travel

Croatia (Part 3: Split)

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Split.  Split is very cool.  The main attraction of Split is Diocletian’s Palace, the retirement home of Roman emperor.  Mountains on one side, Adriatic Ocean on the other, palm trees aplenty!  We stayed at a pansion whose owner may or may not have been some sort of Croatian gangster named Ivan.

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Split was pretty laid back and super interesting.  The only part that I found particularly cheesy was a ‘reenactment’ of some sort of proclamation by the Emperor himself (some schmuck in a toga).  You better believe that those bedazzled, be-visored cruise ship tourists got their iPads out for that one.  One of the many things I liked about Split was that you were never too far from the sea.

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The Mediterranean climate proved for some lovely, bright sunny photos, and the ancient architecture a perfect model.

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It’s amazing to me to be able to photograph real, authentic, ancient bits of history and architecture, like this pillar, an original feature made from red marble native to the region.

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I like to try and imagine what some of the areas that are in disrepair would have looked like in its glory days, like the above tower used to have a domed roof, according to historians.

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On a more personal note, I got spend my 31st birthday within these walls.  I got some delicious pizza, Croatian cream cake and liquor, thanks to the generosity of our host Ivan.  Definitely one of the cooler birthdays I’ve had.

Croatia (Part 2: Korcula)

 

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Korcula, Croatia

The second part of our Croatian adventure was to the island of Korcula.  Korcula is a sleepy, beach-y island, much quieter and humbler than its glitzy neighbour Hvar.  We wanted to go to one of the Dalmatian islands and seeing as Ma, Pa and I are all pretty introverted, we chose the quieter island.

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The island ended up being a vacation within our vacation.  We’d met back up with Pa on our last day in Dubrovnik and decided to take it easy on this tranquil rock.  As you can see, the waters are just as beautiful and inviting as they are outside of Dubrovnik.  IMG_8031

The climate was Mediterranean – warm, some palm trees, rocky and the architecture Venetian – lots of red tiled roofs.  Korcula was fun to photograph because of not only its stunning natural beauty, but because of the whole laid back feel there.   The locals love to talk about their maybe native son Marco Polo and you can visit his perhaps birthplace.  It wasn’t too crowded so you weren’t rubbing elbows with everyone like we were in Dubrovnik and not cursing every clueless selfie sticky-carrying doofus who ambled into your shot.

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Like Dubrovnik there were plenty of laneways and staircases, just without the people, so you could get mysterious shots like this one.  I often think back to Croatia and if I had to choose only one part to go back to and spend more time, it would be Korcula.  Maybe.

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Croatia (Part 1: Dubrovnik)

Croatia is becoming a pretty popular travel destination, and for good reason.  One of its most recognizable cities is the walled fortress called Dubrovnik.  Ma, Pa and I travelled there in September 2014 as part of our month-long sojourn to the Balkans.  The first day and a half that we were there Pa was holed up in the Klinika Ortopedia in Sarajevo having 13 screws put into his elbow while Ma and I explored the city.

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Dubrovnik was really fun to explore.  There are all sorts of laneways, staircases, doorways, the kind of adventure that you crave when you’re a kid.  It’s also a photographers dream (when you’re not overrun by cruise ship tourists).  Every lane is different, a plethora of different colours, shops, lights, people.

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The walled part of the city is a peninsula that juts out into the blue-green Adriatic Sea.  I felt like I could not get enough photos of the water.  Don’t get me wrong, I love B.C. but the waters of the Adriatic were like nothing I had ever seen.  They were so clear and enticing.  We were drawn to the outer parts of walls, not just because of the bountiful gelato shops, but because the sea was there.

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The sea is a fantastic combination of being calm and playful.  A decent amount of wind makes it perfect for sailing and the smooth bits make it ideal for sea kayaking.  I like the way the water hits the rocks, like an aquatic firework.

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Croatia mostly identifies itself as catholic, but inside Dubrovnik’s walls are several different churches of different christian denominations including eastern orthodox and, as seen in this wedding here, jesuit.  Although I don’t identify as being “religious” or theist or deist of any kind, I do love photographing churches and I enjoy the grandiosity of this scene.

