Treetrunk

GXR A12, f3.5, 1 sec., ISO 400, RAW, 28mm

Nobody Around

GXR A12, f2.8, 1/17, ISO 800, RAW, 28mm

The Tree

GXR A12, f4.5, 1/16, ISO 400, JPG sepia, 28mm

Took this while out for a walk through Greenwich Park today, the mist gave the scene a nice mysterious feel and I decided to use sepia with a very low contrast to capture this.
This was my first real outing with the new 28mm A12 module for the GXR and so far I am very impressed with it and would say it's the best module for the GXR so far.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to and a fantastic New Year!

Hope you all enjoy your holidays with the people you love to and are where you want to be, not stranded somewhere at an airport.

Last Walk Through

GXR A12, f2.5, 1/400, ISO 3200, JPG b&w, 50mm

After 9 days in Morocco it's time to head back to the UK and while I will miss some aspects of Morocco it did not grow on me as much as other countries have done so I don't feel like I am missing much. Marrakech is certainly an interesting city but I did not really warm up to the people and found quite a lot not to be honest, the mopeds driving through the Medina were also driving me crazy after the first day where I found this quite interesting.
So to sum it up, it was a great holiday full of photo opportunities and I am happy I could see Marrakech and especially Essaouria but I am in no rush to come back.

Views from Essaouria

The trip to Essaouria definitely proved to be one of the best decisions I have made during this holiday and I could not stop taking pictures and have taken some of my favorite pictures of the holiday here.
On my 2nd day I decided to see more of the city with it's blue doors, windows and boats at the harbour but also go to see the 'Castle in the Sand' which according to legend/myth was the inspiration for Jimmy Hendrix to write his 'Castles Made of Sand' song that you can listen to here.

Overall, I can only recommend a trip to Essaouria and while I am not sure if I would go back to Marrakech, Essaouria is a place I would actually like to visit again at some point.

Arrived in Essaouria

GXR A12, f5.6, 1/500, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

Since 3h each way to Casablanca in the train were not enough I figured I take another 3h bus ride and go to Essaouria today. Essaouria has been recommended to me to visit by everyone I talked to since I arrived at the airport so I figured a visit would be in order and after just an hour or so walking around I could see why.
I can also only fully recommend a visit to Essaouria and should I come back to Morocco, I will raher stay in Essaouria than in Marrakech.

You can see the full Essaouria gallery here but tomorrow will be my 2nd day in Essaouria so you'll get more pictures then.

Casablanca or what's in a name?

After having wasted 3h on the tarmac at Casablanca airport only last week, I figured why not spend another 3h in the train to go to actually see Casablanca.
Most people know the movie Casablanca (if you don't, go and watch it!), so I wondered how the city is and if the city is anything more than the name for a movie?

Well, my answer came pretty quick once I arrived and saw hat it's pretty much all run down and the only thing worth seeing happens to be a ridiculously huge mosque that must have cost a fortune to build which would have been way beter spent on improving the city and it's infrastructure or trying to make sure people have water in thir homes instead of having to get it from outside. This just shows how stupid religions can be if they spend so much time, money and resources building a silly mosque when they can as well just pray everywhere else if they really have to instead of spending it for something that makes sense and really improves people's lives.
The only other attraction is Ricks bar, a quite pricey restaurant themed after the movie but without being quite as classy and set it a poor neighbourhood.

So if you ask me if you should go and see Casablanca all I can say is definitely but make sure it's the movie and not the actual city. Unless of course I missed all of the good parts of the town which is certainly possible in only a few hours I had there.

Here a small series of my impressions from Casablanca, more can be found in my Dropbox gallery here.

Walking Past

GXR A12, f5.6, 1/320, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

The first thing I noticed was the wall texture with the way the light and shadow looked. Since 50mm is not wide enough to stand opposie and get a good picture I had to include the street and there the people which in this case worked very well.

The Eye

GXR A12, f 2.5, 1/80, ISO 3200, JPG b&w, 50mm

Today was not such a good day photographically speaking, only got a few good pictures. It also looks like I have a theme going with my daily posts, one high ISO b&w picture followed by a color picture. It is not planned bu just happened that way.

More pictures as usual in my Dropbox gallery here.

Waiting by the Pool

GXR A12, f4.5, 1/640, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

After seeing almost all the other gardens, I decided to walk all across town to the Menara Gardens near the airport. While the gardens seem very popular with the locals they were not really worth the walk but I still got a few nice pictures there.

Old and Wrinkly

GXR A12, f2.5, 1/80, ISO 3200, JPG b&w, 50mm

I really like this picture although I did not focus on the hand as planned.

Walking around the Medina in Marrakech is on the one hand very exciting and full of picture opportunities but on the other hand gets very frustrating thanks to the mopeds racing in between people and I will go crazy if one more person tries to tell me the way to the square for a tip. But this is allpart of the experiance and fun of exploring this area.

Due to a technical problem with my Windows XP drivers I could not post or update my Dropbox gallery the last two days but this is fixed now and everything is up to date.

Flower Pot

GXR A12, f3.5, 1/110, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

Maybe not the kind of picture you expected to see from me after my first full day in Marrakech but I like it and the Jardins Majorelle, where this picture was taken, are one of the highlights here.

Another really cool park is the Cyber park, as the name might suggest it's a park with free internet terminals and free Wifi. This is something really cool and exactly what I always wanted before 3G was widely available although even now it's great to chill in the park while updating your blog or reading emails.

For more pictures and some street photography see my Dropbox link.

Kids Playing

GXR A12, f2.5, 1/30, ISO 3200, RAW, 50mm

After a 4h delay and a unplanned stopover at Casablanca airport, I have managed to arrive in Marrakech.
The first impression is like all of these countries not very good. The city is dirty, pollued and the streets are full with people on mopeds and bikes rushing through the narrow alleways of the Medina. At the same time there are a lot of photo opportunities to have and it all makes for a great experience.

I did not take that many pictures since I mostly tried not to get lost while wandering around the maze that is the old part of town. You can see my daily updating Dropbox gallery here.

Some Lights

iPhone 4, f2.4, JPG

This picture is not great but gives a hint of my next holiday destination this Wednesday so you will see more pictures from there but this time better quality pictures.

Some more fun with Drops

GXR A12, f2.8, 1/153, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

Waiting

GF1, f1.7, 1/160, ISO 800, JPG, 70mm (Fujinan f1.7 35mm c-mount)

Purple Snow

GRD III, f4.5, 1/32, ISO 200, RAW

Just some fun with flash and custom WB in the snow, I like the result.

North Pole

GRD III, f3.5, 1/97, ISO 64, RAW

With the recent weather in London you might be tempted to think you arrived at the Norh Pole, just the transport system at the North Pole is probably way better. On the other hand having to walk through the snow does have advantages especially if you see a phto opportunity like this.

London Planetarium

GRD III, f1.9, 1/42, ISO 64, JPG dynamic b&w