We made a very important discovery on our first trip to France. Not all cheese is created equal.
In the U.S.A. cheddar is basically cheddar. Gouda is good and Brie is…well, not so great (my personal preferences). Sure they are varying qualities, more expensive and less expensive, more or less sharp, but you can count on cheese being cheese. Until you go to France and realize that good they call brie in the United States is emphatically NOT brie! Your options are nearly limitless and they quality is, as is all cuisine in France, and art form. This is just one small cabinet outside a fromagerie to entire patrons into the shop. It’s a cheese lover’s paradise!
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One of the things I love when traveling is how I tend to stumble on odd happenings. I am frequently in tourist sorts of areas during my first visit to a place, and I always expect something like this is designed to entertain and empty the pockets of visitors, but it’s still fun none the less! When I arrived in Barcelona I walked up and down La Rambla (a very large pedestrian thoroughfare) and came upon a VERY noisy parade. There were colorful costumes and bands and noise makers of every kind you can imagine. I caught this group of jovial dancers as the whirled and jingled loudly on by.
Title: Performers on the Streets of Barcelona, Spain
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Everywhere you go in Kyoto, there are shrines, temples and gardens. I can’t think of a place I went that didn’t have at least one or more of the three…sometimes all three at the same time! It is said Kyoto has over 2000 shrines and temples from small to exquisitely grand (in a zen way of course). Just walking down the sidewalk, I found this little temple. I said Buddha in my title, but perhaps a Bodhisattva or some other early divine person. With so many places to pray, it is sometimes hard for a western walker to know where they stand, but I think that is perfectly Japanese.
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If nothing else, Singapore is diverse. Architecture runs from ultra modern to old world. The residents are from China, India, Malaysia, Africa. I was not entirely surprised, but it was surreal none the less, to be greeted on the Helix Bridge by a street musician playing a Didgeridoo! Oddly this is the first time I have ever seen anyone playing one of these Australian instruments. I have always wanted to play one, but unlike my native saxophone, the Didgeridoo does not come with a spit valve.
Title: Didgeridoo Player on the Helix Bridge in Singapore
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I don’t photograph people. When I do it seems forced, but while driving through Peru from Cusco to our hotel in Urubabma I was shooting out the car widow. I was trying to get a feel for this poor part of Cusco we were driving through. I had my camera up, we stopped and this woman looked right at me…Click.
I don’t photograph people, but this accidental photograph feels like much of my time in Peru. I see a lifetime in her glance. Every time I look, I seem to get lost in my own feelings. It’s hard to say how I feel about the very different places in the world that we occupy, but I know the perspective I have found in travel makes me grateful for the things I have.
I don’t photograph people. What do those eyes say to you?
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I took a trip to New York City last week. It was a busy week and I didn’t have much time to photograph (despite lugging my camera everywhere I went). Business took me though Chinatown many times during my four day visit and one the last day I was struck by this scene. I probably walked by five or six times, but only after 4 days did I actually SEE this great street art. Why do we let the busyness of life keep us from seeing the beauty of life?
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Bangkok seemed to me a hodgepodge. I was only in the city for a few hours, but I was struck by the heat (I cant take the heat) and by the mix and fury at which things happen. There are new structures next to old dilapidated ones. The train system was very clean and interestingly had signs directing passengers to give up your seat to monks. There was noise and commotion and people seemed to literally make a living from discarded junk like many of the water taxi boats had what appeared to be auto engines made into boat engines (radiator and all). I felt like rules were arbitrarily applied. I feel like I need to give the city another chance. It was alive and vibrant and an interesting mix of things I didn’t understand. These tables made me think of all of this.
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I have a love-hate relationship with street art. Perhaps that statement is incorrect…I love street art. It can be poignant, providing essential social commentary. Though provoking, causing random passers-by to stop dead from their daily stupor and think. It can be beautiful, or make us question our paradigms of beauty. It can be biting, revealing, hilarious, even revolutionary! What I hate it tags and other mindless defacement of other beautiful works. The intent of these lawbreakers of both ilk sits squarely with me. In my mind, one a thug…the other an artist. I have seen some of the greatest artists of our day, unknown, who work in shadow, who’s artistic legacy will be swept away like a Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala; for now they will be briefly seen. I try and capture them while I can.
I found this simple beautiful stencil street art underneath a pedestrian underpass in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The underside of this bridge was painted a pinkish purple, with this one loan piece looking seductively at people walking down the sidewalk. I couldn’t help but share.
Title: Female Stencil Street Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina.psd
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I have long loved Brassai. A Hungarian photographer who came to prominence in Paris between World War I and II. He has taken some of my favorite photos of the City of Light by night. Interestingly some of my favorite photographs are of the wet streets of Paris. These are simple, but there is a sensual and mysterious love they seem to express to me.
Wet Stones
I can’t ever seem to get away from the depth contained in ancient wet cobblestone streets. They have been around for thousands of years and will be for thousands more if God willing, Europe doesn’t adopt the American love of asphalt and concrete; such impermanent material. The history of these old cities has slowly been chiseled into their face. They reflect it in the mist, if you just look.
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I like all kinds of photography, but one style I have a hard time with is street photography. It’s not that I don’t love the style, but there is a patience needed that I seem to lack. Also when you get right down to it, I hate confrontation. Most people even when they do care won’t chase you down, but even still I generally travel with a wide angle lens and you really have to get up on people.
Strange Group
I love contrasts. This photo was taken in the courtyard around La Cathedral in Barcelona Spain. The place is brimming with people and absolutely gorgeous. The man on the left is absorbed in his book, journaling his experience, but all the while missing everything going on in the world around him. The young woman suns her very pale skin. While worshiping the sun she misses the beauty all around her. The old man on the right seems aloof, but content to watch people, he is turned away from the church. The woman is my favorite. She was very happy to sit and smoke, until she noticed I was taking her picture. I caught her in a moment of surprise. Somehow she seemed the most genuine…perhaps even the most honest to me.
All of the photographs on this site are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. You are free to use these on your blog or as a personal wallpaper, as long is they are used in a NonCommercial fashion and you adhere to the terms of the Creative Commons License. We will even host the bandwidth for the files for you!
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