Egypt
Great museums. Not many tourists around. Had a guide in Giza who kept wanting to take photos of me in stupid poses – its pretty sad that thats what they think a tourist wants to do – as opposed to excellent guide in Luxor who knew his history and made it worthwhile.
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Algeria
Fantastic visit. Shame they charge for visas – it makes Morocco and Tunisia more attractive for short notice travelers. There is plenty to see here – lots of UNESCO sites and more
The Monument to the Martyrs of Independence looms over Algiers so is in a lot of pics. Within the city is the UNESCO site of the Casbah.
Just west is Tipasa, a Roman city lost to the Vandals in the 400s and taken back in the 500s by the Byzantines. Lost late 600s to the Arabs.
The French really thought they were staying forever so the roads and architecture in the city is magnificnet. There were 1 million French colonists at the peak.
Great to meet up with global explorer Martin House and be guided by a friend of a friend who is a now a friend, Mohamed Anis Amirouche
To learn about the modern history of Algeria I recommend youtube, search documentary Algeria by Algeria it covers off the Presidents since independence.
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Yemen
These are pics from Feb 2013 which I never got around to editing.
Magnificent place to visit. Apropos to post these now so when you read about Old Sana’a being bombed, constant gun battles, and major humanitarian issues you can see what the people there are really like.
When I visited Al Qada already controled 1/3 of the country and tourists were being snatched at the markets.
The magical island of Socotra was everything expected. Sitting between Yemen and Somalia it has one of the best eco systems in the world – 700 unique species on an island that can be driven across in 3 hours.
Clear water, tame fish, mountains to climb, caves to explore (walk in several km) live on a sand dune, fish off the beach.
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Mannequins of Iran
This fascination started in Shiraz last week. The well worn mannequins were practically all different and had bizarre features. Sadly I was only able to snap a few and in Tehran the modern mannequins had taken over. I will book another trip to Shiraz for a few nights to shoot more and make this a decent size collection. All shot on Sony RX1 then I played
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Israel and West Bank, Jerusalem
Fascinating trip to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Highly recommend day tour with Abraham Tours – ‘Best of the West Bank’ – I made it to the hotel at 4am and tour started at 8am. It got around the highlights in a long day and the guide, Tamer Halaseh was fantastic.
It was quite an experience to visit the places and think yes I know that story from the Bible and there is the mountain, or the river and whatnot.
Jerusalem tour also great – another guide who knew their history – I actually learned something – Muslims prayed towards the Temple mount from 622 to 624 before changing to the Ka’bah in Mecca.
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Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan – Note – many of these are stock images from Touchable Earth – However I want to share them as the clothes are great as are the many smiles of the wonderfully friendly people I met (and whose wedding I crashed)
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Vatican (Fisheye)
First time trying out a fisheye lens (mid 2012) I think on a Nex 7.
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Greece
Day trip to Athens to see the magnificent Acropolis. I am not an architectural photographer but picked out a few shots. Also nice to run into Marina Pitsinou who I met 14 years ago in Holland.
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