Photography
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Beautiful Places #1: Nong Khiaw
All travellers are finding themselves reminiscing during this travel hiatus. It’s good to reflect on places which were so beautiful they left not just a lasting impression, but also the distinct feeling that you didn’t stay long enough. Here we look back at some of ours. Like many places of incredible beauty, Nong Khiaw isn’t the easiest to get to. In reality the only sensible option is to make a visit to Nong Khiaw whilst based in Luang Prabang, and even then it’s a fairly lengthy bus journey between the two places – bus journeys which can be just a little bit cramped and uncomfortable. Take it from us though,…
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Photographic Memories #14
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories… Photo #14: Clouds and Rails This photograph shows how you don’t always need sunshine for a shot to be atmospheric. For me as an absolute lover of rail travel, in particular rail travel in different countries, just standing on a station platform looking along the empty tracks anticipating the arrival of the train still brings out a boyhood excitement even now. Rainclouds looming low over the…
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Photographic Memories #13
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories… Photo #13 Dar Es Salaam Sometimes, in the midst of a culture very different from home, something catches your eye and for the next few moments you can’t tear yourself away. This photograph was taken during one such moment. Dar Es Salaam is a bustling, colourful city, no longer the official capital of Tanzania since the creation of Dodoma but still the country’s beating heart for…
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Lifted Spirits
Things are definitely looking better. The UK’s vaccination programme is racing ahead impressively quickly, and last Monday the Government released the so-called roadmap to recovery, with “earliest possible” dates for a number of the stages of the route to normality. For those of us waiting patiently to resume travelling the world, this is music to our ears. With some kind of perfect symmetry, these announcements coincided with some beautiful weather as early Spring sunshine brought clear blue skies and glorious days throughout the week. We even had a spectacular full moon – the “Snow Moon”, the second full moon of a calendar year. Living both near the coast and in…
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Cold Snap
Is it just me, or is anyone else irritated by the fact that, in the context of COVID, the world is referring freely to the “British variant” or even more geographically specific, the “Kent variant”, when ex President Trump was consistently vilified for referring to the pandemic as the “Chinese disease”? It’s called “COVID” because phrases like “Asian flu” and “Spanish flu” have been outlawed by the WHO as racially divisive, so how come the “British variant” is acceptable? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, just as we sit here confined to quarters unable to travel, we get a little bit of the world – indeed a little bit of the…
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Photography Meets Art
Michaela’s mother, Norma, lives in the county of Suffolk, time honoured home to many of the great English painters. Norma is a highly talented artist in her own right, as you can see from this painting, one of a number she has created from our travel photographs. This particular one is probably my favourite photo of Michaela, taken in her natural habitat: a bar. On this occasion, a bar in Molfetta, Italy. To view more of Norma’s great work, you can visit… Photography by Michaela, www.normareadartist.com or Instagram@normareadartist
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Photographic Memories #10
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #10: Family History Like the poor soul remembered on this war grave, our surname is Sharman; this is the grave of my father’s cousin, Roland. The plaque is one of many hundreds of memorials in the war cemetery at Kanchanaburi in Thailand, built to commemorate those poor souls who perished during construction of the infamous Death Railway as they laboured as Prisoners Of War in…
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Photographic Memories #9
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #9: The Lost Tomato Look closely at this photograph and you will spot that Michaela caught the precise moment that a tomato fell from its stacked trailer, and in the moment of the shot it is suspended in mid air just above the ground. Of course, you can’t capture shots like this intentionally, only by coincidence of timing. The original aim of the photo was…
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Photographic Memories #8
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #8: Desert Life Desert life goes on with the Bedouin minding his camels in the midday sun, the battered truck displaying all the telltale signs of the demands of the unforgiving environment. Some perspective is given to this photograph by the pick up truck in the far distance, dwarfed by its surroundings yet still some way from the mountains beyond. Here, we are out in…
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Photographic Memories #7
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #7: Morning Light We liked this photo enough to make it the backdrop on our blogsite homepage, mostly for the way it captures the shadows cast across the water by the early morning light. Taken as we walked to our favoured breakfast spot as the town rubbed its eyes, this shot could be almost anywhere yet it comes as a surprise to most to learn…
