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Focus... Kakheti, Georgia

Happy Birthday Ang! I hope someone spends a few hundred billion $ on you today, have a blast, wish I could be there...

Notice, in the last shot, how the out of focus highlights echo the whole scene over and over?

More focus weirdness, Kakheti, Georgia

Moving water, grass, and the decision to see them differently. Oh, and keep that aperture wide open for minimum depth of field and so the out-of-focus highlights will be circular...

Welcome to the 2 newest blog visitor countries: the Palestinian Territory and Syria!

Indonesia, December 1993

More from the beautiful archipelago. Top to bottom:

- Visiting from Lombok to an even smaller island
- Plant closeup
- People
- Bamboo

Indonesia, December 1993

More from this beautiful place, chiefly southwest Java and Lombok Islands. The former is the size of Ireland but contains roughly 100 million people. Somehow, despite this, it also has room for nature to flourish.
(Actually, I once calculated what the population of St. Petersburg, Russia would be if its average density everywhere was that of one of its crowded rush-hour buses. Answer: approximately 2 BILLION. So I suppose that there must be room on Java for a mere 100 million people.)

Ushguli, August 2007

Bottom: rain-wet leaf...

Top 2: On this trip I was in Svaneti for Maryamoba, feast of the Virgin Mary, for the first time that I'm aware of. Indeed, how could I forget such an event? Everyone brought lots of food to the village's graves (so THAT's how they use those tables permanently set up in the fenced enclosures). We went around remembering the dead, eating little but toasting a bit; then packed it all up and returned home. These two shots are of my host Dato's father's grave complex.
The white braids around the table and the piglet's snout are made from fresh bread dough.

Ushguli, August 2007

More leaves and rain, below.

Above, Shkhara at that particular point where the stream crossing the road makes a nice reflecting puddle. A favourite angle, in other words.

Welcome first viewers from Latvia and Finland this week!

Ushguli, August 2007

The same as yesterday, only different.

Ushguli, August 2007

Bottom 2: in the absence of good weather, concentrate on the details - in this case, raindrops on rose leaves. Minimal focus (depth of field) to allow you to notice what I think is important.

Top: Lamaria Church and Mt Shkhara at the top of Ushguli again. Every day new weather and a new mood, different lighting making a unique scene.

Svaneti, August 2007

Return from Ushguli to Tbilisi, and about a week later off again. This time with two American women, longstanding friends of mine, one of whom drove her Niva all the way from Baku to Ushguli - the first woman in history to do so...?

Top, a waterfall on the way to Etseri. Bottom, an apple in Etseri after the rain. (There's always something to photograph.)

In celebration of spring, a few more flora photographs - mostly from western Canada, 1 (above) from southern California, USA. Tomorrow - more Venice.

Wormwood, Etseri, February 2004

Even worms, it seems, have their creative days. Either that, or this is a message warning about the end of the world, which unfortunately we will not decipher in time to save ourselves.

Closeups, Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada, June-July 2006

Flowers (G&L, more of yours) and a sweetpea tendril (TV).

Grapevine tendril, Lentekhi, August 2004

A jewel suspended from a spring, catching and holding in miniature the world around it.

Wood closeups, Etseri, June 2003

The upper is newly axe-cut wood for the fireplace; the lower, the inside of worm-eaten wood.

Leaf, Spokane, WA, USA, November 2005

I needed sunlight coming through part of this leaf to contrast with the rest of its front-lit structure.

Dew on grass, Spokane, WA, USA, November 2005


The macro world again, for those who look inwards.

Horse's eye, Spokane, WA, USA, November 2005

Another example of a photograph which started off as a vision - reflect a landscape in a horse's eye. My Svan cap and camera are in there too, almost exactly in the eye's centre. I took quite a few shots as one cannot tell a horse to stand perfectly still and not blink! This is the last frame.

Dew on grass, Spokane, WA, USA, November 2005

The macro world again, for those who look inwards.

And now back to the West for a bit.

Ice, Spokane, WA, USA, November 2005

Just ice in a bucket, closeup.