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When we were exploring we came across this: an open gate framing a green palm frond and the wall with painted blue letters “Buza ->”.  I like the mystery behind what’s on the other side of this.  A balcony?  A walkway?  Maybe nothing.

What’s on the other side of this doorway is a steep staircase leading down to a bar perched precariously on the westernmost tip of the wall where you could enjoy an overpriced beverage in a plastic cup.  Worth it.

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Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Like I’ve previously mentioned, I love the sea.  I was born and raised on the west coast of Canada, so going to the beach has been a staple activity of mine since I was a kid.  Also, Ma is a sailor, and both of her parents were sailors so I feel like some of that love is in my bones.  That’s probably why I have so many shots of the ocean and why I love photographing it so much.  It’s very colourful, temperamental and unpredictable.  Profoundly dramatic.

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This is the Pacific from when Ma and I went to Ucluelet last year.  We were both totally gobsmacked at the awesome power of the wild Pacific, the energy of the waves on the rocks, the sea spray, the colour of the sky reflected on the water.  Also technically speaking, this was the point in the photography journey where I stopped relying on Canon’s fantastic “Creative Auto” setting and started shooting on Manuel so that I could learn “on the job” as it were about adjusting ISO and aperture.

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Here is the Adriatic Sea from Zadar, Croatia’s Marine Organ.  I love the way the water would climb up onto the concrete steps, splatter and retreat, different every time.  No two waves are the same.  The blazing red sun had just set leaving this pastel palette over the landscape.  I laid flat on my belly to try and get as far down as I good, and I’m happy with how those other photographers are reflected in the puddle.

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I love that the ocean also has reflecting power, sometimes glass, sometimes a funhouse mirror.  I love that the Lions Gate Bridge’s string of lights is reflected in the harbour, and although slightly distorted, still beautiful.  I feel like the Pacific Ocean here is mysterious, inky and secretive, not letting us know what is going on in its depths.

 

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

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The Story: Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia seems to be photographed by everyone all the time these days, and there’s a good reason for it – it’s absolutely breathtaking.  It’s 16 terraced lakes connected by a series of waterfalls.  Part of the reason the water is so clear is because there is no mud – the chemical makeup of the area turns all the mud/dirt in the water into limestone, making so the water cannot be muddied.  This was my first view of the lakes, and I couldn’t get enough.  I seriously took about 200 photos of the lakes and waterfalls.

Why I Love It: This is not the typical Plitvice Lakes shot, but I feel like it’s still incredible.  My favourite part though is the colours – red, orange, yellow, green and blue feature in this.   And I really want to dive into the pool at the bottom.

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The Story: A lot of natural beauty can be found in the Howe Sound area.  One day my girlfriend Brit took me and her boyfriend (and my good friend) Kurt on a tour of her old stompin’ grounds in Squamish.  She took us to the estuary, downtown Squamish and then to Shannon Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in British Columbia.  There is a pretty little hike up to the falls and along the way is more little streams and waterfalls.

Why I Love It: This isn’t the main part of Shannon falls, but I thought this little waterfall was really pretty.  I love that you can tell how clean and clear the water is, how smooth the rocks look, just unspoiled nature.

Stormy Weather

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The Story: This was our final day on Korcula, the sleepy, wallflower island compared to its ritzy, bustling larger island neighbour Hvar in the Dalmatian archipelago.  Korcula is also thought to be the maybe birthplace of possibly real person Marco Polo.  The weather had been fantastic, sunny and warm without being hot.  In this photo however, a storm was a-brewin’.  The wind picked up in the evening, then the pizzicato of rain drops, then my midnight it was a full on rager – torrential rain, high winds, thunder and lightning.  We woke up to catch our 0600hrs ferry and there was not a cloud in the starry sky.

Why I Love It: I love the different shades of blue and grey in this one.  I also love that sense of impending doom with how dark the clouds are.  As a pluviophile, the thought of incoming rain warms the cockles of my chilly heart.

