A pyramid or a mountain?

As I have already mentioned in my previous post, all those temples were slowly beginning to bore us. I knew that later on I would be sorry for leaving out any one of them. It would be ideal if we could get to taste as much of genuine Egypt and at the same time see all the spectacular old buildings. In reality it is quite hard to squeeze all that into two weeks.

We started Day 8 with a tour of the Valley of the kings. It is situated under this pyramid-like hill. Historians suggest that when the old kingdoms didn't do all that well anymore, their pharaohs couldn't afford huge man made final resting places like the pyramids.

This place with a natural pyramid was obviously just a perfect substitution. Many pharaohs chose this valley as their final resting place.

We visited some of the more interesting underground burial chambers in the valley and moved on. We went to the Valley of the queens on foot. When we told Osama (our Egyptian guide) of our intentions, he was just shaking his head in disbelief and announced:

Nori Slovenci! Matjaz and his group of nori Slovenci!

That literally means "crazy Slovenians". In Slovene obviously.
Supposedly not many visitors choose to walk up that hill in midday heat. Strange isn't it?

We just had to laugh at his jokes - he knew a few words of Slovenian and used them repetitively in English sentences. He also understood quite a lot of Slovenian. You don't see that too often even when traveling around Europe.

So we went to the top of the hill where we could enjoy a beautiful view of the Valley of the kings on one side and the Valley of the queens on the other. From there we descended to the other side of the hill to the Temple of queen Hatchepsut in the Valley of the queens.

We had a gorgeous view of the Queen Hot-chicken-soup Temple (as our local guide Osama renamed the Queen Hatchepsut temple). On the way down we went by a couple more recent tombs. They were supposedly used by people living nearby.

Osama, as a true Egyptian didn't accompany us but instead took an air-conditioned bus to the temple.

The temple is very well preserved. There is still original paint on some of the walls and statues. It was scorching hot, so we didn't hang around for too long.

When we got on our bus we thanked God (Allah in this case) for the air-conditioning. The bus took us to the town of Hurghada (Al-Ghardaqah).

It stretches for many kilometers along the sea. Once a Russian airbase stood there, but now the only types of buildings are hotels, look-alike shops and ugly residential buildings for the hotel and shop personnel. In my opinion Hurghada has no soul whatsoever.

We ran into many groups of Russian tourists. We were told that many of the shops were owned by Russians. In some of them even fur caps and coats were on display.

I guess I don't need to stress the temperature outside was around 45 degrees Celsius at that time.

With my girlfriend M. we both agreed that this was the most unpleasant place on our trip and would not want to see it again. That is quite unfortunate, because beside Sharm el Sheikh it is the destination most frequently offered in Slovenian travel catalogs.

Truffle days in Istria

For as long as I can remember, we have been vacationing in coastal towns of Croatian Istria. I guess that's mainly because Istria is a really close to Slovenia. Now this peninsula is a part of Croatia, but when I was still a boy, Slovenia and Croatia were both parts of Yugoslavia.

I drove through the Istrian peninsula many times but I can't say I have spent much time exploring the central part of it. Lately it is marketed as “the new Tuscany” and I must say there definitely is a resemblance. Unfortunately until recently I was always speeding past those charming old hill towns, just to get to a seaside destination of choice as quickly as possible.

A couple of weeks ago I had a different plan. Together with M. we decided to taste the land of truffles. It was a two day trip and we are not sorry we did it. We saw some great stuff and enjoyed delicious local food.

We started with a visit of Motovun - a town where once a year a film festival takes place. The town sits on a highest hill in the neighbourhood and is surrounded with lots of smaller hills. I guess that is the strategic advantage its founders many centuries ago were looking for.
That's also the reason we spotted it from far away. We parked our car on the slope of the hill and walked into town (only residents are allowed to drive into town). Charming, narrow streets are literally impregnated with the smell of truffles.

