Archive for November 2017
Weekly Photo Challenge: Serene
This week’s challenge is based on Ben Huberman’s experience of “going off grid” which he describes as serene. Well we were “off grid” when we were on the cruise – but there were over 2,000 people with us. So although the cost and unreliability of internet and cell phone connections meant I did not use either very much, serenity was in short supply. Especially on the first night on board when we hit some very heavy weather.
On the other hand, like Ben, I live on the British Columbia coast. So we do find serenity – but by staying closer to home. And yes once you get away from the urbanised areas, cell phones and wifi do get harder to connect to.
This is our local beach – which is not far from downtown Vancouver – but at low tide still manages to provide it own kind of serenity. And the cell phone service is fine here too.
Or to switch format from landscape panorama – and location – to portrait and Manning Park, which is a few hours drive inland.
No cell phone or internet here either.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Transformation
via Photo Challenge: Transformation
I can’t do credit to the subject of today’s challenge in just one photo. Here are a series of photos taken at the Casa Santo Domingo in Antigua, Guatemala. This used to be a convent – now it has become a hotel, spa and houses a number of museums. Visitors are encouraged to wander around. It was the last stop on our walking tour of the old city. We had booked an excursion with the cruise ship company (Holland America) but decided to chose one that allowed us to wander around at our own pace, and look at the things we found interesting, rather than follow a guide. I would have liked to have spent more time here, since we had really left ourselves enough time as it did not sound like it was going to be the best part of the tour. There are a number of ruined monasteries and convents in the city, the result of the earthquake in 1773. The death toll was around 600 with about the same number dying of disease and starvation subsequently. The toll was particularly heavy on the occupants of these massive stone buildings and several still lie in ruins. We did visit another smaller scale hotel at Santa Catalina which was also a convent but nothing like as lavish as this one.
From convent to ruin to “best hotel in Antigua” – quite a Transformation. By the way in this picture – and some of the others – you can see the conical peak of one of the three volcanoes that encircle the town.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Experimental
I was on a cruise last month. I was using my camera quite a lot – over a thousand pictures in 19 days. And ashore I usually had my phone with me as well – searching for free wifi, cruise ship internet connections being both expensive and unreliable. The ship was docked in Corinto, Nicaragua and I had been ashore exploring the little town, but it was very hot and there was not a lot to see. So I had decided to go back on board, and see what I could find in the buffet. I did not have either phone or camera with me. But I had brought the new Samsung Galaxy Tab E tablet which I was using to read e-books I had downloaded before the cruise. I also made my own journal entries on it.
When I looked out of the window I saw this oil tanker passing us, and thought I should check out the tablet’s camera. I had seen quite a lot of people using tablets to take pictures – and in my experience with other tablets, that had been a bit awkward, and I was never very happy with the results. In fact I had never used the camera in this tablet. So this was indeed an Experimental picture. I am quite pleased with it, but it is still the only one on the tablet’s SD card.
And that strange UFO looking bright object over the headland is actually a reflection of one of the lights in the buffet. I think the window was pretty grubby too. I did not use any photo editing software in this image but it could certainly be improved by levelling the horizon and removing some of the artifacts, but then that would invalidate the experiment.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Temporary
This continues the theme I started with yesterday’s post. This picture was taken in the same city – the Old Town of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia – and is the same technique of peeking in an open doorway onto the street. What we see this time is only Temporary.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Peek
I am really late to the photo challenge this week. In fact this is the last day to respond since there will be another challenge tomorrow.
“This week, share a peek of something — a photo that reveals just enough of your subject to get us interested. A tantalizing detail. An unusual perspective. ”
Well this photo was taken on Thursday last week, the day after the challenge was issued. We were walking in the Old Town of Cartagena, Colombia – and a door was open. And I could not resist a peek through it to the private courtyard in the centre of the building. That day was really hot – but the courtyard looked cool and inviting. The Spanish conquistadors really understood how to build for hot countries in the centuries before the invention of air conditioning.
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