Category Archives: nature
Desierto de Atacama
Chile is a curious country. Arguably more prosperous than its neighbours, the spaghetti-shaped land is occasionally referred to as the Switzerland of South America. But at the same time it’s a deeply troubled country, and I’m not talking about sexy communist revolutionary wannabes like Camila Vallejo. The thorough searches after we crossed the long patch of no man’s land surrounded by minefields, and arrived at the border, reminded us of the Iron Curtain, and times when freedom was scarce in Eastern Europe. Augusto Pinochet and his coup d’état had turned Chile into a dictatorship for almost twenty years, and it feels like the country still didn’t quite wake up from the decades of brutal repression – the people of Chile are nowhere near as natural, and much more guarded than in Bolivia, or even Peru.
Regardless, it’s a beautiful country with picturesque landscapes, good services, and delicious wine. It made for a great final part of our journey, and good transition back into civilisation. :-) Once again, I’m sharing excerpts from our favourite Alžbeta Lengyelová’s diary.
Panoramas de Bolivia
Last year I practiced shooting panoramas in Scotland, now it’s time to reap the rewards. Bolivia also presented plenty of beautiful sights, a three of which are already processed and ready. :-) On average, 210 megapixels of raw data were used to compose each of the panoramas.
Via Ferrata – Hans von Haid-Steig
Italian for “iron road”, ferratas are mountain climbing routes equipped with fixed metal cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. I wanted to try what kind of experience it would be for quite a while already, so when I got the offer from Jairo.sk, it was settled. They put me in a harness, helmet on my head, gave me a rope with a pair of carabiners, and off we went. Understandably, I was too busy hanging from the rock to photograph most of the climb up, but here’s a handful of shots hardly doing justice to what we saw.
Scotland, baby! :-)
…or how we discovered the land of whisky, castles, kilts, lochs, bagpipes, and haggis! Edinburgh, Pitlochry, St. Andrews, Isle of Skye, Eilean Donan, Fort William, Glenfinnan, Mallaig with its ferries and faeries, Quiraing landslip and its dramatic views, Uig, the gateway to the Outer isles, overall it was a spectacularly awesome trip. And it feels like we only brushed the surface – I’m definitely going to go back to Scotland sometime. Hopefully not too far from now. :-) Oh, and very special thanks to Peťa, who let us sleep at her place in Edinburgh. :-)
A Peek Into the Tiny World
With only a few millimeters thick depth of focus, constant movement in the environment, heavy equipment and lack of dedicated macro lens, close-up photography is quite probably the most difficult kind I’ve ever tried. Still, although there are incredible things to explore down there, the biggest challenge of this shoot was simple – rather than technical issues, it was my own ignorance of tiny things. Every photographer has an inner eye that helps him or her choose the scene and compose properly, a sort of sixth sense that tells them what is worthy of being photographed, how to do it and what to expect. Well… with macro, I felt mine simply didn’t work as I’m used to. This post is dedicated to my mom, a very passionate gardener. :-)
