Without Prejudice 3

[Telecaster]

.

 

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

Past their prime but still lovely. And very sweetly fragrant this year.

-Dave-

[Rayyan]

Thanks Francisco 

Congratulations, great achievement!

[Rayyan]

Come along with us along a rocky path...

Pause for a breather. A look at a village inhabited for thousands of years..

Watch your step, now. Slipping is the least of your worries...

Another break....

Pause at the summit, to take it all in...

Time to begin the descent...careful, watch those little rocks and pebbles...

Thank you for being with us on a trek to the summit of the Jebel Al Shams ( Mountain of the sun ) in Oman.

[Telecaster]

Yow, fantastic terrain & scenery for a climb!

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

Who dat? (A pair of critters from today's park walk.)

-Dave-

[Rob C]

Thornbird:

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I guess you have a Thornbird feeder outside your window.   

[Rob C]

I guess you have a Thornbird feeder outside your window.   

I do, but it's transparent; just like the bricks in the new wall someone was telling us about. Works every time.

:-)

[Rob C]

In my usual, organised manner, I came up with the title for my old power station series this morning, weeks after making the set. BRAQUO has had a profound visual effect on me; I am rewatching the series again, still thankful for the subtitles, the French soundtrack even more alien-sounding than the few live French people I meet in reality.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... BRAQUO has had a profound visual effect on me; I am rewatching the series again...

That was one hell of a good tv series, Rob.

I just finished watching another French police thriller on Netflix, The Forest (La Forêt). One season only, very nice, very French.

[32BT]

In my usual, organised manner, I came up with the title for my old power station series this morning, weeks after making the set. BRAQUO has had a profound visual effect on me; I am rewatching the series again, still thankful for the subtitles, the French soundtrack even more alien-sounding than the few live French people I meet in reality.

Outage... clever and very succinct for a decommissioned powerstation.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Outage... clever and very succinct for a decommissioned powerstation.

+1.

[KLaban]

Rob, perfect title for a super series - your images not the TV series.

;-)

[KLaban]

Another abandoned interior from a recent visit to Greece. Leica M240, 21mm Super-Elmar ASPH.

[Rob C]

Hi guys - thanks for the nice remarks re. OUTAGE; the series (Braquo) which inspired it is well worth the watching - mine came courtesy one of the streaming services.

Engrenages is another French cop drama that's pretty good, and available streamed, with subtitles if one wants them.

The summer weather has removed the emotional pull of the power station - the pull of anything, to be honest - but come winter, if I'm still here, I'll take my ass around the rest of the massive perimeter which I don't think I have seen before. The shots I have are all from two brief shoots on a seventy-five yard stretch of public road. It would have been interesting to see what Michael Kenna might have made of the place; I loved his Calais lace series. Of course, by now he'd have found the official way inside. I'm still pondering about that... and there but one of the massive differences between the young and the old: inertia.

;-)

[Rob C]

Another abandoned interior from a recent visit to Greece. Leica M240, 21mm Super-Elmar ASPH.

Isn't it strange how the two cultures, Greek Island and Spanish Island, both afloat in the same little sea, have such different takes on decoration. I see almost no coloured building here in Mallorca at all, and the few that have colour can be apartment blocks that stand out like sore thumbs from the surrounding architecture.

Your interiors in that genre are all rather uplifting, despite the apparent destitution; I think it comes down to colour giving a positive vibe. Go black/white, and one might discover tears - of the wet kind, not just in fabrics.

Have you ever been drawn to shooting contemporary interiors, you know, the boutique hotel kind of pictures that find their way into Condé Nast's Traveller? Could be a commercial outlet on your trips, something to defray the costs. Maybe you are already ahead of me on that one! ;-)

Nice series-in-progress, the best kind to have!

Rob

[KLaban]

Isn't it strange how the two cultures, Greek Island and Spanish Island, both afloat in the same little sea, have such different takes on decoration. I see almost no coloured building here in Mallorca at all, and the few that have colour can be apartment blocks that stand out like sore thumbs from the surrounding architecture.

Your interiors in that genre are all rather uplifting, despite the apparent destitution; I think it comes down to colour giving a positive vibe. Go black/white, and one might discover tears - of the wet kind, not just in fabrics.

Have you ever been drawn to shooting contemporary interiors, you know, the boutique hotel kind of pictures that find their way into Condé Nast's Traveller? Could be a commercial outlet on your trips, something to defray the costs. Maybe you are already ahead of me on that one! ;-)

Nice series-in-progress, the best kind to have!

Rob

Hi Rob, I think of the Greek colour palette as life-affirming but it does vary enormously depending on location. Many of the islands - particularly the Cyclades where the houses are white cubist en masse - can look very dramatic but are not my cup of tea glass of ouzo. On other islands and areas of mainland Greece the houses are often rather severe unpainted stone. Happily the Ionian and Northern Aegean Islands are particularly colourful.

These abandoned buildings are becoming scarce, or rather the accessible buildings worth photographing are scarce, plenty of abandoned buildings about but most are either too far gone, plain stone shells, or well secured and inaccessible. In three weeks, trying most days, I only found a handful worth the effort: a labour of love, that buzz of not knowing what lies around the next corner.

Commercial work, well, the money could come in handy, but I've zero interest in revisiting that source. It's now purely that labour of love and above all great fun.

[32BT]

Hi Rob, I think of the Greek colour palette as life-affirming but it does vary enormously depending on location. Many of the islands - particularly the Cyclades where the houses are white cubist en masse - can look very dramatic but are not my cup of tea glass of ouzo. On other islands and areas of mainland Greece the houses are often rather severe unpainted stone. Happily the Ionian and Northern Aegean Islands are particularly colourful.

These abandoned buildings are becoming scarce, or rather the accessible buildings worth photographing are scarce, plenty of abandoned buildings about but most are either too far gone, plain stone shells, or well secured and inaccessible. In three weeks, trying most days, I only found a handful worth the effort: a labour of love, that buzz of not knowing what lies around the next corner.

Commercial work, well, the money could come in handy, but I've zero interest in revisiting that source. It's now purely that labour of love and above all great fun.

Very interesting. Any idea why these homes have been abandoned? Is it purely old people without succession, so to speak? I presume it is not the crisis, since these look like abandoned longer ago. I see superstition hanging next to the door. Amazing how well that is preserved, yet the people have moved on long since. An intriguing detail which, given the surrounds, makes one ponder life.

Great shot.

[KLaban]

Very interesting. Any idea why these homes have been abandoned? Is it purely old people without succession, so to speak? I presume it is not the crisis, since these look like abandoned longer ago. I see superstition hanging next to the door. Amazing how well that is preserved, yet the people have moved on long since. An intriguing detail which, given the surrounds, makes one ponder life.

Great shot.

Thanks.

The abandonment has been due to a number of factors. Historic migration to the Americas and the Antipodes etc. due to a lack of employment and opportunity particularly on the islands.  An aging population combined with the understandable desire of the younger family members to live in modern and more comfortable accommodation. The houses are often handed down to multiple beneficiaries who cannot agree on what to do with them. Migration from the towns to the coast. Foreigners tend to buy villas and apartments rather than old houses. People in general are unwilling to live in areas of abandonment.

The old houses are photogenic but once abandoned decline rapidly. Many of the properties I photographed a few years ago are sadly now piles of rubble.