the zoo. 🙂

Photography 101: Moment

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Captain Jill

I haven’t been able to get out to get many new pictures lately, so I’m looking through some old ones for the Photography 101 Challenge: Moment.

The idea is to ‘”capture a fleeting moment and experiment with blur and movement”.

I did try this last time they ran this challenge, but I found some different pictures this time. I took these at the Brazoria County Fair a couple of years ago. I think they get the idea across, don’t you? 😉

Photo 101: Architecture

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Captain Jill

I thought I’d try to do this Photography 101 project again, since I wasn’t able to spend much time on it last time and missed a few assignments. Here is my post from last time.

I thought I would have more time this go ’round.

It doesn’t look like I will, but while I’m home, I’ll try to participate. Here’s my entry for the ‘architecture’ challenge. I’m trying to find some good ones I can make black and white.

Here are a couple of shots I took a few years ago when I was in Argentina for vacation. I really loved it there. I wish I could have spent months there instead of only couple of weeks. These photos are both from Buenos Aires. The first one is looking down the neat old spiral staircase I found at my first B&B. The bottom one is looking up into the skylight of a market

I think they both show some great ‘bones’. I have some other good photos of architecture from that trip, but most of them look better in color. I don’t usually think in black and white.

Do you think that might help to get better photos?

PS- the ‘featured image’ is also from Buenos Aires. I took it while I was wandering around down near the river one day. I don’t have any idea what the building is.

Intricate

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s an entry for the Word A Week Challenge from Sue over on her A Word in Your Ear Blog . The word of the week is: intricate. I had these pictures on my blog already, I think they are a nice example of ‘intricate’. I had already done a post about these very intricate designs made from sea shells. They call them Sailors Valentines. 🙂

Accepted!

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Captain Jill

I’ve been trying for a few years to get started in a second (or 3rd) career as a writer/photographer. I’ve been reading International Living magazine for a long time now (decades). I usually glance over the ads, but eventually I was tempted to sign on for their travel writing course.

I did it and over the years since, I’ve taken a few other courses through IL and what is now called GEP (Great Escape Publishing). I started this blog at the Boston workshop they put on back in August 2013. I figured the blog would be a good way to get my work out to the public without having to go through an editor. I was getting so frustrated at having my photos rejected and I couldn’t even understand what they were telling me when they told me WHY they rejected them.

All along the way, I’ve still been trying to come up with something that I could sell to someone. I do enjoy writing and photography, but I am also really looking for some way to earn an income without having to be out on a ship so much of the time. I really want to find a way to travel more and spend more time doing the things I want to do instead of what other people want me to be doing. 😉

I have somehow managed to have a couple of articles published online (here, here, and here), but that came about only because someone happened to see my blog and liked what I had written on here. I had never been able to get up the nerve to actually send in a formal query to a real magazine editor.

Until last trip home. I FINALLY got around to sending in an article to International Living! I had high hopes. I was really anxious too. I had written a short article (they say short is much better to start with), but I had written it about Singapore. Singapore is not one of the countries IL usually features. I thought they might like it since it was about how to eat cheap there. They DO like articles about how to save money. 🙂

I’m still waiting to hear back from them. I HOPE they willl let me know something one way or another. In the meantime, I’ve been working on trying again to get my photographs accepted on some of the stock photo sites. I’m happy to say, I’ve managed to get some accepted!

I still don’t really understand why they accept some and they refuse others. I do understand what they’re telling me now, I just don’t SEE what they’re telling me about in the photos I’ve sent. So far, my acceptance level is 40% at Bigstock, 0% at Canstock and Fotolia. I’m getting better, at first my acceptance level was only 26%. 🙂

Here are 2 of the photos I submitted. Can you tell which ones they accepted? The first one is of a temple on a lake in Bali, Indonesia. The second one is of the beach in Cancun, Mexico.

Which one do YOU like best? Why?

Mural- Dixie Friend Gay

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Captain Jill

I saw this challenge from Sue over at her ‘A Word in Your Ear’ blog. The word of the week is: mural. I have a few photos of murals. Actually some of mine are a little different, most people think of murals as paintings on a wall. I have some of those, but I also have some murals made in different mediums than just paint. This one is one of my favorites.

