Category: photography
Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands (pic de jour)
When I come across the topic of ‘hands’, like in this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, my mind is immediately drawn to this.
This was taken nearly six (!) years ago in a garden near the Göteborg Museum of Art in Sweden. It’s a close-up of this shot and only these two low res images remain. The original, which I’d love to get my hands on, was lost forever when an external hard drive decided it didn’t want to work anymore. Bummer, huh?
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MACBA – Barcelona, in Brief
I hosted Maria and Victor, a couch-surfing couple from Barcelona last weekend, and while we were enjoying an afternoon in Ljubljana’s Museum of Contemporary Art, I decided that I hadn’t really done justice here to MACBA, the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, with a quick post soon after my visit there in early August 2010. So here’s a slightly expanded version, inspired by and dedicated to, my new friends.
Designed by American architect Richard Meier and opened in 1995, it’s a beautiful building, inside and out, elegantly understated and relaxing. (And as it turned out, a great place to try and come down from an attempted robbery if that’s what your body and mind are looking for.) Much of the south side is glass, allowing ample natural light to bathe the interior. The action in the square outside primarily involves skateboarding – lots of it.
The website, along with exhibit schedule, is here, nearest metro stations are Catalunya and Universitat. A few more shots are below, all Creative Commons licensed for non-commercial use. Feel free to use them with credits as indicated here.
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Trains and Stations – A Fetish in Fifteen Photos
I really wanted to take one of these home. Breclav station, Czech Republic, 24-Jun 2007
The way my mother tells the story, I was smuggled into France as a six-month old, wrapped in swaddling clothes and hidden among a small pile of blankets in a crowded sleeper car. Whether the tale is an embellishment I can’t say, but I do know that that episode instilled in me an early love for train travel. Nothing remotely resembling passenger trains existed in the US midwest while I was there, so my fetish for trains didn’t finally and fully blossom until I moved back to Europe 38 years later.
When I need to go somewhere, for business or pleasure or both, I insist on going by train whenever practical. Even when a 13-hour train trip could be covered in about five by car (going to Sarajevo from Ljubljana, for instance). I also take lots of pictures from and of those trains and stations.
I spent a bit of time further organizing my flickr stream tonight and rediscovered most of these 15 train-related pics, many of which I haven’t looked at in years, and decided to breathe a bit of life into them here. They’re not necessarily my 15 favorites, but were selected instead to represent a variety. And I do like them all. If you’re interested in checking out more, there are 134 in my flickr Trains and Stations set at the moment. Most of them are Creative Commons non-commercial licensed, so feel free to use them if you’d like as indicated in the descriptions. Enjoy!
Wien Südbahnhof. 14-June-2008
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Lyon Part-Dieu station, Lyon, France, 03-Sep-2008
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Monaco-Monte Carlo station, at center of the photo. Entirely underground. Monte Carlo, 24-Nov 2007
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Piraeus Station, Piraeus, Greece, 13-Nov-2008
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Sarajevo, 1 July 2011
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Ataturk at the Istanbul Gar, or train station, the final stop on the now defunct Orient Express. Istanbul, 13-Mar-2012
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Zidani Most train station, Zidani Most, Slovenia, 17-Apr-2009
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Milano Centrale station, Milan, 03-July-08
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Cute stranger’s napping feet, on the EC 102 from Wien Sudbahnhof. Somewhere in Moravia, Czech Republic, 24-June-2007
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Central station, Thessaloniki, Greece, 14-Sep-2009
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Camera Shy bootleg CD vendor, Central Station, Valencia, Spain, 10-Mar-2008
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On the RER from Charles de Gaulle towards the Gare de Nord, Paris, 07-Jul-2007
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Kitzbuhel, Austria, 10-Feb-2009
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Milano Centrale, 11-Dec-2006
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These snaps are this week’s contribution for Travel Photo Thursday (#TPThursday on twitter) hosted by Nancie on her website, Budget Travelers Sandbox. When you have few minutes to browse, check out Nancie’s photos and those of others who take part. You’ll see some great photos and visit some wonderful places.
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My First Miss.Tic!
