Category: Travel

What I did on on my holidays #3

Dropping in on the Tates.

While in London I visited both the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern. The highlight of the Tate Britain for me was the Turner Collection. What can I say? I spent several hours in rooms full of Turner paintings.

Looking at Turners

 

The drawcard at the Tate Modern was the exhibition of modernist photography from the collection of Sir Elton John. Either Sir Elton has a fantastic eye or he has been very well advised, probably both. This was a major highlight of the trip, so many iconic images I have been seeing in books and online all my photography life; Brassai, Dorothea Lange, Kertesz, Rodchenko, Man Ray to name but a few.

Spending some time sitting in a quiet room of Rothko paintings wasn’t bad either.

Inside the Tate Britain

Tilting at windmills…

The windmill is a part of the Australian landscape, familiar to anyone who has driven through the Australian countryside.

Windmill

The windmill is used to pump underground water into a trough or water tank sitting beside it. One of the fascinating things about windmills is that they are seen in a wide range of conditions, from brand new and shiny to completely collapsed.

Windmills are one of the re-occurring subjects in my rural photography. Who knows, they might even get an exhibition of their own.

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Looking back

From time to time I go back through my store of images; looking for usable ones I missed the first time, or ones that I can extract more from due to new tools, more knowledge or just a different idea.

Recently I revisited images I took in the South Australian town of Marree during a trip in 2012.

At the time I was after a strong evening summer sun look, but wasn’t very happy with the colour in the shots. I have revisited them with new tools and some different techniques and managed to get them to be much closer to what I envisaged at the time.

Don’t forget to go back through your archives to find the hidden gems.

 

Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia
Marree, South Australia

A wall in Wangaratta

On a recent trip to the town of Wangaratta in the north of Victoria, Australia, I walked down Victoria Parade, a narrow street near the centre of town.

It was late morning on a bright, sunny day and the shadows really stood out on the blue wall. As usual I had my walking around camera, the Olympus E-M5 with the 12-40mm lens.

Wangaratta, Australia
Wall, window and shadow
Wangaratta, Australia
Three windows
Wangaratta, Australia
Door with shadow

A visit to Dubrovnik

It’s been a little while since I said anything here. During September I was traveling in Europe after attending a wedding in Poland, a great experience.

Dubrovnik, Croatia
The roofs of Dubrovnik from the wall

The trip included a week in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik. The old town and port have been restored and rebuilt after a umber of tribulations, most recently the 1991 siege following the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The old town is surrounded by a high wall which, for a price, can be walked. I can recommend that this is done early in the morning during the season, before it gets too hot and too crowded.

Dubrovnik, Croatia
The tiled roofs of Dubrovnik

Staying in the old town is an experience, though getting to my accommodation in this car-less city included a climb of 83 steps up the hill to the apartment between the St Ignatius church and the music school.

Sunset Dubrovnik Croatia
Evening in Dubrovnik,

The evenings were warm, just perfect for sitting in an open air cafe in a small square. I can highly recommend a visit.

This trip I traveled light, only taking the Olympus E-M5, the 12-40 f2.8 lens and the kit 40 – 150 zoom. It performed flawlessly the whole trip.

 

Vanishing act

During the September 2011 trip to Iceland, I visited a small town on the south coast of Iceland: Eyrarbakki. I was looking for a cafe I had been told served the best lobster soup in the area. It was a rainy afternoon, and the town was very quiet, and just about everything was closed, including the cafe. In Iceland out of season you soon learn the word: Lokkad.

While I was driving around the town (it didn’t take long) I came across the (closed) Bakkabrim organic cafe. It appeared to be a plywood shack built in the middle of a disused car park near a small pier.

It looked fantastic in the watery light between rain showers. I managed a couple of quick shots of it before the rain drove me back into the car.

I went back in 2013 to photograph it again, but alas it was gone, there was just a disused car park near a small pier.

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Back home

I arrived home yesterday after five weeks of travel.

The trip took me to Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Estonia (briefly) and Russia. It was a great trip and I can’t wait to visit that part of the world again, so much more to see and do.

The highlights of the trip:

  • Helicopter flight over a bay full of Icebergs into Tasiilaq
  • Sailing amongst icebergs off Tasiilaq
  • The glorious east fjords of Iceland complete with northern lights
  • The Flam railway in Norway
  • Visiting the house of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto
  • The Hermitage and Mariinsky ballet in St Petersburg.

Next time, more of Finland and maybe Lapland and Svalbard.

The image below shows the view from my hotel window in Tasiilaq, Greenland. There is no road access, the only way in is by boat or helicopter, or by hiking for several days across a ridge, as a Danish couple did. And yes, that white thing on the right is an iceberg floating in the harbour.

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