The Canals of Bruges #5
Photo of the Day
Number five in my series of images of the canals of Bruges, Belgium.
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The Canals of Bruges #4
Photo of the Day
Number four in my series of images of the canals of Bruges, Belgium.
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The Canals of Bruges #3
Photo of the Day
Number three in my series of images of the canals of Bruges, Belgium. This one features the town hall rising in the background.
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What It’s Like to Work for National Geographic
If you’ve ever had any notion of making a career out of travel photography, at some point, you’ve probably wistfully stared into the distance and fantasized about working for National Geographic. That fantasy might have carried with it notions of endless travel to exotic locations full of interesting locals who are all too willing to have you point you camera in their direction. That was my naive fantasy anyway. I couldn’t have been the only one, can I? Anyone?
Celebrated NG photographer, John Stanmeyer, is here to dispel any illusions you might have about the prestigious publication. In his new blog series, he discusses what’s involved in producing a National Geographic article from start to finish from the perspective of a photographer. In this, the first of the series, he writes about the genesis of stories and how those ideas start to take shape via extensive research and planning.
It’s a good window into the process used by some of the world’s best photojournalists and I’ll be sure to keep up with the rest of the series.
Northern Lights Time Lapse
A bit of time-lapse eye candy from Agust Ingvarsson:
AURORA ISLANDICA – a Northern Lights Timelapse from Agust Ingvarsson on Vimeo.
The Canals of Bruges #2
Photo of the Day
Number two in my series of images of the canals of Bruges, Belgium.
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The Canals of Bruges #1
Photo of the Day
Starting today and going on for a dozen or so posts, I’ll be showing off some of my photos from a recent trip to Bruges, Belgium. Frequently dubbed the ‘Venice of the North,’ I couldn’t help but capture a few shots of the canals that criss cross the city. This series focuses on those waterways. Enjoy.
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Rob Hornstra in Sochi, Russia
Rob Hornstra is a dutch photographer whose current project is to document the city of Sochi, Russia before the Winter Olympics of 2014. His method is one of slow journalism that involves visiting and re-visiting areas over the course of years instead of days, weeks or months.
There’s some good behind the scenes time spent on him working on location and getting the locals comfortable in front of the camera as well as insight into how he has financed his projects and brought them to fruition in this age of self-publishing.
And I get a special bonus when watching this one. At about 14:30 of this video, Hornstra is shooting a lounge singer whose last name is not too far off from mine: Sasha Savchuk. I’m told that Sawchuk derives from Savchuk, so, Sasha and I are probably very distantly related. Very.
Via Gill Moore’s twitter.
Beneath Meknes’ Koubbat as-Sufara
Photo of the Day
Koubbat as-Sufara is a hall that was once used for the reception of foreign ambassadors, but the creepy crypt below is an even better sight. Through it was only used for food storage, it has the atmosphere of somewhere more likely to be haunted than a simple granary.
There were very few visitors present during my time there, so it was relatively easy for me to run around popping off flash bursts to light this lengthy hall.
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Bodmin Moor’s Cheesewring
Photo of the Day
The Cheesewring is a rock formation sitting atop the barren hill of Stowes Hill in Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. According to good-old Wikipedia, it’s named after a cheesewring, “a press-like device that was used to make cheese.”
Almost unbelievably, this is a natural formation. No ancient astronauts came down to pile these giant stones onto one another – this is all the result of weathering. The hill has a few other strange formations like this one and there’s a stone circle not too far away as well.
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Chesterton Windmill
Photo of the Day
Here’s another one of my experiments in using a single flash to light a scene in dozens of separate photos later combined. This one is of the Chesterton Windmill which stands by itself in a field not too far from Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Stanage Edge Millstones
Photo of the Day
These abandoned millstones sit at the base of Stanage Edge in Derbyshire near the village of Hathersage. Stanage Edge makes for a good walk with nice views of moors on one side and hills on the other, but these millstones are what captivated me.
Millstone manufacturing was a burgeoning industry in the Peak District in the 19th century and these stones are most likely a leftover from one of the factories in the area, long since shut down.
For me, there was something wonderfully mysterious about them. There was no evidence of any other structure around them – just the stones – so you naturally ask the question of how they got there.
