Just got back from a rather nice photography trip with Richard Childs to the Isle of Eigg, in Scotland.   Had a wonderful time, and got some very nice images.  One recommendation if anyone is tempted to do photography tours:  don’t try so hard!  I was trying to hard the first couple of days, and got fairly discouraged.  Once I relaxed, and took my time, I started to see my images better, and ended up with a few I quite like.

Geri and I went up to Mallaig the weekend before our tour, and took a day trip over the the Isle of Skye.  That was also interesting; a very imposing landscape.  Can’t say I got wonderful images (since I didn’t), but we did enjoy ourselves and found that the Isle of Skye has a Serpentarium,   a sort of herpetology rescue house.  Yep, they rescue snakes, mostly, along with a few lizard type critters.  Very interesting!

Then back to Mallaig, and up early.  Turns out that my normal rising time of Oh-Dark-Hundred (sometimes read as TDE, To Da** Early) works out just fine for photography trips!  I was usually up and ready to go before most people were even out of bed yet.. :}  We usually went out for an hour or two to catch the early morning light, came back for breakfast and general wake-up (for others), and then headed back out again.  Spent the morning and early afternoon hours either looking at places we might come back to for sunset or next morning,  and then returned in time for dinner.  After dinner, grabbed our cameras again and headed for the beach.

The side we spent most of our time on was facing south of west, so sunsets ran along parts of the beach (well, where the shore met the ocean, anyway) and across a channel to land behind the Isle of Rum.  So our evening shots got various parts of rocks/beaches/etc, water and the Isle of Rum.

Our first couple of days there were on the incredible side.. I.e., no clouds at all.  “Blue sky days”, as Richard put it.  Didn’t make for the most gorgeous of sunsets, but did lend itself to interesting shadow shapes and what not.  Richard talked about light most of the time; I learned quite a bit about finding the right time and places for things.

The last couple of days there were appropriately cloudy; i.e., just enough to make interesting skies! Wonderful weather! Richard said he ordered it ahead of time, so if you’re inclined to go with him on a tour, remind him to order his skies early!

In any event, check out my images in my gallery from Eigg, and enjoy!

Cheers!

Addis Ababa is the capitol of Ethiopia, and at a pleasant height above sea level.. between 8000 and 9000 feet!  So while the air is a bit thin for us sea level residents, the temperature is wonderful!   We traveled down to a gourge (the Blue Nile) and the temp went up as we went lower, so I am happy to be this high!

Right now, I’m working over some of the photographs I took while wandering around the country side.  On our way back from the Blue Nile bridge, we stopped off to see the Portugese bridge, so called because the Portugese built it.   This included a visit to a monastery,  and an image inside the cave where the holy man prayed for 12 years.  The hike up to the cave on the side of a cliff was interesting in the thin air!  The blue barrels are holy water, given out to those who make the pilgrimage while not feeling well.  Said to have healing properties.  We were sick (just gasping for air) so we couldn’t tell you.

Monday a friend of my wife’s co-oworker  is taking me with him when he goes back (He’s shooting a Documentary Film) to a local orphanage. Should be interesting, this is an orphanage for children who have Aids; the orphanage is broken into two houses, 0 to 12, and 12 to 18. They try and give the children as normal and hopeful a life as possible; their eldest, a young lady (who is 17 turning 18 this year), hopes to go to the University. That will be their first, but they are willing to try!  I hope she makes it in!  This week is exam week, and they are studying hard, so we didn’t want to disturb them.

I’m finding the people very friendly; most speak english (after a fashion, I’m horrible with accents!), so it is easy enough to get along.  I find it a bit intimidating even so, being the only white person that I can see when I’m out walking.  Doesn’t help that I’m the only one I’ve seen in shorts!  It’s in the 70′s here, and that’s no temp (for me) to be wearing long pants/sleeves…  I took a taxi (recommended by a collegie of Geri’s as reliable) around town and shopping a bit…  very odd experience, having everyone stare at me.  Most smiled when I looked at them, or said hi, but still…

No problems with pick-pockets so far.  There are warnings everywhere here, but I think if you are just careful, and watch were you are, they don’t bother you.  So far, at least.

Cameras are allowed, and most places they will let you take picutres (obvious non-photo areas: embassies, palace, etc),  at least with still cameras.  Most video cameras are not allowed into the country without a special permit;  If it looks like a professional video camera, or it has a “3CCD” lable on it, you have to pay extra to get a permit to bring it into the country.  So far, they haven’t noticed cameras such as the Canon 5D MkII, that does HD as well as photographs… it’s still classified as a camera, not a video camera, so they don’t care about it.    When I came in, they just asked me if I had a video camera, didn’t even bother looking at my gear.  Wonder how long that will last?

I’ll post a link here if I can get everything updated an connected. Certainly after I get home to Wales!

Ciao!

Jason

Geri had one photo selected. This photo is of the island of Kerrera and the Hutcheson Memorial, taken from the beach in front of the Youth Hostel in Oban, Scotland. The date was July 21, 2008.  The Hutcheson Memorial is the tall spire on the right. This is not a panorama, but a standard photo with top and bottom cropped off.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: EF70-200mm f/2.8L
Focal Length: 200 mm
Exposure: 1/100 at f/32
ISO: ISO 400
No flash, tripod.

Jason had 2 photographs selected for publication. First, this one from the Isle of Iona in Scotland, a ruined Abbey.

