In this picture is the astronomical clock and the Tyn Church. I got up early so I could get a shot without any people about. This area is typically overrun with tourists waiting to see the clock spring to life every hour.
Jan 172012
Jan 162012
I haven’t had time to work on any photos from Prague. So, I’ve reached into my file of completed pictures. This may be my favorite photo from my entire time in Africa. When I walked over to try to take this photo her entire face was covered by a leaf. Then, she reached up and moved it just long enough for me to grab three exposures
It’s snowing here, I’m hoping it sticks but it doesn’t look too likely.
Jan 152012
This is probably not what you’d expect my first picture from Prague to look like. However, I slept through two key points of the day – sunrise and sunset. I’m not sure what happened this morning, either my alarm didn’t go off or I just didn’t wake up for it. I went out midday and took a bunch of pictures of the Charles Bridge and the castle up on the hill. I got back to the hotel room and didn’t feel particularly inspired to work on any of them. They’re all a bit too much like the standard postcards I’m seeing everywhere here. So, I resolved to go out again later, at sunset. Then I woke up and it was dark outside. I don’t remember going to sleep.
I still went out. I’d spotted this building in the taxi on the way to my hotel, it’s just around the corner. I knew exactly what I wanted this photo to look like and needed long exposures to get it. This is composition of 5 shots at the following shutter speeds: 1 min, 2 min, 4 min, 8 min, 16 min.
Also, it’s bloody cold in Prague! Fingers crossed for sunrise tomorrow. It’s also supposed to snow on Tuesday, which I think would be great.
Jan 142012
I’ve made it to Prague! I’m staying in a pretty cool little hotel/hostel called the Mosaic House Hotel. It’s got a very tempting bar downstairs in the lobby. I did set out with my camera earlier but it turned out to be more of a scouting trip. The sun set surprisingly early, it dipped below the horizon by 4pm. However, at 5pm it still looked like the sun had just gone down. It was quite strange. I think I’ve found some good shots and plan on going out tomorrow morning to get them before there’s so many people about.
“At the crossroad, which way to go?” sounds like it could be a line from a blues song, maybe it is. This is another shot from Rwanda, and if it looks vaguely familiar it’s because you’ve seen part of it at the top of this page. Just to the right of this shot is an orphanage that we visited. When we got there the kids came running out and greeted us. One even embraced Cameron in an enthusiastic hug. We’d brought a football for them, which they quickly went about playing with, and destroying. We’d been there about twenty minutes when we discovered that the ball had split. Fortunately, Cameron had packed the roll of duct-tape he’d insisted on bringing to Africa. He’d also insisted on bringing parachute cord, which was vindicated when it acted as a belt for me during white water rafting and a chin strap for Soniko’s hat. We got the ball patched up nice and quickly. Then, 2 minutes later, it happened again. Cameron went to work and covered the entire ball in what had to be two layers of duct tape. It’s officially indestructible.
When Cameron saw my banner above all he said was, “Why did you take a picture of a dirt road?”
I didn’t have much of an answer at the time but now I remember. I set up for this shot because I liked the contrast between the wet and dry tracks. I got all set up and a truck decided to drive up the track on the left, moving me aside and sloshing the water about as it went. I thought it was going to ruin the shot. To the contrary, the truck pushed the water up so that the wet soil met the dry at the midpoint of my frame. Excellent timing.
Jan 132012
If this goes right, this should be posting itself while I’m on a flight to London on my way to Prague. So, I think it makes sense that I post the one photo of London I have. I took this on my way to Africa. To maximize our time in Africa we decided to do two overnight flights back to back. But, this meant we had a lot of time to kill in London. We stuck our bags in storage at Piccadilly station and spent the morning taking a walking tour starting at the Tower of London before crossing Tower Bridge and walking down the south side of the Thames. Cameron and I had spent a week in London a few years ago and stayed in a hostel near this café. It’s a cool little place. For lunch they serve paella cooked on huge frying pans on the street. For breakfast they had giant Cumberland sausages cooking on the grill served on a fresh bun.
