Digital cameras are fantastic things: they allow you to take as many pictures as you want without using up precious film; you can immediately see the results and can therefore tell if you're pictures have come out OK; you can touch them up on your computer to touch them up and remove blemishes; and they are a fantastic way of breaking the ice that forms language and cultural barriers. The only drawback with digital photography is that once the pictures have been taken and you return home they get downloaded to the computer ... and that's where they stay, gathering virtual dust. I was determined that that wouldn't happen to my travel pics and so as soon as I returned home last year I set about sorting through them, selecting my favourites (about 30%), polishing them up, getting them printed, individually annotated and stuck in albums. It has taken a little over a year but I have finally finished, 26 albums and some 5000 pictures later (the pic below shows all the albums stacked together).
Now I have the perfect torture tool: "why don't you come round and I'll show you my travel pics...".
Well, I won't torture you, my dear readers, too much, but I thought I'd show you a selection of pictures that I'm most proud of (it's a game of numbers: if you take enough pictures you're bound to get a few decent ones).
A gathering of Tibetan monks at Labrang monastery in
Xiahe.
The post-apocalyptic landscape of the shipbreaking yards at
Chittagong.
A shaft of light in a
yakhchal close to
Yazd.
Stopping for lunch and midday prayers in
Wadi Rum.
A rather lonely parasol on the Red Sea on a cold, Winter's day in
Aqaba.
Ancient Christian defacement of an even more ancient, pagan temple in Upper Egypt at
Philae.
Two orthodox Jews watching the sunset at
Yad Vashem (Holocaust memorial) in Jerusalem.
3 comments:
That's quite an achievement, to put those 26 albums together. Are they just pics, or have you included a commentary with each page? It must have been so hard to choose the best ones... and sometimes it's not really the "Best" photographic ones that you want, it's the pictures that have the most meaning and reflect a special day or a special event, or special people that you met on your travels.
Would love to have alook through them!
Every picture has at least the date (to the nearest month) and location written on the back, although usually also a story or comment about what was going on when the picture was taken as well. I definitely agree - sometimes it's the most anodine pics that have the most interesting stories behind them.
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