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Yesterday afternoon I was walking on Michigan avenue in Chicago and saw these people relaxing while wearing a mask. People wearing masks in public areas looks like a scene from a science fiction movie about viral outbreaks. Sadly, this is our new reality around the world. Is this going to be a new norm from now on? When we will be able to go back to normal? Will will be able to go back to normal someday? Only time will tell.

If you have a story to share about Covid-19, please share it below in the comments. It has affected so many lives. I know it has affected me greatly. It took away the job I have loved for the past 22 years. I was a music director on a cruise ship. Thankfully, we are starting to see some ships in different parts of the world cruise again. I hope to be back on a ship within the next two months. Fingers crossed. It's a very different world now. We will all have to do our best to adapt. Please wash your hands and social distance when you can. Sending positive thoughts to you and your family to stay healthy.

Yesterday I was walking on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and noticed many of the store front windows were covered with wood. Of course it looks really bad and takes away from the beautiful downtown area. I hope the downtown businesses are able to get through these hard times and eventually get back to normal. I am glad the Chicago Police are letting people peacefully protest and they are also ensuring the safety of everyone else not involved in the protests.

Sadly, the boards in the windows make it look like a war zone. No amount of looting and destroying property is going to help anyone's cause. It is only going to make things worse. Thankfully the protests remained peaceful this time.

This post is the first in a new series I am starting. If I can remember a story that goes with one of my pics, I will post it here.

I was visiting Paradise Point in St. Thomas and I had my 50mm lens on my camera. That was the only lens I had with me. My camera has an APS-C sensor so, with the crop factor, it is the focal length of 75mm compared to a full frame camera. This is a very narrow view and would have only captured a small part of this scene. I really wanted to capture the entire view that I was seeing so I took ten vertical shots, slightly moving the camera to the right each time, and then later that evening, I stitched them together in Photoshop. The cruise ship I was working on at the time is in the bottom left part of the photo.

If you go to St. Thomas, you need to take the cable car up to Paradise point. The view is spectacular. Unfortunately, it is temporarily closed due to Covid-19. If you want to know more about it, here is the link to their website. https://www.paradisepointvi.com/about/

If you would like a print of this photo, please visit DavidMoreheadPhotography.com
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/david-morehead/art/st.+thomas

I work on a cruise ship that travels to many beautiful parts of the world. I have had a opportunity to visit Cartegena, Colombia a few times. It is a beautiful city with lots of beautiful art everywhere and they also have a lot of street performers. I was waiting for the shuttle to go back to the ship and these gentleman were performing for everyone that was waiting in line. Everyone in line was under a shelter to keep us from standing in the very hot sun for a long time. While we were enjoying these guys' incredible acrobatic skills it started to rain very heavily. Everyone in line was protected from the heavy downpour but the performers were getting drenched. We thought that would be the end of the show. Nope. They kept on performing as if there was no rain. We were amazed because they were doing some incredible stunts and it would have been so easy to slip and fall with the street being so wet. They were persistent and kept the show going and the crowd was really loving it. Thankfully, no one was injured.
I am not allowed to sell prints of this photo because I did not get a model release from the performers. If you would like to see other photos of mine that I have for sale please visit DavidMoreheadPhotography.com.

I have been very fortunate to visit some amazing places since I started working as a music director on a cruise ship. One of our stops was Civitavecchia, Italy which is only 51 miles from Rome. If we (the ship's orchestra in the main theater) were lucky, there would only be one late show that night so we would have all day free to take the train to Rome. I always went to Rome when I had the opportunity. On this day, I got off the train and went visit the Vatican. I saw thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square and was wondering what was going on. Eventually I saw the Pope riding around the area on his Pope mobile. I had lots of people in front of me so I couldn't get a clear view of him because peoples' heads were blocking my view. Thankfully, my Sony F828 camera had a feature that would let me see the screen while I was holding the camera as far as I could above my head. The Pope's vehicle eventually drove coming towards me so I was able to get this shot when he was close enough. I took this pic on June 16, 2004. The Pope passed away one year later on April 2, 2005.

We had no idea the Pope was going to be in St. Peter's Square on this day. It was just pure luck that we got a chance to see him.

The cruise ship I was working on docked in Tauranga, New Zealand. It is close to Matamata, where the Hobbiton movie set is located. It is where they filmed part of the “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies. I wanted to go on the tour because I knew there would be some great things to see and it would be fun to take pictures of parts of the set.

On the bus ride going there our guide asked, over the bus PA, for everyone that has seen all the movies to raise their hand. Everyone on the bus raised their hand except for one person. Me. I started to sink down in my seat trying to make sure no one could see me because I starting to feel really embarrassed. I was the only one that had never seen any of the movies.

This tour was in 2013 and I still haven't seen the movies. I missed seeing the movies the first time when they originally came out in theaters. I purposely never watched any of the DVD's because I only want to see these epic films on the big screen. I am waiting for the anniversary of the movies and hoping they show them in a big theater again. Fingers crossed that happens. If it doesn't. I want to see it on a huge T.V. at home with a 70 to 80 inch TV that has a great sound system. That will get me close to the big theater experience. It just doesn't feel right watching epic movies like this on a small TV screen, laptop, tablet or a phone.

