Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: tom b on July 06, 2011, 07:34:36 pm

Title: Travel
Post by: tom b on July 06, 2011, 07:34:36 pm
Michael seems to have had a renewed interest in people photography since his trips to Mexico. I think that part of that is that familiarity breeds contempt. When you travel everything is new and exotic and you tend to take more images.

Given that, I thought we should start a Travel thread. I'll start it off with an interesting shot from rarely visited place in the world.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rmdmXR6w3jk/ThTqripAzkI/AAAAAAAAA9g/zabEIa1paj4/s1600/porters.jpg)
Landi Kotal – Pakistan 1978

To get to Landi Kotal I travelled on the top of a bus up the Khyber Pass. My fellow passengers were similarly dressed but had rifles and bandoliers. At that time Landi Kotal was a smuggling centre as it was on the main road route from Europe to India.

I was looking up Wikitravel to see if I had the correct spelling of Landi Kotal when I came upon this travel safety tip. "As of 2006, the only way to stay safe anywhere near Landi Kotal is not to go there." A Google Images Search (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Landi+Kotal&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=2560&bih=1173) may show you why.

The image quality could be better but I don't think that I will be going back there any time soon.

Please free to contribute to the thread and of course recent images are most welcome.

Cheers,


Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on July 07, 2011, 02:58:23 am
Welcome to LuLa.

I hope the prices were better in Vancouver than the Summer Games in Sydney. I attended the Paralympics and had a great time. I will never forget the armless contestant swimming the 100m breaststroke, guess how he stopped?

Cheers,

Title: Re: Travel
Post by: Rob C on July 07, 2011, 04:35:42 am
Welcome to LuLa.

I hope the prices were better in Vancouver than the Summer Games in Sydney. I attended the Paralympics and had a great time. I will never forget the armless contestant swimming the 100m breaststroke, guess how he stopped?

Cheers,





Reversed engines?

Rob C
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on July 07, 2011, 05:08:51 am
Sorry Rob, it was a double, Oh no! experience.

Just before the final stroke I saw that that the armless swimmer was going to be touched out, bummer.

To compound the experience was the touch on the wall. The competitor with an amputated leg touched as normal. The armless competitor ploughed head fast at full speed into the wall, it was something that exemplified the courage and tenacity of Paralympic competitors.

Cheers,
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: James Billett on July 07, 2011, 10:12:47 am
Nice image Tom B. I would add more black locally by dodging and burning either digitally or in dark room.

This is Semana Santa, Malaga, Spain, a recent University project.

What do you think?
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: RSL on July 07, 2011, 10:15:33 am
Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand suburb, 1964. For a while, I lived in a bungalow just out of sight to the left.
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: RSL on July 07, 2011, 11:14:07 am
Here are three from Can Tho, Vietnam. The rainy day on Ben Xe Mai shows the "vertical apartment" that was my home for six months in 1965 -- second to the right from the little restaurant with the BA NHUT TRAN sign. One day I stepped out the door and saw the farmer, pushed off his land by the war, sitting in the restaurant with his grandson. I grabbed the Canon 7 that was over my shoulder and snapped.

In those days, if you went into a crowded marketplace like the one shown here, you always went with three other people. The VC would do a neat trick with a large, barbed fishhook soldered to a grenade. They'd jab the hook into your back, pull the pin, and run.
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: degrub on July 07, 2011, 11:53:26 am
The Air France bags in #3 were an ironic touch.
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: Rob C on July 07, 2011, 12:37:12 pm
Here are three from Can Tho, Vietnam. The rainy day on Ben Xe Mai shows the "vertical apartment" that was my home for six months in 1965 -- second to the right from the little restaurant with the BA NHUT TRAN sign. One day I stepped out the door and saw the farmer, pushed off his land by the war, sitting in the restaurant with his grandson. I grabbed the Canon 7 that was over my shoulder and snapped.

In those days, if you went into a crowded marketplace like the one shown here, you always went with three other people. The VC would do a neat trick with a large, barbed fishhook soldered to a grenade. They'd jab the hook into your back, pull the pin, and run.




Now that's inventive! Wait until the Eastern Chapter of the United Poppygrowers Association reads of this technique.

Rob C
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on July 07, 2011, 07:59:07 pm
Russ, it's ironic how much the circumstances have changed in the years since these photographs have been taken.

Vietnam has changed so much since 1965 and I certainly would have had far less chance of having a great bun bo xao in Marrickville last week if things had been different. Landi Kotal sure has changed.

Likewise this next image is from somewhere that has changed completely since 1978. It's a street scene from Kabul 1978.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0JRO7G0tQZ0/ThZA5qHbX_I/AAAAAAAAA-A/9tY29D6xtAw/s1600/Kabul.jpg)

It was safe to travel through Afghanistan at that time, although it was after the first coup. I could only get a week's visa so it was a pretty quick visit. When an army officer knocked on our door and suggested that we leave early the next day we were quick to take up his suggestion.

I still remember that the new road that crossed Afghanistan from Pakistan to Iran was half built by Russia and the other half by the USA.

