The Road

GR, f6.3, 1/125, ISO 400, RAW

Another photo in my attempt to change up the perspective of my motorbike photos.

Looking out the Train Window

GR, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 6400, RAW

To celebrate World Photography Day 2016, I thought I feature a photo on my blog I didn't post before and will tell something about it.

I took this photo at the beginning of my Around the World trip while on the train from Cologne to Copenhagen.

This photo happened mostly by coincidence and quite a bit of luck and almost no preparation. Not being a big portrait photographer, I like to take more candid portraits instead of posed portraits.

Still, while in the overnight train to Copenhagen and chatting with the other people in my compartment about my travel plans and photography one of the girls told me that she always wanted a photo sitting in front of an open train window.

Since we were in a train and had a window we could open right next to us I was happy to take said photo for her.

I did warn her that it would probably make more sense to wait till the morning given it was dark outside and there might not be much in terms of a background.

She was happy to try it and for her it was more about the wind in her hair and capturing this instead of any views outside.

The Ricoh GR with a fixed 28mm f2.8 lens is not an ideal portrait camera but it had to do for this photo. I set it up to TAv mode at f2.8 and after some test photos decided on 1/60 since it seemed to cope well with the train movement and dim light inside the carriage, while keeping the ISO low enough.

The train was passing by some lit up houses, some railroad crossings but it was going too fast to be able to predict when the next lit up place would pass by the window.

To make sure the wind was coming towards her, I had to face the opposite way of the driving direction, not letting me even anticipate anything lit up passing by the window.

But as luck had it, on the 2nd try we passed by this railroad crossing and without seeing or anticipating it, I took the photo just at the right time. She was very happy with it and try as we might, we didn't get any other photo as good as this.

So I will celebrate this World Photography Day with the knowledge that photography is sometimes all about the luck of being in the right place at the right time and pressing the shutter button to capture a moment that will not happen again like that.

The Lost Posts - Part 2: London to Cologne

Another set of photos that I never published despite preparing them to post.

Being back in London was strange and I didn't quite feel like I had much reason to be there at this time.

There was nothing to be there for so I decided to skip town for a while and go to Germany, spend some time with the family.

Now, there's nothing worse than having to take a bus to get anywhere (ok, maybe having to take the Tube) but as a last minute decision it was cheap and would get me there the next morning.

Being on the road again was however a great feeling.

Day 376 - The End of the Road

When the bus arrived in London it was a very strange feeling, I didn't know if I should be happy to be back and to have finished the trip or sad because it had to come to an end and there were more places I could have visited or spend more time in certain places.

 

But this was quite short lived and right after getting off the bus it kind of felt more like any other place I visited and I got into my usual routine to find a decent coffee shop and grab a coffee before doing anything else.

After being away from London for the year, it felt different. It didn't really feel like I arrived back home but just at another stop on my journey.

Maybe this is the reason why I took me so long to finish posting on my blog, because in a way I knew that as soon as I post this it will mean my journey will be officially over (for now).

Thanks for following my blog and I hope you enjoyed the photos and reports from my travels!


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Day 375 - More People Who Make Glasgow

The last day of my journey around the world. Tonight, I will take the bus to London where I will arrive tomorrow morning.

Day 374 - People Make Glasgow

After having a nice breakfast in Edinburgh, I took the train to Glasgow to spend another two days there.

Day 373 - More from Edinburgh

It was another nice and sunny day in Edinburgh but I decided to take it a bit easy and enjoy the city more than just take photos.

Day 372 - A Sunny Day in Edinburgh

It was a great start to my stay in Edinburgh, it was sunny and warm so very pleasant to walk around and be outside.

Day 371 - 10 Hours in Bergen

After a nice flight with Norwegian Airlines, I arrived in Bergen early in the morning.

The first thing you will notice when approaching Bergen is the landscape which looks great. Since I had 10 hours to spare till my onward flight to Edinburgh, I took the bus into town.

Day 370 - Leaving New York

My last day in New York and one of the last days of my trip began with a walk around Brooklyn.

Day 369 - NYC Downtown Architecture

After posting a lot of people photos the past days I thought a small change would be good for today's post.

Day 368 - Just NY People

One of my favorite places in Manhattan is the High Line, a great park and great use of the old elevated rail tracks, more cities should do this and use the old industrial remnants like this.

Day 367 - Different Sides of New York

You never know what you come across when you walk around in New York, even snow in August. In order to come across something new, I decided to go to Brighton Beach and Coney Island today.

Day 366 - Hello New York!

After doing some more photography and enjoying a nice brunch in Boston, it was time to hop on the bus and head to New York.

Day 365 - More from Boston

Another nice and sunny day in Boston although it being Sunday there seemed to be less people around, especially around the downtown area.

Day 364 - Boston

It was a nice day in Boston and after having coffee and finding a place I could afford to stay, I went for a walk.

Day 363 - A Day in DC

After taking the train in the morning, I arrived in Washington DC where I could spend the day. I booked the overnight train to Boston since it allowed me to save on a night in a hotel and would also get me there earlier.

Day 362 - People in Philly

After sorting my train ticket for Boston, I headed to Old City Coffee to meet well known local street photographer Michael Penn for coffee at his local hangout.

Day 361 - The Way to Philly

I woke up to a foggy landscape but it made for some interesting views. The train was as suspected still running late but managed to make up a bit of time and thanks to the more developed network here it was only 1h late now instead of 2h.

Day 359 - People in New Orleans

I spent the whole day walking around Downtown, Canal Street and the French Quarter and taking photos, it was great fun and I got a lot of photos.