I think it was a great choice for them to choose to shoot a lot of the scenes in New Zealand. It has breathtaking landscapes and is a beautiful country. It is one my favorite places to visit.

While working as a music director on a cruise ship, I was very fortunate to be able to visit Brazil back in 1999. I got a chance to see so many great things and I also got to hear some of the best music in the world. I love Samba and Bossa Nova.

I took this pic with my first digital camera. It was an Olympus C830L. 1.3 megapixels! WOW! Haaaa!!! Hey, I was impressed! My, how things have changed since then. Now-a-days, most inexpensive smart phones have way more megapixels than that.

The famous photographer Chase Jarvis once said, “the best camera is the one that's with you." In 1999 almost no one had a smart phone. They became popular in 2007 when Apple created the Iphone. Even though my Olympus had very few megapixels, I still loved using that camera. It inspired me to go out and take pics every day. I loved not having to wait to get photos developed. You could see the results instantly and print them that night if you wanted to.

The mountain this statue is on is called Corcovado, which means "hunchback" in Portuguese. It is located in central Rio de Janeiro (River of January in English), Brazil. It is a 2,329 ft (710 meters) granite peak located in the Tijuca Forest, a national park.

Corcovado hill lies just west of the city center but is wholly within the city limits and visible from great distances. It is known worldwide for the 125 ft (38 meters) statue of Jesus atop its peak, entitled Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer.

As you can see from the people in the picture, this statue is huge! I am so glad I got a chance to see it in person.

From the peak's platform the panoramic view includes downtown Rio, Sugarloaf Mountain, the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (lake), Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, Estádio do Maracanã (Maracanã Stadium), and several of Rio's favelas.

Cloud cover is common in Rio and the view from the platform is often obscured. Sunny days are recommended for optimal viewing.

The cruise ship I worked on docked many times in Livorno, Italy. It is close to Pisa and Florence. If we had the day off, or we had a late rehearsal, I would take the train to Pisa. Sadly, most time I went there the Leaning Tower was closed to the public due to working on reducing the amount that it was leaning. The few times it was open there was a large crowd to be able to go to the top. I didn't want to wait in line because I wanted to have time to see the rest of the city.

I will never forget the first time I went to Pisa. I got off the train and started walking towards it. The buildings in the city are kind of tall so you can't see it until you get very close to it. I remember turning the corner on one street and there it was. Something that I have heard about for years and only seen on the internet, TV and in books. It is world famous.

I hope they are able to solve the problem of it leaning too much. That would be a shame if they had to demolish it. By 1990, the tilt had reached 5.5 degrees. The structure was stabilized by remedial work between 1993 and 2001, which reduced the tilt to 3.97 degrees. Lets hope they can continue to save it for future generations. Fingers crossed.

While working as a music director a cruise ship, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Santorini many times. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been to.

If our orchestra had the day off, or we had a late rehearsal, I would rent a moped and drive around the island. The scenery you see is stunning. I got a few miles away from the town and I saw this view. I parked the moped and took this pic. The city in the background is Fira. It is where most people from the cruise ship go when they travel to the island.

When the ship is approaching the island, it looks like snow on top of a mountain. All the buildings are white. When the ship gets close to the island we stay at sea (we don't dock because there is no dock for larger ships) and then we tender our guests by small boats to the island.

Once you get on the island you have to find a way to get up to Fira, which is at an elevation of 1,312 feet (400 metres). There are three ways to get up there. You can walk the path uphill in very hot weather, hire a donkey or take the cable car. I always took the cable car up and sometimes I walked down the path when I was leaving to go back to the ship. I wanted to get some close up pics of the donkeys and the local guides in charge of the donkeys.

If you ever get a chance to go to Greece, Santorini is a must see. It is one of my favorite places that I have been to. I highly recommend you rent a car or a moped to see all of the island. Don't forgot to wear sunscreen and drink lots of water. It gets very hot in the summer time. And make sure you have your camera. There are amazing views everywhere.

One thing I love to do is show motion in a photo. It is very difficult to do during the day because you need to leave the shutter open for about a second or more. If there is too much light, your shot will be overexposed. The solution to this problem is to put a neutral density filter on your lens that blocks light so you can use slower shutter speeds and larger apertures in bright light.

I was visiting Chicago one day and decided to stop in the camera store to see if they had an ND filter that was the correct size for my lens. They had one in stock so I bought it and couldn't wait to try it.

To get successful long exposure shots the camera has to be very steady, otherwise everything in the photo will be blurry. I didn't have a tripod with me so I had to get creative. I stopped for a coffee at Starbucks and sat in the seating area just outside the store. I set my camera on the table and used the two second timer to ensure there would be no camera movement during the long exposure times. I experimented with different shutter speeds and eventually came up with one that gave me the exact amount of blur I wanted.

To get a successful long exposure shot you need to have things that are not moving be pin sharp in the photo and then the things that are moving will be blurry. This was one of my favorite shots from that day. I rarely carry around a tripod because they are very heavy and some places won't let you take pics if you have one. So, when I want to take long exposure shots I usually find something to set the camera on or I lean up against something sturdy (a wall or a street lamp), use the two second timer (so I don't get the movement of me pressing the shutter) and hold my breath for a second to ensure nothing moves. It is challenging, but also very fun.