The setting is also great. It’s actually close to London Bridge train station. It’s hectic up there, crossing the street to get to the stairs is pretty stressful on 4 hours of sleep. But, it’s worth it when you drop down in to this little oasis of calm. As a bonus we were there on a Saturday. That meant that the Borough Market was happening just around the corner. They’ve got tons of good stuff there ranging from meat and fish, to cheese, to giant piles of brownies. I’m partial to the giant piles of brownies.
I’ve added a London category for this entry so I really hope I get some time to get my camera out while I’m there.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, the four people sat at the table were my travel buddies. Three weeks in Africa and we’re still speaking to each other… just about.
Jan 122012
This is the view in the opposite direction from the previous photo I posted. This is the Waterford winery and was our firstwine tasting stop. Just before coming here we’d been to the Spier winery to interact with the cheetahs at Cheetah Outreach. Our visit to Waterford was a great experience. The building is beautiful. It’s definitely got an upscale feel about it, which was interesting as we traipsed through in hiking boots and shirts surrounded by a much smarter looking crowd.
We decided to do the wine and chocolate pairing. This involved 6 wines, 3 of which were paired with custom-made chocolates. One of the chocolates had rock salt in it. It tastes pretty horrible on its own, but paired with the wine it was incredible.
Jan 112012
This photo gives a good indication of why Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills. We stopped off on our way from Gisenyi to Musanze at the twin lakes, Burera and Ruhondo. We drove up to a viewpoint and along the way came across loads of kids. Everywhere we went in Rwanda the kids would ask us for our empty water bottles and we’d been wondering what they used them for. Today, we found one use. It seemed like every single child on the way up this hill had a plastic bottle full of grasshoppers to hand. Apparently, they fry them up with chilli oil. We didn’t get an opportunity to try them prepared in this manner, but one member of our group did get to sample a grasshopper. I came back from taking a few other photos and he said, with a surprisingly concerned tone to his voice, ” So… I just ate a live grasshopper.”
As it turns out he’d asked one of the kids what they do with the grasshoppers. The kid proceeded to demonstrate how they prepare them for cooking, removing the legs and wings and then said that some people eat them live. Apparently, it tasted like a grass paste.
This photo is a combination of 7 exposures ranging from -3 to +3. The image produced by Photomatix had a lot of noise so I used Imagenomic’s Noiseware Pro to smooth out the sky and hills in the background.
Jan 102012
This is another Bermuda picture taken in Blue Hole Park. There’s another cave here you can swim in. I’ve lived here my whole life and only found out about it this summer. We swam into the back where there’s a much smaller cave, or so it seems. You lower yourself into the water which puts you into what’s probably a 5 cubic foot space. It’s pretty claustrophobic. Then we shined our flashlights down and discovered we were swimming in a huge cavern. You could also see ropes set up by cave divers that seemed to go on forever. I’m planning on going back there to try to take a picture in the small cave. It’ll be interesting to see if I can show how it expands underwater.
Jan 092012
We stayed in Musanze, Rwanda to visit the mountain gorillas. My hotel room had a view of the Volcanoes National Park. I had decided that this would be a great shot in the morning as the sun rose and side-lit the volcanoes. A great shot that is, if not for the rusty chain-linked, barbed-wire fence blocking my view. Still, I resolved to get this picture, I thought maybe I could find a hole in the chain-link or a gap in the barbed wire. I paced the length of the property to no avail. I spotted a 7 foot tall wall and considered how to get up there for a clear vantage. I’d have had to climb up about 30 feet back from where I needed to be and balance on the slanted top of the narrow wall. It was wet and I decided not to risk it. Instead I struck out onto the street hoping to find a vantage point next door.
I had only planned on stepping out quickly, so I hadn’t brought my bag. I was just carrying my camera, with lens attached, and tripod. It was pretty nerve-racking stepping out on the street with my gear exposed and I decided not to stray too far. In the end I spent about 2 and a half hours wandering around the town greeting locals as they went to church or carried their goods to market. Many even stopped to watch what I was up to. Rwanda really is a friendly place, with an incredibly safe feel about it; especially when you consider the general reaction from people back home to the idea of going there.
