It’s not easy to take photos from the top of the Shard as it is all enclosed in glass. As a result, I had to try to find a way to position my camera to avoid all the reflections of the people moving around behind me. We had arrived at just the right time though, as golden light bathed London below us.
On an early morning wander around Florence, I came across this archway. Something about all the different lines reminded me of one of Escher’s impossible paintings, so I took a picture.
It was a sleepy Sunday morning in Flores, Guatemala. I’d been woken from a light slumber by the increase in temperature from sweltering to unbearable and made my way for a cool shower before heading out to catch the last light of sunrise. I went out with one photo in mind, this one.
After taking that picture and watching the mist over the jungle burn off, I began making my back to my hostel for breakfast. On the way, I came across this brightly painted building and decided I wanted a photograph. As I unpacked my camera, a tuk-tuk drove by and the image I wanted entered my mind. So, I stood there, waiting for tuk-tuks to drive by and attempting to perfect my timing to get one to blur nicely in the foreground. Then, I got extra lucky and caught another tuk-tuk further up the road.
I found this picture, taken from the base of Niagara Falls on the Canada side, that I hadn’t processed before. I think I tried in the past but couldn’t get it to come together. It did take a lot of time masking in different photos and adjusting contrasts to get it looking like this. Swirling mist doesn’t make for the best shooting conditions.
While staying in Flores, I took a day to ride the minibuses around the lake. I arrived in a sleepy town and made my way up the hill to explore. I’d climbed as high as I was going to when I came across this cane house.
My arrival in London went as smoothly as is possible. We landed early, my bag arrived quickly and I stepped onto the Gatwick Express to Victoria as the doors closed. Upon reaching my hotel, my room was already available and I was able to be in bed by 8am. That’s pretty good after an overnight flight where I hadn’t slept.
I had plans to meet up with some friends at the Shard and go up to the viewing deck. I wasn’t exactly sure how to get there from London Bridge tube station and my directions were that it’s a huge building, I’d have to try to miss it.
As I came up the escalator I had a thought that I’d probably bump into Amy on the way, who could help me find it. I have no idea why I thought that, or why I thought it’d most likely be Amy.
I walked out and looked up for the building but all I saw was blue sky. Then, I heard someone say my name. I directed my gaze down and found that Amy was stood three feet in front of me. I’d walked out and promptly looked straight over her head. We set off walking and, when we rounded the corner to see this, we knew we were probably heading in the right direction.
So Smugmug, the site that hosts my images, has made their galleries much more customizable so I was able to make it match the main Traverse Earth site, just about. It’s an ongoing process as a few bits aren’t quite right, but take a look by clicking <Browse Photos> above. Let me know what you think of the new layout!
This shot is of the remains of the palace at Tikal. It was a large building but the royal bedroom was nothing like we’d expect of a European palace. It was about 8 feet wide by 10 feet deep with a stone slab for sleeping on beneath a small window. There were small holes in the walls throughout the structure where, it is believed, candles or lanterns of some sort could be placed to light the interior.
Moving to the left from where I’m standing we walked around to enter a huge temple complex. Shortly after this, we heard the howler monkeys in the nearby trees. The whole experience made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
This is another view of the Great Sound from Spanish Point at sunset. I think the foreground is the remnant of an old dock. This photo was taken two summers ago.
While hiking in the mountains in Romania, I walked into a field of leafy plants with a path down the middle. I got about half way across when I realized I was surrounded by thousands of these massive, alien-looking things. Thankfully, they weren’t very active.
Niagara is a bit of an odd place. It’s an unashamed, huge, neon tourist trap stuck on the landscape next to a natural wonder. It’s definitely a different experience than that of visiting Victoria Falls. At Victoria, I watched a taxi driver aggressively chase away an angry looking baboon that had crashed down on the hood of his car and blocked my path. At the same time though, there is some sort of charm to Niagara’s dated gaudiness.