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Hong Kong Island Skyline Panorama
Photo of the Day
Here’s one of the many place in Asia I hope to revisit someday. This shot of the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island is a few years old, so, with how quickly things change there, I imagine the view is a little bit different today. I’ll have to go back and compare…
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Ely Cathedral Window
Photo of the Day
This west-facing window on the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral caught the light of the descending sun in an extraordinary way. The whole window seemed to be set ablaze for a few moments as the sun neared the horizon. I’ve tried to capture just how bright the light looked, but I’m not sure a photograph can show just how brilliant it was.
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Calgary Skyline Panorama
Photo of the Day
Here’s another HDR panorama, this time from my hometown of Calgary. On a recent visit, I made a point of getting a few shots of the skyline. Since moving to Manchester, I hadn’t shot Calgary’s skyline and my catalogue of images was in need of a bit of updating. That Encana building changes the view in a big way.
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Evening in Diocletian’s Palace
Photo of the Day
A couple of men enjoy a warm September evening in the narrow alleys of Diocletian’s Palace in Split Croatia.
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Motsuji Gardens Panorama
Photo of the Day
This is one of the few panoramic images I shot while living in Japan. It’s the gardens surrounding the Motsuji Temple in Hiraizumi, a historic town just north of Ichinoseki which was my home while in Japan.
A bike ride to Hiraizumi made for a great day out with places like Motsuji and the nearby Chusonji as destinations. I miss Motsuji’s tranquil gardens surrounding the lake and I wish I could just hop on a bike and jaunt over there for an afternoon again.
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Latin Bridge in Sarajevo
Photo of the Day
The infamous Latin Bridge in Sarajevo was the scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the event that served as a catalyst for World War I.
That violent history isn’t evident on the bridge anymore. It’s only the buildings around it that still have scars from more recent conflicts, but even those are slowly being wiped away in preparation for a brighter future for Bosnia.
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Castle Drogo Panorama
Photo of the Day
On travels in the south of England, Drogo Castle’s fortified exterior and fascinating interior (no photos allowed, unfortunately) made for an enticing stop.
This image is of the front entrance to the castle. It was a bit of a tricky shot to put together as it’s a panoramic HDR shot. I shot five bracketed exposures for each segment of the panorama, put together the HDR images then stitched the panorama. It’s all rather time consuming, but the results can be worthwhile.
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Trinity Lane in Cambridge
Photo of the Day
On a recent trip to Cambridge, the late-afternoon light was providing a brilliant backlight to the pedestrians passing through Trinity Lane. It would have been a nice enough shot without anyone in the scene, but I was sure that if I could wait for the right person to pass, the image would have a lot more interest to it.
Fortunately for me, before the light shifted and faded, the right person did indeed come along and the photo below is the result.
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Deserted Mancunian Way
Photo of the Day
Manchester’s city centre is surrounded by the Mancunian Way, a sometimes-raised motorway that consistently hums with a steady flow of traffic. It’s rare to find an hour of the day when there isn’t at least an automotive trickle passing along the road.
The photo below might then make you wonder what I was thinking by wandering out into the middle of one of the city’s busiest streets. Well, it wasn’t busy that morning – once or twice a year, road crews block off all traffic and perform maintenance. On just such a morning, I was able to wander along the now-clear street to do a bit of cityscape photography.
Despite knowing that I was essentially alone on the strip of road, my body remained tensed at being in a place it normally shouldn’t be. I feel like this shot was worth a bit of unease…
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Ta Prohm Panorama
Photo of the Day
Why oh why didn’t I take more panoramic shots when I was in Asia? I had not yet developed a fondness for stitching together images and, when looking at this image, I kick myself for that because I love how this turned out.
This is one of the few panoramic shots I took during my travels in the far east and it is now motivation for me to plan a trip in that direction again.
This is Ta Prohm, a temple near Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The trees that almost seem to melt down through the ruins give it an amazing Indiana Jones atmosphere that’s only topped by the more isolated Beng Mealea.
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Stonehenge Panorama
Photo of the Day
A fiery sunset creates a silhouette of Stonehenge.
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St. Michael’s Mount Sunset Panorama
Photo of the Day
The fairy tale island of St. Michael’s Mount is awash with colour on a gorgeous evening in Cornwall.
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Darby Sawchuk is a Canadian-born photographer who currently resides in Manchester, England. He has travelled to over 40 countries and is always adding more to the list. He creates stock for multiple agencies and is available for assignments.
+44 0790 992 8932
