Thoughts on Creativity
I’ve just returned from a short but intense trip around Morocco. I’ve been back for over a week, but with my massive backlog of work, I haven’t had the chance to post anything recently. I will have more on Morocco in the near future.
The above two images, from rural areas in Morocco, got me thinking about creativity.
Latest News
Morocco
Here is something different for our blog – a news report! Now, before you blow me away with your excitement, let me just mention that there won’t be too many of these, I just thought a little news post would be good to explain the absence of posts over the next week.
We’re leaving for Morocco tomorrow and I have to say, it could be the most excited for a trip that I’ve ever been. My excitement stems from the fact that we really don’t know what to expect. We’re spending 7 nights in 7 different locations, most of which do not have a large media presence online.
Packing for this trip has also been a bit different. Because part of the trip will involve riding camels, we have to take back packs and everything, including tripods, camera gear and sleeping bags has to fit. Consequently, we’re taking far less camera gear and we’re hoping all photos will fit on our 40 odd gigs worth of CF memory card. There will definitely be a report back on how it all pans out.
Pix Magazine
I was stoked to see that the latest Pix magazine published a 15 page (mostly pictures) article that we wrote on shooting strangers. I’ve been dying to post the article on the blog, but I don’t post any articles until they have been published, so that will be up next week some time.
Website Portfolio
If you tried to visit the blog and forgot to enter the /blog part of the address, you may have noticed that we have a new travel portfolio site up. It is not 100% complete, but I’m well pleased how it is starting to look, so check it out.
Catching Up
Lastly, I realized that we were on our way to Morocco and I still had photos to process from Scotland, France, Switzerland, South Africa and the UK. Needless to say, I spent quite a while in post production and managed to get through the bulk of the work. Below are some of my favorites.
Paris Street Photography
Life goes on as usual in the Paris Metro.
I’ve always loved street photography. Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of my all time favorite photographer and he is best known for his street photography of Paris. On a recent trip to Paris, inspired by old Henri, I made an effort to do some street photography myself.
Dynamic Time Lapse
Life by the BBC is one the best natural history documentaries I’ve ever seen. The camera work is phenomenal.
One thing I’ve never been able to work out is how they get their dynamic time lapse sequences. Time lapse photography is straight forward enough, but the shots in life include actually moving through a scene that takes place over a few seasons.
After been blown away by the time lapse sequence in the Plants episode, I was stoked to find out that they included a behind the scenes section to show how they made it.
For your benefit, here is the behind the scenes section:
The Friendliest
A diver sells his catch along the Wild Coast of South Africa
I read a forum post on a travel site recently on which country had the friendliest locals. I was quite surprised to see that six of the eight people who responded said Turkey. Turkish locals must be super friendly to get such an overwhelming vote (I’ll confirm this when I visit in August).
What was also quite surprising is that no one voted for South Africa. It was then that I realized that many people who travel to South Africa would count Johannesburg as part of South Africa. If you want to get technical, it is, but the Johannesburg locals are definitely not representative of the average South African.
London Town
Despite the weather, visa issues, expensive transport and even more expensive food and drinks, London is a must see destination. Even though I’ve lived in London for a year, I still often see it through tourist eyes, only now I’ve been here long enough to know what is worth seeing and what is better left to the uninformed crowds.
The Unexpected
What first struck me about London was the cultural diversity. At one stage, England dominated most of the known world and as a result, London now represents a large portion of it. I’ve met locals who time how long they can walk before they hear English spoken. Some have quite impressive records.
Story Book Wolf
Story Book Wolf (very cool title) was the overall winner for the 2009 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The image was taken by Spanish photographer, José Luis Rodriguez who specializes in how speed flash photography.
Google Reader Fanboy
With so much information readily available on the internet and increasingly less spare time, I’m always looking for the most efficient and friendly way to process that information.
I’ve settled on Google Reader, an online RSS reader. With Google Reader, I’m able to browse through 200+ blog posts a day in under 30 minutes.