Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

French Polynesia

On January 30, we sailed into Fakarava, one of the French Polynesian islands. On the 31st we docked at Rangiroa, on Feb 1, we arrived at Raiatea, also part of French Polynesia. On Feb 2 we sailed into Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti.  I should make clear that the […]

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Easter Island

Commonly known as Easter Island, it was so named because the European sailors who discovered the island arrived on the scene on Easter Sunday. Recently it has become  customary to refer to the island as Rapa Nui and the native peoples as the Rapanui people.  The name roughly translates as “Big Rapa” which references the […]

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Through the Panama Canal to Manta, Ecuador

The west coast of South America, where part of Ecuador is located, is an extraordinarily fertile area for commercial fishing. Manta, located on Ecuador’s central coast, is the largest fishing port in Ecuador. Also known as San Pablo de Manta, the city is the largest and most populated city in Manabi Province.  We stopped in […]

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Guayaquil, Ecuador

17 January 2023 As our itinerary changed due to civil unrest in Peru (and the cancellation of our planned visits there), we had the opportunity today to visit Guayaquil, Ecuador, a city we first saw in 2018.   Guayaquil is a large port city, home to over 3 million people.   It has a cosmopolitan […]

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Cartagena, Columbia

The joke the locals tell in Cartagena, Columbia is that the city has two types of weather: Hot and Hotter. It was certainly hot (and humid) on January 12 when we docked there. Then again, it beats 4 degrees in New Jersey.  Originally known as Cartagena de Indias, Cartagena was an important Spanish colony that […]

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Leaving Miami

We are finally on our way. We set sail from Miami on Sunday afternoon and we are scheduled to dock in Cartagena, Columbia on Wednesday morning. This far everything is first rate—the service, the accommodations, the food and entertainment—not to mention the 7 bars around the ship. We do have very slow internet (along with […]

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2023 is Here

Well, it’s 2023 already, and it’s going to be a big year—a very big year—for travel photography. Mary Anne and I will be leaving shortly to go on a long cruise that will take us to Australia, India, Africa, Japan and Indonesia to name a few of the places we will be visiting.   A […]

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Fonthill and the Tile Works

Located in Doylestown, PA, the Mercer Museum, Research Library and Fonthill Castle are owned and operated by the Bucks County Historical Society.  The Museum was first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The Fonthill Castle and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works are listed in the Register as well. The structures […]

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Travel in 2023–Making up for Lost Time

As 2022 draws to a close, 2023 begins to come into focus. We have a lot of travel scheduled for the coming year with a lot of photos to come. In early January we are going to begin a very long cruise that starts in Miami and ends in Barcelona. We’ll be positing periodically as […]

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