I’ve mentioned earlier that I enjoy shooting random people and things in foreign cities. It helps connect and possibly get attention of people who would otherwise just pass by without a notice. This cool looking man is from Beijing.
This is from a fairly recent trip to Bordeaux, where once again I ended up shooting around place de la bourse and miroir d’eau.
When time permits I like surfing the web for other people’s photoblogs and portfolios. These days I’ve been leaning towards old school photography, analog type work. The only camera I own is digital and I don’t really have much experience in processing analog photos. It’s definitely something I would love to do more of. For now though, I figured with a bit of “digital wizardry” I could try to imitate the end result. Photographers who work with analog cameras seem to take certain pleasure from processing their photos. I, too, enjoy a reasonable amount of processing, in my case digital. The process is, of course, completely different and in this particular case the end result isn’t quite analog, but it’s still fun 🙂
I took this on my way to Pamplona from San Sebastian. It’s been a tiring day and a part of me just wanted to get to bed in Pamplona. Mountain views, even off the highway, were excellent so when the sun started to set down we had to pull over for a break.
Today, I feel like taking a break from the photos of China and move to Spain. This is on the way up to the Montserrat monastery, outside of Barcelona. The monastery is in the mountains and is a short hike up. We were lucky to catch the afternoon sun behind the peaks as we were approaching the town.
This is once again the Gobi desert. This time across the border on the Chinese side. I’ve mentioned in one of my earlier posts how much of a difference that border makes. Sand dunes on the Mongolian side are a challenge to get to and when you do you’re completely alone for what seems like miles and miles. These particular dunes in Dunhuang are a tourist attraction. There’s a bus that takes you to the spot and once you’re there, believe it or not, you pay an entrance fee. I found it completely ridiculous but have folded given the time constraint. Later on my trip I’ve met a number of people who just walked far enough from the “tourist area” and went around the wall/fence to get to the dunes.
Once inside the gates there’s a little oasis with a wealth of activities for tourists to pay for: camels, ATVs etc. You can even rent “sand proof” boots. I felt like the entrance fee had already left a big enough mark on my pocket so I opted for my legs to carry me around. I wanted to get away from the gates as far as possible and see where it’d take me. The dunes were high and even if I thought I knew what was behind each dune I had an idiotic curiosity and urge to see which dune’s higher and what’s behind. En route to the dunes I’ve met 2 Chinese students, and a 70+ year old Dutch traveler on a mission to cover the silk route. The old man was quite a character. He carried his LIDL supermarket plastic bags all over Asia, which he justified as a safety precaution. He thought nobody would rob an old man with a plastic bag. The 2 students gave up quite early but the old man kept following me around the dunes dragging hit plastic bag. He looked exhausted, very out of place but kept going. I tried to convince him to stop but it’s like he was trying to prove something to himself. At some point I thought I should stop before the man collapses, but luckily he went back by himself.
As usual. Click the pic to enlarge, share and like 🙂
Same dune with the guys on top. 