I think her mosaics are just incredible. I wonder that her work isn’t more well known. I think it deserves to be. What do you think?

We Are Young- Mural

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Captain Jill

I saw this challenge from Sue over at her ‘A Word in Your Ear’ blog. The word of the week is: mural. I thought I should get into this one. I have a few photos of those. Actually some are a little different, but this one is one of my favorites.

Travel Theme: Doorways

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Captain Jill

I stumbled upon the “Where’s My Backpack?” blog and Travel Theme: Doorways challenge while I was checking my reader today. I figured I’d join in…

Those first couple (of neighbors, sitting in their doorways) were from Thailand, up in the hills North of Chiang Mai. The next bunch are from Aberdeen, Scotland. I had to go take the course for Freefall Lifeboat before they would let me go out on my new job.

And I just had to throw something nautical in the mix. 🙂 This is a photo of the interior of the boat we were practicing with all week.

door into freefall lifeboat

A Word A Week: Rainbow

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Captain Jill

This weeks Word a Week Challenge from the Word in Your Ear Blog is: Rainbow.

Here is one of my rainbow pictures. I took this one a couple of years ago, when I was working on the tuna boat. We sometimes went in to Tarawa (Kiribati/Gilbert Islands) to unload. We would tie up to a reefer ship in the anchorage off Betio (the main town on the atoll) and have a couple of days to get ashore there.

For such a small place, in the middle of nowhere, Tarawa had some interesting history. Some of the biggest battles of WWII were fought over these islands. There are still a lot of military ruins/wrecks/artifacts from when the Americans were fighting the Japanese there (Battle of Tarawa).

I’m not really into military history or how wars are fought, but I do understand the strategy of having those island ‘stepping stones’ for the US during WWII. The US still keeps an eye on things there. When I was there once, I met up with a US ship doing some ‘PR’ work throughout the Pacific Islands. A group of military people were cleaning up the war memorial and sent a medical team to help out the locals.

At this point in time, Tarawa has gone back to it’s sleepy small town ways. I really enjoyed myself there. The people were friendly and a lot of fun. A couple of years after I stopped working over there, I read a book “Sex Lives of Cannibals” by J. Maarten Troost. I highly recommend it. I laughed SO hard. Yes, it really IS like that there. 🙂

What's Going On?

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Captain Jill

I looked at my blog this morning and I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had shot up to 72 views (from 8) in the last day. It seems like it’s been really slow lately. I haven’t had more than 10 in the stats bar for at least 2-3 weeks. I went to look at my stats page to try to figure out what was going on and saw that I had 133 views already! That’s the most ever! WTF???

Views 141
Visitors 121
Likes 3
Comments 0

This is very strange. No comments? Only 3 likes out of 141!! views? That is nothing like my usual daily activity on my blog. I’m just wondering what’s going on? I hadn’t even posted anything yet today…

Stats for January 21

Nothing Published

When I looked to see what people were looking at, this is what it showed. That doesn’t add up to anywhere near 141 (or even 133). But when I looked into it more, it showed me a whole long list of posts with 1 view each. Taking all those into account, the numbers did add up. I still have no idea what’s going on.

View 14 Home page / Archives
View 6 Dave’s Peach Pie Moonshine Recipe
View 3 Halloween Treats Recipe Slideshow
View 3 SNL: Obama Addresses Putin
View 2 Zero to Hero- Day 21: Let the World Know
View 2 I’m On Board!
View 2 Shadowed
View 2 German Coast Guard Trainee
View 2 Brrrrr!
View 2 Women Rallied Behind Beautiful, Wartless Witches

It looks like a few people did searches that brought them to me, but that only gives me 8 viewers.

Search Engines

7Google Search
- 2 google.co.uk
- 2 google.co.uk/search
- 2 google.com
- 1 google.es
1AOL

These are the blogs where people came to visit me from today. Happy to have the interaction, I liked all of those blogs! I’m on bloglovin, but nobody ever seems to look at me there. I think this is maybe my 1st one that showed up here in my stats. I hope that’s a good sign. 🙂

1 newenglandwaterman.com/2015/01/15/what-its-like/
1 goodoleways.com/daves-peach-pie-moonshine-recipe/dogs-secret-recipe-file/
1 bloglovin.com/blogs/capt-jills-journeys-11124955?post=3977577123&group=0&context=expanded_post&context_ids&blog=11124955&frame=1&viewer=true

This is the only one somebody thought was interesting enough to click on to read more about. 🙁

About Clicks
1 screen.yahoo.com/broken-news-daily/mysterious-ghost-ship-incredible-history-004502570.html

Interesting to see what people were searching for to bring them to my blog. I’m still amazed by how many people are searching for “moonshine”!