Cheers,




Title: Re: Travel
Post by: RSL on July 07, 2011, 09:20:38 pm
Tom, Yes. I haven't been back, but from what I hear from people I know who've gone back, nowadays the Vietnamese think of us as friends. I'd love to go back to Can Tho and be able to drive the back roads without a convoy. It's very beautiful country, and the people -- at least the ones who weren't trying to kill us -- were wonderful.
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on July 13, 2011, 07:57:46 pm
Escape from the eighth wonder of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karni_Mata) Karni Mata temple, near Bikaner, Rajasthan.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-61PDQ0gfN-Q/Th4vGbG9nCI/AAAAAAAAA-c/qdMC343SxOQ/s1600/escape.jpg)

Cheers,



Title: Re: Travel
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on July 15, 2011, 08:33:46 am
Escape from the eighth wonder of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karni_Mata) Karni Mata temple, near Bikaner, Rajasthan.

I like the rat bottom right. Somehow that seems to sum up the mood of the whole shot for me, showing me that we are miles away from the supposedly sanitised suburbia most of us probably live in.

Great shot.

Photobloke
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: ognita on July 15, 2011, 09:31:41 am
A friend and I just got back from a trip a week ago from Yangshuo, and I must say 3 days and 2 nights is really short. The weather was hot and it suddenly rains in the middle of the day. Anyway, the trip was tiring and fun at the same time.

Was not able to create as much as I wanted, but at least there's another reason to go back :)

Li Jiang

(http://www.ognita.com/guilin/slides/III.jpg)
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on July 20, 2011, 07:08:37 pm
You don't need much…

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R2CwErrbpTg/Tide2cTQqMI/AAAAAAAAA-s/UmINDLVSlCQ/s1600/Jaisalmer_068.jpg)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3h9RiJfb-c/TidfGzY_eBI/AAAAAAAAA-w/LYJmHB18i6g/s1600/kites_02.jpg)

From Rajasthan, India.

Cheers,
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on July 21, 2011, 04:24:57 am
Great photos in this thread. Here are some of mine, from Oman.
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on August 07, 2011, 05:45:43 pm
In my first post I had images of Landi Kotal, Pakistan a place too dangerous to visit.

These images are from a place too dangerous to visit but for a different reason. These images are from New Year's Eve in Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch dangerous? Yep, most of downtown Christchurch is a no go area after the recent earthquakes. Let's hope they can repair things as quickly as possible.

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-caSNI-oKgZA/Tj8FxJNgGDI/AAAAAAAABAE/gwoCF-u9iKo/s1600/New+Zealand+007.jpg)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tsTo8yS7M4I/Tj8FpWbfTzI/AAAAAAAABAA/TvCFXlrsjmE/s1600/New+Zealand+008.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYGr6dyeJ0U/Tj8FhFnMn1I/AAAAAAAAA_8/uj81cQcYwws/s1600/New+Zealand+009.jpg)

Cheers,

Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on August 14, 2011, 03:19:18 am
Popped into my local bookshop and I sat down and flipped through Elliott Erwitt's book Rome. It's a great book and it reminded me of some shots I took when I was there in 1978 (not that I can compare myself with him).

The third shot is memorable because as you can see the flags are at half mast, the Pope had just died.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--xvfQUG__e0/Tkd1uvUwROI/AAAAAAAABAs/3X7Z498OvRE/s1600/romw_03.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7OPYNuZNUbo/Tkd1mljPP7I/AAAAAAAABAo/kBlP3E6AZgQ/s1600/romw_01.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-llZvo3RG4hc/Tkd1f5ylPvI/AAAAAAAABAk/bgBA7-M2TdQ/s1600/romw_02.jpg)

Cheers,

Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on August 16, 2011, 07:20:31 pm
The adults take shovels to the beach. From the Coramandel Coast, New Zealand.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-btXmV7vyKfA/Tkr6soxsMKI/AAAAAAAABA8/aSEloe0Hq0E/s1600/hwb1.jpg)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1U95ErcBt70/Tkr4vBIIOZI/AAAAAAAABA0/YflGYzbFneo/s1600/hwb2.jpg)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OyKLlLmDhbQ/Tkr4l0SlBDI/AAAAAAAABAw/eKVvtBqUUqI/s1600/hwb3.jpg)

Cheers,
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: RSL on August 16, 2011, 08:09:42 pm
Tom, We may disagree about guns but I really like a lot of your photographs. Crank up the color saturation on these and you almost have Martin Parr.
Title: Re: Travel
Post by: FrameMaker on August 16, 2011, 08:41:47 pm
Greater Cairo Camel Market

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Title: Re: Travel
Post by: tom b on August 16, 2011, 11:38:17 pm
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6-g4Zj3unR0/TkswXFNOO7I/AAAAAAAABBA/1kBP7O-qh8s/s1600/camels.jpg)
Camel ride – Broome, Western Australia

It's probably not that well known that Australia has up to one million feral camels. We even export them to the Middle East. They were introduced into the outback as transport when areas were opened up. Interestingly we're even growing date trees from the seeds of the camel drivers dates.

We have camel races and camel treks both long and short.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k70xXcNfKHk/Tks2eiyl5HI/AAAAAAAABBE/hXfXssaaea0/s1600/camels2.jpg)
West MacDonnell Ranges

Cheers,