I'm moving to mattcreate.com!

Things change and evolve.  And so does this website and my work.  

Just recently, I redesigned my website and moved it to Blogger.  In the near future, I'll be retiring my current website name and domain, Roads Less Traveled Photography, and migrating it to a new name and domain.  "Matt. Create." at mattcreate.com.  This post will be the last post here.  All new work will be posted at mattcreate.com.  By the end of April, the name and the site "Roads Less Traveled Photography" will be retired.  

There are several reasons for this.  While I liked and still like the name "Roads Less Traveled Photography," the "Roads Less Traveled" part is used for all kinds of things.  If someone types "Roads Less Traveled" into Google, the chances of your website appearing in the top 100 are slim indeed.  Also, the British spell "traveled" "travelled."  There's room for confusion there.  The photography part sort of limits the website to photography, or at least limits people's expectation of what should be on the website to photography.  And if for some reason somebody needed to type the whole website address instead of clicking on a link, the address is just too long.  Who wants to type all that?  

So Roads Less Traveled Photography is now Matt. Create.  With a much shorter and more memorable address, mattcreate.com.  I thank you for your interest in my photography and work in the past and I hope you continue along for the journey into the future!  My thanks for all your support!  

Click to follow me to mattcreate.com.

Kiev Fortress

Cannons at the Kiev Fortress, dating back to the Russian Empire.

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Lichtenstein Skies

Just some experimentation, this time inspired by Roy Lichtenstein. Definitely want to work with this a bit more though.

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Wall and Lamp

Seen at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

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Palm and Dogtails

With a touch of Fractalius. Seen at Simena Sun Club, Camyuva, Turkey.

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Entrance at Pokrovsky Women's Monastery.

The entrance at Pokrovsky Women's Monastery, recently revisited and updated.

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Star and Cauldron

Seen on the ground of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (WW2) in Kiev.

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Welcome to the new Roads Less Traveled Photography!

If you have visited Roads Less Traveled Photography recently, you no doubt notice that the site has a whole new look.  I recently received an invoice for the next year's hosting at my self-hosted Wordpress site and figured that was more than I wanted to shell out for another year of hosting.  So now it's hosted on Blogger.

Blogger you say?  This is a Blogger site?

I had looked at Blogger a couple years ago before going for a self-hosted Wordpress site.  The two main considerations then were one, a lot of Blogger sites looked dated and old, and two, there were strict limits on hosting photos.  That's a killer for a photography site, as you could well guess.

Since my site is now hosted on Blogger, you've likely figured out that Blogger has solved those two big problems, at least from my point of view.  But like any change, there are some plusses and minuses.

On the plus side, since my site is now integrated into the Googleverse, I'm hoping for better visibility.  When you self-host, you need to do all that Search Engine Optimization yourself, and maybe I just plain sucked at it.  But the old site never got the traffic I had hoped for.  Another plus is I don't have to go in and update all that behind the scenes stuff that makes a website work.  I don't have to update the Wordpress install every month or two.  I don't have to update the plug-ins when new updates are available.  If I waited a month between updating plug-ins, I'd likely have ten or more to do.

On the minus side, importing of comments has not happened yet.  It was a custom commenting system and likely something that either the Wordpress export or the Blogger import did not like or did not recognize.  Another minus is that some of the plugins did deliver some really nice functionality that I might miss.  But maybe some of this is available somewhere in the Bloggerverse and I just haven't found it yet.

It's likely that as the site evolves I'll discover other pluses and minuses.  But for now, I like the look and the functionality of my new Blogger site and I'm happy to be here.

Bankova St, Kiev

This portion of Bankova St is pedestrian only because of several important government buildings, including the Offices of the President.

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Andrew, Olga, Cyril, Methodius

St. Andrew (L), Princess Olga (C), Sts. Cyril and Methodius (R).

Here's a Princess that will never appear in a Disney movie.

St. Andrew

Princess Olga

Sts. Cyril and Methodius

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St. Anthony & Theodosius

One of the major structures on the grounds of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

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Baja Sunrise

Just another beautiful sunrise on the Sea of Cortez.

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Lone Pine

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22 Hrushevs'koho St.

Building at 22 Hrushevs'koho St, Kiev. Right across the street from the Parliament building (to use a western term). I have no additional information about this building at this time.

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Hammer And Sickle And Star.

Abandoned Light Pole fixtures on Kurchatova St. Pripyat.

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Plaque of Maria Zankovetska

Maria Zankovetska (1854-1934), a renowned actress who was one of the founders of the Ukrainian National Theater.

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Gnarly - Dark

Gnarly (2010), redone in a dark, moody, painted style.

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The Watchtower

A watchtower at the Kiev Fortress. The Kiev Fortress dates back to the Russian Empire.

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It's Electric!

The Kiev TV Tower. There's no trick processing to make the clouds near the tower white. That's just the way they were!

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The House of the Weeping Widow

Constructed in 1907 in the early Art Nouveau style by architect E. Bradtman, it was commissioned by Serhiy Arshavsky, a wealthy merchant from Poltava.

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1918

Seen near the southern end of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Obviously this was a "posed" picture. (Not by me.  I found it this way). It's very unlikely a postcard would have survived the elements for 26 years.

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Dawn's Early Light

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Poster in Pripyat

Part of my ongoing C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2 series.

I meant to finish it up last year, but didn't.

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Long Abandoned

Seen near the southern end of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

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Grief

I don't often do human subjects, and I generally don't do B&W.  So this is something way different for me today.

About the photo:

This photo was taken in at the Afghan War Memorial in Kiev, Ukraine on the 23rd anniversary of the end of the Soviet - Afghan war.  Temperature that day at 9AM was +7F/-14C.

About the processing:

This is one of the few photos that I have not run through my HDR+ process.  Pictures where a human subject is the main focus often doesn't respond well to any HDR process.

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Click the link below the photo to see full processing details!

Taras Shevchenko University

The main building of Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev.

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Settler's House and Barn

Seen on the grounds of Shelbourne Musuem, Shelbourne Vermont.

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Statue of Ivan Pavlov

Yes, he of the dog fame.

Seen in Kiev, even though I've found no record of Mr. Pavlov ever spending time here. But it is on the grounds of a hospital, so I guess that's the connection.

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Lamp and Post

Seen at a local restaurant.

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Peacock Mosaic

A wall mosaic, seen on Chervonoarmiis'ka St, Kiev Ukraine.

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The Door

Door on the House of Chimeras, Kiev.

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Best of the Year, 2012 (12 of 12)

St. Andrews in the Morning

Well, this concludes the top 12 of 2012.  In no particular order.  These "Best of the Year" series are often difficult, especially the job of narrowing the field to the best of the best.  You always end up leaving out something!

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