A perfect day in Lubenice

On our second day on Croatian island of Cres we decided to visit another picturesque little village. Ancient village of Lubenice. This time we were following a recommendation and were not sorry to do so.

Lubenice literally translates into English as water melons. I don't know what is the connection between the name of this settlement and the fruit, but we definitely didn't see any watermelons while we were there.

It is believed that this village has been continuously inhabited at least for the last 4.000 years. Yes, that is old - Bronze age old. I guess the natural setting of the village has always been a decisive factor. From a view of a strategic position, it has always been really well protected. The side facing Adriatic sea drops straight down towards the sea - 378 meters below. Enforced with a stone wall with only two entries during the Middle Ages I guess this was an unconquerable stronghold.

Today it seems there are more churches in this villages then any other building types. When walking through the streets of Lubenice everything really feels old. In clear weather it offers magnificent views of northern Adriatic.
Local taverns are known for their excellent lamb dishes (jagnjetina ispod peke). I must say it really was delicious! The small tavern also has delicious local vine, cheeses and prosciutto on offer.
Apart from enjoying a meal in a couple of very good taverns and visiting a small museum, there isn't much to do in the village itself.

High heel obsession

One of the things I was surprised to see in Skopje (the capital of the Republic of Macedonia) was an obsession with high heels. Almost every woman was wearing them. I have a strong feeling that those few maladjusted ladies without high heels must have been tourists.

There is even a metal statue set up in the city centre representing the beauty of local women. At least I saw it like that. If someone has a better explanation, please do let me know.

Despite the time of year (middle of winter) and quite low temperatures the majority of women were also wearing very short skirts or at least some kind of tights and had obviously spent quite some time in front of a mirror.

The male part of our expedition didn't mind the situation. Even our female companions were impressed by what they saw. In fact M. was so thrilled with the whole thing that just had to buy a pair of fancy high heel shoes herself.
I must say I didn't have anything against it. It was not a very cheap thing but definitely a good choice anyway.

Skopje - A Divided City

There is one city that Skopje reminded me of. When I visited Casablanca (a city in Morocco) I had a similar feeling, but the line between two sides of the city was not so obvious there (you can read more about the "Moroccan city of contrast" in this post).
In Skopje the river Vardar acts as a barrier between the two worlds. However this barrier can easily be breached using the Old stone bridge, linking the two sides for centuries.

On the right side of the Vardar river is the new town. The main city square looks quite new and could be easily placed in some other modern European city. The nearby streets lined with cafes and most of the famous trademarks are sold in many of the very European looking shops. Unfortunately, judging by the average monthly income which is somewhere around 400 Euros, not many locals can afford to go shopping there. Not only the looks but also the prices in these stores are also very European.

On the left side of the river stands the old - Albanian part of the city, overlooked by an old fortress (it is supposedly being rebuilt for quite some time now). If you get lost in the grey streets, you will find the old bazaar easily. With tons of junk sold there, it definitely has a special kind of charm. If the right side looks European, the left side of the river definitely looks at least a bit Asian.
Rumor has it that the police don't patrol the Albanian side of the river. I didn't feel unsafe for a moment, but then again I did not try to wander these streets by night.

My intention is definitely not to make people turn away from exploring "the darker" side of the city.
On the contrary... If you get a chance to visit the city of Skopje, I strongly suggest you take a trip to the other side of the bridge and also get a glimpse of the old charm.

Apart from all that, there are also other things enforcing this feeling of contrast. For instance new and shiny buildings stand right next to collapsing old grey houses.
Even those new buildings usually only look nice and shiny from a safe distance. If you take a closer look you can usually find quality materials put together in a hurry and without much thought. This was also the case with our rented apartment. It had two nice bathrooms with a leaking bathtub/shower in each.

The building our apartment was in had a fancy video intercom at the front entrance and the front door could be opened via a numerical pad. In theory that is...

In reality none of those things actually worked and when the door bell rang, one of us had to walk five stories down to open the front door manually.

When to visit Venice?