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The Story: November of last year Ma and I had decided to go to Vancouver Island for some storm watching, so we chose to stay in Ucluelet, a darling little one-street hamlet placed on the tip of a peninsula on the south-west part of the Island.  Our full day there we decided to hike the Wild Pacific Trail, a walk that takes you along the west side of the coast line and passes a historic lighthouse.  I was determined to get some gloomy, rainy shots of the coast and Pacific Ocean and Mother Nature brought her A-game.  Both wind and rain were strong, persistent and pervasive, soaking both Ma and I down to the skin through our water resistant gear.  Although the weather could have been considered miserable, Ma and I were in our element in the rain, by the ocean.

Why I love It: As previously mentioned, I love the rain so looking at this photo brings me great comfort.  I love how unsettled the sea looks with the spray on the rocks.  I also really like that I shot this in colour, though it looks washed out and I feel like the monochromatic feel of the shot makes it feel like the ocean and the sky are bottomless/limitless, they go on forever but you cannot tell what is lurking in the depths/past the horizon.

Might As Well Jump

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The Story: This is the famed Stari Most, the Old Bridge of Mostar, the simple, historic piece of architecture that sparked my interest in the city of Mostar, the country of Bosnia and the whole Balkan area.  The story behind the bridge itself both broke my heart and warmed it.  The people of Mostar see the bridge as more than just a structure, they consider it an old friend and when it was bombed into the river in November of 1993 the water ran red (it was made from local pinkish stone called tenelija) and the people cried, ‘Our old friend is bleeding!’.  The bridge was reconstructed in 2004 using some of the original materials fished out of the river and was opened with the releasing of doves to symbolize peace not only in Mostar, but for the world.

One of the more popular spectacles is watching locals dive off the bridge.  They will tease and posture until they’ve raised enough money, and after what seems like a hopeless debacle, they jump.

Why I Love It: My favourite part of this the action of the diver’s body – arms open and outstretched and heels kicked up so there is a clear space between the jumper and the bridge.

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The Story: See above

Why I Love It: this is the quintessential bridge shot that everyone gets, but I still love mine and think it’s unique.  I love the blue sky against the emerald river, and I love how powerful and stoic the bridge looks, a truly captivating piece of architecture.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

 

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The Story: I took this photo in Mostar, Bosnia which is located in the southern bit of the country.  Ma and I bussed in from Sarajevo, leaving Pops behind in the hospital as he had bailed on the cobblestones and shattered his elbow, requiring 2 surgeries.  I was totally gutted that my dad wasn’t there with us because Mostar and its iconic bridge was the place I was most excited to see on our trip that year.  Ma and I tried to make the best of it – shuffled over the bridge a few times, looked at some local artwork, shopped the open air markets, eventually turning into a restaurant recommended by our B&B proprietor, Susanna.  After our dinner overlooking the bridge and Neretva River we walked back to our B&B when I spotted this little Bosnian girl all by herself minding her own business in a sea of cobblestones.  I took several snaps of her deciding this was my favourite.

Why I Love It: When I took this photo I was so, so sad, but this girl made me feel a little better.  I love that you can tell she’s a cute girl even though you can’t see her face, but you can see the outline of it.  I love that the black and white gives it a bit of a timeless feel and that she is a single living entity seated amongst a myriad of stones.

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The Story: Still just me and Ma in Dubrovnik, Croatia, we headed into the old walled city (which some of you will recognize from that show that has dragons and everyone dies) in the early morning so we could spend most of the day exploring.  We had breakfast in an outdoor cafe on the main promenade (or Stradun), drank copious amounts of delicious coffee and watched the people go by before the hoards of cruise ship tourists overtook the city.  In the middle of breakfast I spotted this little girl in the main square feeding the pigeons, told my mom to watch my stuff so that I could grab a shot before this little muse took off or noticed me.

Why I Love It: Again, the mystery behind it.  Who is she?  Where is she from?  In such a touristy place, she could be from just about anywhere.  I love her playful, youthful dress and I love that you can still see the beautiful architecture of the city behind her.  I’m glad I took as low an angle as I could because I like that the bottom quarter of the photo is just stone floor.