ViewsSearch
2 seamans mission limassol cyprus
1 peach pie moonshine
3 Unknown Search Terms

I always like to see where people are from. I wish more people would tell me more about themselves in their comments, but the little flag widget I have on my sidebar and the stats map are nice to have. They give me a clue. I wonder what makes people from some places come visit my blog. Most of my visitors are from the USA, UK and Canada. I guess today some seamen must be due into port in Limassol (Cyprus) and looking for news about the local Seaman’s Center there. That gives me an idea. I should put a link up for those things! 🙂

ViewsCountry

132United States
3United Kingdom
3Spain
3Cyprus

Here’s another interesting stat today. I’ve still got lots of views for the moonshine recipe. But also a few for Halloween recipes (little late for that, but I’m always up for sweets). 🙂

I’m glad to see some of my older posts are still holding some interest. 🙂

ViewsAuthor
127Capt Jill
View 6 Dave’s Peach Pie Moonshine Recipe
View 3 Halloween Treats Recipe Slideshow
View 3 SNL: Obama Addresses Putin
View 2 White Chocolate-Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
View 2 Dilbert
View 2 Shadowed
View 2 Self Ownership
View 2 Songs of the Sea: The Dutchman
View 2 Zero to Hero- Day 21: Let the World Know
View 2 I’m On Board!

I’m looking at the posts where I’ve had the most comments. I’m trying to figure out if there’s any common theme that seems to get people more involved. If there is one, I’m not seeing it. I do remember pissing off a few people bad enough for them to quit following me over some of the more political posts (one of those is listed below- war on jobs). Too bad. 🙁

Total comment followers: 37

View 109 About
View 27 World’s Smallest Political Quiz
View 18 In Praise of Alcohol
View 18 WordPress Family Award- I Won One!
View 15 Happy New Year 2015
View 14 Photography 101 Challenge: A Pop of Color
View 14 The War on Jobs Continues
View 13 Unexpected News!
View 13 Travel Journey of the Week: New Orleans
View 13 Zero to Hero- Day 7: Personalize Your Blog
View 12 Dreamy: Elvis

Seems like the categories people like to look at are the things I am posting a lot about, so that’s good. Sometimes it’s hard for me to categorize things, they’ll fit into more than one place, so I label them with more than one label. 🙂

149 lifestyle

98 blogging
80 Uncategorized
69 History
65 art
64 maritime
63 things to do
60 travel
52 video
40 economy

And I FINALLY made it to over 500 followers on WordPress!! It seems like that took forever! Actually, I only started this blog the end of August last year, so it’s only been about a year and a half. Facebook has given me the most “followers”, but I don’t really count them since I can’t seem to get it to go to my BLOG page and not my personal page. Most of those people aren’t paying any attention at all to my blog posts. 🙁

I really haven’t figured out how to use twitter or tumblr yet. I still have NO clue as to how to really “promote” my blog to get more followers or how to ‘monetize’ it. I’m still at the learner stage and having fun with it all. I do hope I’ll be able to figure it out at some point. 🙂

Total WordPress.com Followers: 597
Total Email Followers: 12
418Facebook
162Twitter
24Tumblr

If any of you have any ideas about any of this, please feel free to comment. Any of you had any weird stats today?

Cross

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Captain Jill

Here’s my entry for the Word a Week Photography Challenge: Cross. I took this in the famous Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s funny, but I just used some other photos from the same place in a different photo challenge (WPC: Shadowed). 🙂

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Stats for January 21

Nothing Published

This is the only one somebody thought was interesting enough to click on to read more about. 🙁

Interesting to see what people were searching for to bring them to my blog. I’m still amazed by how many people are searching for “moonshine”!

Here’s another interesting stat today. I’ve still got lots of views for the moonshine recipe. But also a few for Halloween recipes (little late for that, but I’m always up for sweets). 🙂

Total comment followers: 37

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