Camera: Canon 1DS Mark II
Lens: 24-70mm
Focal Length: 70 mm
Exposure: 1/5 at f/22
ISO: ISO 100
No flash, tripod.

He also had this photo selected of spiral stairs from a tower we climbed in Prague, Czech Republic:

Camera: Canon 1DS Mark II
Lens: 24-70mm
Focal Length: 24 mm
Exposure: .6 at f/2.8
ISO: ISO 100
No flash, handheld.

We were both excited to have these photos selected, and look forward to seeing the completed book in September 2009.

I have posted photos on my Lenstribe account. You can find my trip photos here:

Geri’s Photo Fun

Geri

We visisted the “Ostuary” of the “Bone Church”… 40,000 people’s bones are piled high and made into ornamentation, such as a chandelier made of human bones. Odd feeling; we went in, expecting it to be more macabe’, but I guess Disney has reduced things like skull and crossbones to some thing else. It just didn’t seem quite so real to me…

Anyway, we’re off in a bit to go see Terezinstadt, a german concentration camp. Don’t we see the most fun things here? We’ll post some photos when we come back.

Ciao!

Jason

Jason made a cool panorama at Stonehenge here: Stonehenge Pano

Here is a self-portrait Jason made at Stonehenge:

Here is a nice image Jason made of Our Lady of Tyn church in Prague:

We had a free weekend, so are spending it in Bath (a place made famous by Jane Austin). Here are some images Jason and I took while there:

First – the Roman temple of Aquae Sulis which has been excavated UNDER the city of Bath. Here are the steps up to the front door of the temple:

Next is a mural from the temple:

These pillars of tile supported the floor of the sauna at the temple:

Enough of the temple. Here is the sluice in the River Avon that prevents flooding. In Celtic, Avon means “river”, but the Romans misunderstood and thought that Avon was the river’s name!

Finally, Geri was amused by this drinking fountain built by a temperance society in the mid-1800′s:

Jason took this picture in Bath showing the contrast between old and modern Bath:

We are in Central London, not far from King’s Cross (remember Harry Potter?) It is very easy for us to get to anywhere in London in a very short time.

So, Friday…. We got checked in, found some lunch, then in an attempt to stay awake, we popped over to the British Museum. Unfortunately, we were both too tired to appreciate the fine art there. So we walked home and stayed awake as long as we could. Geri fell asleep at 4 pm and slept about 15 hours. Jason fell asleep about 8 pm, and only slept a few hours. We were on the side of the building facing a very busy (all night long) street, and he is not a city person. So while Geri slept through it all, the noise kept Jason awake.

Saturday, we did some shopping for groceries and supplies. Our flat has a small kitchen, so we can cook. This is a good thing, since prices in London are literally double the prices in the US. You look at a lunch menu and think that 7 pounds is not bad for a burger. Then do the calculations and realize the burger is really $14. Yikes! We met Darcy Green (our professor) on Saturday evening, and had a lovely dinner and chat.

Sunday, Jason, Darcy, and I went to the airport to meet most of the rest of the class. We got them to their dorms and settled in a bit. Our first class meeting was at 2pm, and we had a “scavenger hunt” assignment to complete. We had to find certain things and photograph them, such as an old fashioned telephone box, or a London taxi. This was to keep everyone awake and to get them familiar with the neighborhood. Then we met for an organizational meeting and went to the Thames to ride the London Eye. (except for Geri who is afraid of heights).

Monday our class started. We had many meetings dealing with the study abroad program and safety in London. Then later we met to look over our photos from Sunday. Then we went to a gallery showing of college student photography and had a wonderful Indian dinner in the very ethnic neighborhood where the gallery was located. We got our first assignment on Monday, but no real time to start it.

Tuesday, Jason and I did laundry (instead of starting our project). Then we all met in the afternoon with Grace Robertson – a truly amazing lady photographer who is now almost 80. A talented photographer, and a lovely lady too. Her talk was quite inspiring. Jason and I were fortunate to have dinner later with Darcy and Grace. Then we met our class again to do night photography around London. We just got back 1/2 hour ago – it is now midnight here.

I have not had time to process much of the photos, but here is a picture I took on Sunday evening of the Parliament and Big Ben while the others were riding the Eye. I really like the golden evening light on the clock.

We registered as life-long learners at MSU, which allows us to take classes for credit. We are meeting 16 other students (average age about 21), and the professor Darcy Greene in London on Sunday. We’ll be travelling together for a bit over 6 weeks – London, Prague, Leeds, Oban, and Ediburgh. Then Jason and I are spending a few days near Cardiff before returning home.

With jobs, a business, and a home, it took quite a bit of planning and finding a house sitter to be gone that long!

We are both looking forward to immersing ourselves in photography for the next 7 weeks. we’ll try to keep up some travel notes (and photos) in this blog. Here are some photos from the first class lounge for Virgin Atlantic. We splurged for this trip and are really enjoying the comfort of first class.

Jason used his new Canon PowerShot SD870 IS camera for these. He calls it his “stealth” camera. Compared to our “real” cameras, it is a silly little camera, but fits in his pocket and takes some surprisingly nice photos. But it will never replace the DS Mark II. He’s saving for the DS Mark III for that.

In the revolving gallery, if you click on a picture you like, you will go to a gallery page of the photograph with more information.

We hope you enjoy this site and Jason’s photography.

Geri