I have decided not to visit Venice this year. At least not in this time of year when everything there goes crazy with the annual Carnival (Italians call it Carnevale di Venezia).

The best time to visit Venice depends on the purpose of visit. If you want to see the Venice Carnival with all the famous Venetian costumes, you obviously have to plan your visit when the event takes place. It starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday.

That means in 2010 it takes place between February 6th and February 16th. If you decide to go these days, you have to be prepared to face hordes of other tourists from all over the world. Walking the streets of Venice during this period of time is limited to being carried along by a river of people. Obviously seeing most of the popular attractions during this time is literary impossible.
Also taking good photos is quite a challenge with all those crowds around.

If you choose some other time of year (for instance October or November), you will probably be able to avoid the large scale tourist pollution and have an opportunity to wander the narrow streets and enjoy the (at times smelly) canals almost by yourself. Actually you will never be all alone in Venice, but it can be quite nice even with some tourists around.
The drawback is that except inside many shops you won't be able to see any traditional Venetian costumes.

However there is a short period when you can taste a little bit of both. Just before the official Carneval starts, you can avoid the large crowds and also see some early costumes parading the streets. I am pretty sure they will be more than happy to pose for your camera. I would say the best time to do it is about two weeks before the official beginning.

Made it back from the Dolomites

We went skiing to Civetta again. I guess it is becoming sort of a tradition, since we have been there for the sixth winter in a row.

We just never seem to get tired of going there. The vistas of the Italian Dolomites are simply stunning.

Apart from lots of skiing, eating and drinking, nothing special happened there. Well on another thought - it would really be a shock if we would not have done all of those things.

When I packed my bags I used this check list I prepared some time ago. It is still quite handy.

For the last couple of years I have been posting a summary of my skiing report from the official Dolomiti Superski web page at the end of each year's trip. Unfortunately this year it is unavailable due to some issues regarding disclosure of personal information. They are supposedly getting some 40 complaints over email every day but it does not really seem to help all that much.

This is a classical example of a bad outcome when some people are too concerned about personal data. On the other hand we are monitored by I don't know how many surveillance cameras every day and tracking our mobile phones is also not too hard to imagine. Well, sadly that is supposed to be OK I guess...

Cross-country skiing center Vojsko

Cross-country skiing is gaining popularity again in Slovenia. It was already quite popular over a decade ago, but then lost many supporters due to a rise of alpine skiing. In my opinion it happened because of better and better equipped ski slopes. Modern and fast ski-lifts were being installed on almost every ski slope.
Besides all that, Slovenian professional skiers are some of the most popular public figures in the country. They have been continuously achieving good results in the World Cup series for many decades.

Nowadays both sports are very popular again. Cross-country skiing is gaining supporters by the day.
Excellent results of Tina Maze (Slovenian alpine skier) and Petra Majdič (Slovenian cross-country skier) have a great deal to do with that. They were both also among this year's Vancouver Olympic medal winners.
Petra was also awarded the Terry Fox foundation award for incredible courage and determination after breaking several ribs and puncturing her lungs and still finishing third.


All that made us think and after a couple of years long break, M. and I finally decided to go cross-country skiing again. We are both beginners in this sport. Three years ago we attended a beginner level training and have not been practicing very often since then.

That is a pity, because there is an excellent cross-country skiing facility nearby. It is called Cross-country skiing center Vojsko.
I have to say I like this sport - it is really cheap. Once you get your hands on some equipment you can do it literary for free. The equipment itself is also relatively cheap.

Environmental Portraiture

A large part of my work is photographing people in their local context, resulting in what I like to call ‘environmental portraiture’. Some of the techniques I use are:

1. While most of my portraits have been of single subjects, I currently prefer adding a second person into an image to add a new layer to the subject matter. The image is no longer just about one person and his/her environment, and the viewers of the photo begin to speculate about the subjects’ relationship with each other, to the immediate environment and to their surroundings. A whole story plot can emanate from such images. Phil Borges is particularly adept at this technique, with a main protagonist in the photograph taking center stage, and another person in the background adding depth to the visual scene.

