Mar 252014
 

You may have noticed that I’m scrambling to get backdated posts up. I started running low on new photos and may only have photos of Guatemala left to process. So to keep up the variety I’ve looked back to some of my earlier photos. Today’s picture is from about 10 years ago and was taken on my first adventure where I caught the travel bug and got interested in photography.

This is a Quechuan weaver at work. We’d travelled from Sucre to a native village that was just beginning to open up for tourism. An American man was our guide. He had been living with the community assisting them in developing revenue streams beyond farming. He was fluent in the Quechuan language.

When we arrived at the village they were very excited to have their first group of visitors and put on all sorts of displays for us, including a rather terrifying man dancing around wearing a goat’s face as a mask. The children, in particular, followed us around in a big excited swarm.

This photo was taken on a small point and shoot camera made by Olympus. That little thing was rugged and managed to survive 5 treks, ice climbing, walking through the jungle with a puma, sand dune boarding and numerous drunken nights out.

quechuan lady weaving on a loom kneeling with sandals off and compeleted work on another loom next to her

Jan 052014
 

I’ve had this picture sitting around for a year now waiting to find out where exactly I took it. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, and I’m tired of passing it over every time I look for a photo, so I’ve decided to post it tonight. I think it’s the last of my images from South Africa. It was taken after leaving a beach and on my way for a few drinks sat outside a pub, which we departed due to a chip shortage. Then, we had a nice lunch sat outside a well-stocked pub across the street.

cape point cape town south africa

Jun 102013
 

Arriving at Nordhoek to watch the sunset I was immediately struck by the power of the wind whipping sand into your ankles. Then, I saw the waves, powerful and frequent, their violence emphasized by the mist being whipped from their crests, back lit by the setting sun. Accompanied by the rugged coastline the scene was set for an awesome evening,  prior to going for an excellent curry.

Powerful waves hitting the rocks on Nordhoek Beach in Cape Town with a rugged coastline under the setting sun.

 

May 092013
 

Last year I managed to keep the locations of my photos varied pretty well. I was able to switch between images taken from South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda, New York, Canada, Prague, Iceland and Italy. At the moment I’m feeling like all I’ve got are African shots and any Bermuda shots I manage to sneak out and take. So, I’ve decided to share some of my earliest photographs from my first real adventure.

I took a gap-year before heading to University, and got to head down to Bolivia and Peru. That’s where I became a bit of a travel addict and discovered I quite liked taking pictures, and wasn’t too bad at it either. I had a little Olympus point and shoot. I can’t remember the model but it was pretty robust. It survived walking a puma through the Bolivian jungle, 4-treks in Bolivia and Peru, and even sand dune boarding (also known as falling over a lot).

Driving across the Ayuni Salt Flats is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done in my life. Miles upon miles of whiteness, minimal landmarks, and no signs of civilization. When we were there, a thin film of water over the salt turned the entire place into one giant mirror. It was like driving in the clouds.

This shot is taken from on top of our jeep. In the picture, you can see one of the girls making her way on to the roof and in the one ahead, you can see the luggage rack is already loaded with people. It was an exhilarating ride, but the salt water splashing up turned all of our clothes into crusty messes.

Two red jeeps reflected with the sky and clouds on the Ayuni Desert Salt flats