I even picked up an assistant! An eleven year old who watched me extend one leg of my tripod and came over and started extending the other two. He followed me for two hours, helping me set up my tripod, pushing the shutter button and enjoying the multiple shots he was taking. He even suggested pictures to me. One of which I think could be very good if I can figure out how to process it. To get it I had to shoot directly into the sun.
Today’s photo, though, is the first one I took on that walk. So, it’s actually the road right outside my hotel.
Jan 082012
I’ve called this photo Safe Harbour, but that’s probably debatable. It was taken the morning after our first night camping on the Lower Zambezi. The day before, after a few hours of paddling, we’d had a taste of the upcoming rainy season. Clouds loomed and bellowed across the sky. We saw rain falling in front of us and behind. It was also raining to our left, where the storm was coming from. Debate raged, while the wind picked up, as to whether or not it was heading directly at us or would pass just behind. Our Zimbabwean guide, called CB, quelled the debate. He was a soft-spoken individual, typical of the people we’d met during our time on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. He told us we’d be making camp an hour earlier than planned. The storm was heading straight for us and the strong winds increased our chance of capsizing. We began to paddle a bit harder than the previously relaxed pace of the day. The landing spot pictured above came into sight and CB gestured for us to head in. At this point, we experienced just how terrifying an angry hippo can be.
“Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!”
CB was suddenly animated and we spun around in our seats to see what was happening. The second-last canoe was moving faster than I knew a canoe could. I swear it was actually on a plane, the nose rising and falling with each paddle-stroke as it ploughed through the water. About five feet behind was a hippo, surging through the water with it’s head bobbing up and down with each forward thrust. We’d find out later that, apparently, one of the people in the last canoe struck what he thought was a rock with his paddle. As you can probably guess, it was a submerged hippopotamus – the creature second in line to the mosquito for causing the most deaths per year in Africa. The chase probably spanned about 15-20 feet or so, before the hippo calmed down, but it definitely gave us a taste of what we’d gotten ourselves into.
Once we reached land and pulled our canoes ashore, the rain set in. Most of us had rain jackets. Chris and I had lightweight rain jackets that didn’t shield you from the impact of the rain, and this was rain like I’ve never experienced. It was coming in sideways and the drops must have been the size of marbles. You could feel the impact of every single one. We were better off than George though, an Aussie we’d met back in Livingstone who decided to join us. He’d left his rain jacket on a bus a few months earlier and, not having any need for one in the dry season, hadn’t replace it. Four of us stood next to each other, with our backs to the onslaught, for him to hunker down in front of us and try to stay dry. It didn’t work very well. The rain didn’t take long to pass and we set about making camp.
It quickly became evident that this would be an interesting night. We were setting up on sand, amongst dried elephant and hippo dung. As it turned out, the grassy, muddy field behind us was a popular night-time feeding place for elephants and hippos. On top of this, it was hot. Keeping the fly sheet on the tent was not an option, so we slept with nothing but a mesh tent separating us from the outdoors.
A quick wave of our flashlights revealed the startling close glint of eyes in the darkness and we settled in for the night. Just prior to falling asleep I heard the trumpet of an elephant. It sounded like it was right outside the tent. I remembered CB’s advice that we would hear animals and they would sound far closer than they really were. With this in mind, I drifted off to sleep. I woke up a few times in the night, once to the sound of hyenas, another to the sound of lions, and repeated the mantra that they could be heard form a great distance away. I drifted off comfortably each time.
However, we had at least one very close encounter. In the morning, my tent mate Chris told me he’d woken up to the unmistakable thud of elephant dung hitting the ground. We’d become accustomed to this sound on our elephant-back safari a few days earlier. He said he actually felt the vibrations of it hitting the ground. Sure enough, we found a fresh deposit just outside our tent. I only wish he’d woken me up so I could try to shine a light outside and spot one. This might be why he didn’t wake me up.
As I mentioned this photo was taken in the morning, just before the sun came up. I’ve combined 7 exposures from -3 to +3 in Photomatix and then cleaned it up in Photoshop.