2. When opting for a single person portrait and realizing that the background doesn’t add much to the image’s context, I try to get as close as possible to fill the frame. On the other hand, if the background is relevant or complementary to the portrait, and isn’t distracting, I pull back.

3. The choice between candid (or natural) portraiture and posed photography is determined by the situation in which I find myself. If the circumstances allow it, I try to do both with the same subject. On my photo expeditions or when photographing solo, I frequently set up extended photo shoots, and although this goes against the grain for some travel photographers, I found that it allows my images to tell a story about the persons I photograph. During these photo shoots, I have the opportunity of establishing a rapport with my subjects, put them at their ease, interview them and record their voices along with any ambient sound. This gives me the raw material I need for the production of multimedia stories.

Flash Gallery Makers

As readers of The Travel Photographer Blog know, I use Soundslides to produce multimedia slideshows for my images, and find it more than adequate for my requirements. However, for those of you who are more interested in producing simple photo web galleries using Flash architecture, there are a few products that will do that quite easily.

The simplest photo gallery is the one in which the photographer's web site has a number of image thumbnails, which when hovered on with the pointer, open on to a larger version of the thumbnail. It's effective, clean and easy to navigate. and Macromedia Flash is widely available on most computers, whether these are Mac or Windows operating systems.

There are two software packages I know of which do what I describe. The free version is called Slide Viewer which is cross platform (ie both Mac and Windows) compatible. It's a simple viewer as the name indicates, and seems quite easy to install and will build the "thumbnails + main image" type of gallery some photographers seek.

A much more sophisticated slideshow maker SlideShowPro is available, and widely used by photographers and other visual artists to showcase their work with a bit more flair. Music and background soundtracks can be added to the slideshow, and it offers other plug-ins as well. It's available for $25 through its website.

PDN 's Travel Photography Contest

The venerable Photography News Digest (PDN) magazine has published results of its World In Focus contest. I found David Sacks' Light Rain photographed in Uganda to be excellent, and well deserving in winning the Human Condition category. The woman carrying her baby, the tree in the distance and the movement of her skirt all contribute to a well balanced composition. The image's toning also adds considerable 'gravitas' to the image. I imagine that its color version might not be as compelling.

The remaining images in the contest range from being excellent and well worth the accolade to being pedestrian and lackluster.

One of the few really ho-hum images is one by Deborah Young photographed in Angkor Wat. What bothers me here is not the image (although I don't see what attracted the judges to it) but the caption that accompanies it. The caption says "Taken at the ruins of Angkor Thom in Siem Reap, Cambodia, a child monk sleeps while hundreds of tourists walk around him." Who are they kidding? Anyone who's been to Angkor knows very well that such a thing will never happen. Never. The caption writer (whether it's the photographer or someone else) is making it up.

This novice (there are no such thing as a 'child monk') would be virtually trampled to death if he was to lie down as he is doing in this photograph. No, this image is posed, and not very intelligently at that. I have nothing against posed photographs, but what I do find ridiculous is the caption. Oh, another thing...the ruins are that of Bayon temple at Angkor Thom.

Amanda Jones

Amanda Jones is a prolific writer and photographer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work appears in travel magazines, and her short stories have been published in several travel anthologies. She has also done story development for National Geographic television, and her photography series Timeless, black and white photographs of African tribal peoples, was exhibited at a United Nations film festival.

Her photography is essentially aimed at travel magazines and travel catalogs/stock libraries. She photographs 'nice' portraits, mostly verticals and double-spreads for magazines, and to accompany her travel writings. If you thumb through travel magazines, you'll notice the verticals, the wide space to the left or right of images to accomodate text or titles, etc. It's a style of travel photography that generally doesn't appeal to me, but it does sell and I do it as well.

