'Aunt Shirley Syndrome'

travel-ography.com continues to be a 'hot topic'. No matter where we go, people are commenting about this new direction we're taking our photography business. Everyone is so supportive.

One recurring question, besides where are we going and when, is how did you get so interested in travel? My response......'Aunt Shirley Syndrome'.

To explain: I have an aunt, who was born and raised in the very small town of Holt, Minnesota. 'Aunt Shirley' moved to Minneapolis as a young, independent woman and had a very successful business career with a major Minneapolis firm. Unmarried and having no immediate family of her own, she embraced her larger family, consisting of the families of her brothers and sisters, including nieces and nephews and their families and children. 'Aunt Shirley' has always been thought of as kind and generous and she is very well respected by everyone in the family.

'Aunt Shirley' also is a big time traveler. For as long as I can remember, we have been receiving postcards from exotic and far away places that one usually only reads about. We'll turn the card over and, sure enough, there will be a greeting and a brief description of the adventure followed by 'Aunt Shirley's' signature at the bottom. These unexpected messages always brought a sense of excitement and wonder and really 'made our day'.

To this day, her travels continue. Usually with a companion or two, sometimes a member of her 'extended family'. In fact, just this past year, at the age of 75, 'Aunt Shirley' and a family member traveled to India to see the Taj Mahal and other mystical sights. How do we know ? We have the postcard we received showing 'Aunt Shirley' perched high atop an elephant.

She's somewhat of a legend in our family...and I've always admired her adventurous spirit. So if we've been 'bitten by the travel bug' let's just call our malady...'Aunt Shirley Syndrome'.

We can only hope that 'Aunt Shirley' will be able to join us on some of our adventures, as we guide our business into this new direction we call travel-ography.com.





Sometimes, one doesn't have to travel very far from home to see some 'pretty cool' things. For example, we took in the Fargo, ND Air Show about 10 days ago and were 'wowed' by some fantastic flying. In the above photograph, I captured what was called the Heritage Flight...featuring a P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft, WWII vintage, and an A-10 Thunderbolt combat aircraft, Gulf War to present, flying side by side saluting all the heroes who have fought so bravely for our freedom. It was quite a sight.

Then the crowd was captivated by the world famous precision flight team, the Blue Angels,
who put on a terrific performance. We took the following shot, as four of the six F/A 18 Hornet fighter jets flew overhead in close formation.


As always, simply click on the photograph to enlarge it...then click on the 'back' arrow to get back to this site. This next photograph caught the 'team' breaking out of a tight formation and heading in separate directions.


Finally, one doesn't even have to travel to Fargo to find interesting sights. Last summer, while Linda and I were in Alaska, Rob was in Grafton managing the studio...and...making sure Linda's flowers had plenty of water during a very hot July. The following slide show features the flowers that Rob photographed and kept alive....and proves that sometimes there's plenty of beauty in your own backyard. Just press 'play' and enjoy.