Yesterday was the last day of the Celebration of Light in Vancouver. I haven’t taken any pics of this year’s fireworks so yesterday was my last chance to go out there and shoot. Sadly I had a little motorcycle accident which had me glued to my bed all day. This however gives me an opportunity to finally share some pics from the previous years from various angles:)
This is Île de Ré, a small island on the western coast of France. A perfect example of a place that fully comes to life only in the summer. Apparently its population in summer jumps to over 200 000 from its usual 20 000 residents. This is on the quay of Saint Martin, the most interesting part of the island in my opinion. A really pleasant place to be on a sunny day. I was lucky enough to also see the other side of it in a dark stormy weather.
Earlier this summer few of my friends and I went on a 3 day trail on the southwest of the Vancouver Island. Walking for 3 days straight to cover 50 km barely seeing any people really puts things into perspective. Especially when hitchhiking back to the beginning of the trail took us only 15 minutes. Can’t help but wonder how slow everything would be if we had to walk to places:)
The beauty of doing a trail like that is right in front of your eyes. Walking with a heavy backpack through the forests through the hills up and down and up and down is tiring and tedious but it all seems to be worth it when you eventually come to a place like this.
I almost got stuck in Rome because of a 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland, which paralyzed most of europe’s air transportation. In fact, my flight to Budapest was one of the few that did take off that day. In the midst of all the craziness and an absolutely wild weather, with strong sun at one moment and pouring rain another, I managed to get out to the city for a little tour. I wish I had more time in Rome. I didn’t get to see much but I’ve very much enjoyed what I did get to see.
This picture is how I imagine many parts of Italy look like, with tiny streets paved with cobblestones and life going at its own pace, without much regard to hectic traffic and faster pace of the bigger streets.
Few days ago Vancouver decided to come alive in a big way with different festivals/performances happening around the city. I ended up going to downtown Vancouver for a series of concerts. The picture below is of Matt from one of the performing bands “Sons of Granville“. Matt is a friend of a good friend so I’ve seen them perform a few times. They have a very unique sound and create some great stuff with just a violin and a guitar. Really good stuff.
Lately I’ve developed a particular interest in black and white photography. I usually like my colours and feel like they do a better job at telling the story but now I’m starting to change my mind. I feel like it helps attract attention to some details/emotions in a way that colour can’t, not necessarily in a better way but rather different. So this is my attempt at it.
Below are some other pics from that day.
Ljubljanica is the river going through the capital of Slovenia.
My tip to Ljubljana was probably one of the most random and unplanned trips I’ve taken in Europe. I’ve bought my train ticket half a day before the departure to join few of my friends. The annoying 9 hour train ride didn’t hurt my impression of the city. In fact I really enjoyed the city.The river goes through the centre of the city though this isn’t the most central part of it but I still liked the view so I stopped on the bridge to take the shot. This is actually about 9 shots combined together. I try to do a bit of HDR photography but since I never rarely carry a tripod I have to sacrifice some of the HDRness in some parts of my pics due to blurriness. This shot was stable as the camera was sitting on the bridge, so it didn’t turn out too bad.