I've chosen her work in the Ethiopian south, namely in the Omo Valley, for inclusion in TTP. She has also written a short article for the London Sunday Times on her adventures with the tribes of the Omo Valley which is funny and informative. Her introduction to the Mursi tribe echoes my own essay Brief Encounters; The Mursi published in Outdoor Photography last year.

Travel: The Year In Pictures 2006

Lonnie Schlein is the picture editor of the Travel section of the New York Times, and in this interactive feature he shares how he personally chose the best photographs for the newspaper's Travel: The Year In Pictures 2006.

While I agree with some of his choices (such as Jehad Nga's photograph of an Ethiopian woman coming out of church), I still don't understand how picture editors narrow down images. It must be a talent acquired after years of experience, a sort of gut feel...but this multimedia presentation did little to shed light on the thinking process.

Travel Pictures 2006

The Holiday & Travel Show

The UK annual travel extravaganza is held in London on February 1 to 4, 2007. The venue is at the Olympia in Earl's Court, and its host to hundreds of travel businesses, from travel tours to magazines to accessories. I've never been to one, but since I was given free tickets at Stamford's (a great travel bookshop in Covent Garden), I might take a look. I noticed that a couple of lectures are on the schedule; travel photography, travel writing and on getting published, etc. This sort of event have consistently been disappointing in the past, being nothing really more than barely disguised efforts to sell something, but I'm ready to be surprised.

If I do go, I'll post my impressions. The London Travel Show

Verdict: Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon

Here's a short debrief about my photo expedition, Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon, which I organized and led this past October-November. The duration of the expedition was 14 days, and we formed a group of avid 8 photographers. I set up the itinerary with the assistance of Jachung Travel and Eagle Tours, which were extraordinarily competent.

The expedition's main objectives were to intensively photograph the tsechu festivals of Jambay Lakhang and Prakhar in the Bumthang valley of eastern Bhutan. Here's a link to my expedition's itinerary: Bhutan expedition

The Prakhar tsechu was an incredible cultural and visual experience, with literally hundreds of photo ops happening each second of the event. The organizers of the festival were gracious and hospitable, keen to welcome us as visitors and photographers inside the dzong itself, and making the dancers available for our cameras.

In contrast, the Jambay Lakhang tsechu was fraught with difficulties. The swarm of tourists, the site of the dance itself and the inhospitablity of the organizers all made it a far less enjoyable and rewarding experience than we hoped for. The Jambay dzong is an excellent spot of candid photography, but that's all.

In short: two thumbs up for Prakhar and two thumbs down for Jambay!

Ethiopia: Timket Festival In Lalibela

I witnessed the festival of Timket in northern Ethiopia in 2004, and consider it (along with the Kumbh Mela) to be one of the most photogenically and culturally interesting religious festivals I've ever photographed. Timket is the most important festival in the Ethiopian calendar, with festivities beginning in the 3rd week of January, the day before Epiphany which, according to the Julien calendar, falls on the 19th of January.

Timket is celebrated all over Ethiopia, but it's particularly spectacular in Lalibela, a Biblical mountain town famous for its 11 churches hewn out of solid rock over a thousand years ago. Many Ethiopians believe they were built by angels. A word of caution: Lalibela is one of the world's dustiest places, and is a haven for flies...other than that, it's a wonderful place! The early dawn prayers in Lalibela are just ethereal in quality and are attended by enormous crowds of devout Ethiopians.

Due to its recent military involvement in Somalia, Ethiopia's current political situation is questionable, so caution is advised.

In the meantime, here are some recent images by Karoki Lewis, a talented photographer, which appeared today on the BBC website: BBC's Timket Festival Images

Farah Nosh:Wounded Iraq

Farah Nosh is a Canadian photojournalist, whose photo essays have been published in major newspapers and publications including the New York Times. Her Wounded Iraq multimedia portfolio is haunting, and has made a lasting impression on me, The background music and the voices of the wounded accompanying the essay give the images an indelible sense of reality. This is editorial photography and photojournalism at its best: Farah Nosh's Wounded Iraq