 

War and Peace

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The Story: So my dad is a big time history buff including everything from Genghis Khan to Alexander the Great, the American Civil War to Napoleon and so on.  When we decided we were going to Sarajevo, we all decided that it was a priority that we visit the Latin Bridge: the historical span on which Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in 1914 by Serbian anarchist Gavrilo Princip, sparking a chain of events that led to the start of World War 1.  We got to the bridge in mid afternoon and the weather had held up.  I was surprised at how shallow the Milijacka River was and how pretty the bridge itself is.  There used to be a plaque with Princip’s footsteps embedded on one side of the bridge, but it was removed at some point when the Siege of Sarajevo start in 1992.

Why I Love It: I can’t believe this was once a scene of great chaos not once (WWI) but twice (Siege of Sarajevo), because this photo shows this scene to be not only peaceful, but beautiful!  I love the way the 16th century bridge takes the centre stage among the Viennese Hapsburg-Style buildings, and shows how truly stunning the historic city actually is (you should all visit.).

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The Story: We paid a cab driver $20 to take us up Trebevic Mountain and hang out for a half an hour so that I could get some shots of the long abandoned, overgrown and graffiti-riddled bobsled and luge track from the 1984 Winter Olympics, that Sarajevo hosted.  There was no one else up there so we had the entire length to ourselves.  It was covered in moss and graffiti top to bottom and was eerily quiet – difficult imagine the roar of the crowds 30 years previous.  During the Siege of Sarajevo Serb snipers would bore holes in the track for their rifles and then abandoned after the war until people (like me) started discovering how cool and interesting the whole structure is.  Like modern art.

Why I Love It:  I love the colours in this one.  I love how vibrant the moss is in the foreground and the red and blue graffiti is in the background.  It was a sunny day but the forest was dense enough to block out the direct sun.  I like the story this one tells with the moss, fungus and graffiti overtaking the cement structure.  It’s like a complete transformation.

These Are a Few of My Favourite Things…

This week for my inaugural posts on this adventure I would like to share with you all a few of my favourite photos to this point (and the stories behind them).  You’ll notice on here most of my photos are of landscape and architecture.  I’m not so great/experienced at taking shots of people/animals quite yet, but I’m excited to learn!

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The Story:  After two flights and a 9 hour train ride from Zagreb, Croatia, we had taken a cab from the train station to our hotel in the middle of the city.  It was dark out but still mild outside (it was early September) and the streets were still pretty lively.  The city had a surprising layer of graffiti which is what I assume comes from the growing pains from a city divided by war just 20 years previous.  Just outside of our hotel, which was set back into a courtyard, was a giant Tom Waits poster, and when I turned around from admiring the poster I saw this woman hanging out the window.  I set my camera to ‘black and white’ and capture my first Bosnian on digital film.

Why I Love It: I love the mystery behind this one.  Who is she?  Who or what is she waiting for?  Maybe she’s just hanging out.  Maybe we would be friends and we could talk about music and art and stuff.  Also, I don’t often shoot in black and white because I like colour so much, but I feel like this photo wouldn’t have the same effect in colour.

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The Story:  The above photo was taken on “Coppersmith Street” in Sarajevo, Bosnia.  It was about 1000hrs and the sun was coming up from behind the mountains that envelop the valley in which Sarajevo sits.  My mom and dad and I had finished our breakfast and our first foray into Bosnian coffee and wandered into the Byzantine quarter of the city.  Sarajevo is known for their copper wears and I was excited to buy a copper coffee set (which I did).  The street featured long rows of this kind of set up selling items like coffee sets, tea sets, jewellery, repurposed shell casings and bullets.  The streets were made of slick cobble stones and low wooden roofs.  We met a coppersmith who was taught the trade by his father and his grandfather and gave us a demonstration of how he pounds the sheets of copper into shape and hammers designs into the products.

Why I Love It:  One of my friends told me that when they look at this photo, they can hear the street, and I agree.  I can hear the ‘clink clink clink’ of the hammers and smell the cevapi and coffee in the air and it brings me back to my first day in Bosnia.  The lighting worked very well and I like the depth of the photo.