No, of course I’m not admitting to my first mistake. When I do finally make one however, you’ll be the first to know. Promise.
I’ve read a lot about French street artist Miss.Tic over the years, seen photos of many of her creations and thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit of her work that I stumbled upon in Berlin last fall. But it wasn’t until last month that I finally saw an original by this Parisian on her home turf. It even features a bike! And I love her hair. 
Enjoy.
For more here’s a great site in French and an interview with English subtitles.
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Massive Caterpillar Web, Straight From a Bad Movie
Spotted this today during a bike ride in the hills just east of Ljubljana. It was massive. And looked like it was gradually working its way towards the city. I’m assuming it was made by caterpillars, but I’m not entirely sure. Anyone know?
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Clips – Photoset From Vietnam in Business Insider
Business Insider published a set of 15 images yesterday from my October 2010 visit to Vietnam. Underscoring my not-so-controversial theory that women do most of the world’s work, all but three of the shots selected show women, most of them working. Conversely, all but one of the four men pictured are seated – apparently pacing themselves.
You can check out the slideshow here, or the single-page view here.
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Previous Piran Café posts from Vietnam 2010:
- Jarai Arap Grave House
- Agent Orange’s Golden Anniversary
- Scooters of Hanoi
- Sleeping on the Job
- Primary school English class, Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam
- Vietnam People’s Air Force Museum – notebook
- 17 Hours in Nghia Lo
- The Priciest Booze I’ll Never Drink (or, a note to travelers even more stupid than me)
- How much would you pay this gentleman to snap a pic of him atop his cross-eyed water buffalo?
- Hoa Lo, aka The Hanoi Hilton: an Abbreviated Tour
- I found the g-spot in Hanoi today
- Would you shop for clothes at a place called ‘Piggie Shop’?
- The Prince of Hàng Bè
- I wanted to visit Ho Chi Minh today, but he wasn’t there.
- Women of the Temple of Literature
- Klimt in Hanoi
- 45 Minutes in Sapa’s Central Market
- Vietnam, Northern Highlands
- Wine (Good for Women)
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Orozco’s Citroen and a Creative Commons Update
I’ve never been much of a car guy. I have one but the last time I put gas in the tank was in April. Of 2011. I didn’t have my first set of wheels until I was 23, an enormous town car that I drove into the ground on the dirt back roads of southeast Ohio. I later drove a Yugo around those same Appalachian foothills for five years. That remains the only new car I ever bought. And this remains the only car I even remotely covet.
It’s Voiture Citroen DS 19 which sculptor Gabriel Orozco famously trisected and reassembled in 1970. An old friend used to say that I was one of the select few who could actually look good driving a Yugo. She’d no doubt be weak in the knees if she saw me driving around in this.
This was shot at the Airs de Paris exhibit at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in the summer of 2007, one of just under 1,600 photos on my flickr stream that I’ve made available under a Creative Commons license. I only ask that credit is given exactly as specified with each photo. Strictly non-commercial, please. Follow the links if you’re not sure.
There are now just over 3,000 photos on my flickr stream, and they are for the most part grouped in sets geographically, with 20+ countries and nearly 40 bigger cities currently listed. That’s one place to start looking. I’m also fairly anal about tagging, so if your mind works in a way remotely similar to mine (my heartfelt sympathies go out to you), you can also hunt around on the tags page.
For previous updates, check the creative commons tag here on Piran Café.
Anyone have any CC experiences they’d like to share? Good or bad? I’d love to hear ‘em!
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Supermoon Minus 1
This was last night’s moon as seen from the balcony, which I feel compelled to post as today’s LJ Pic of the Day in the event that I won’t be out there snapping tonight. I’m feeling kinda lousy and my body is telling me to sleep. Lots.
Some technical details for those interested: shot at f6.3, 1/400, 200 ASA, focal length 300, so obviously cropped. This was taken while the sky was still fairly blue, so shoot earlier if you generally wait until it’s dark when shooting the moon. That may not be news to some of you, but it was to me. Good luck and looking forward to lots of great pics tomorrow.
Related articles
- ‘Supermoon’ to dominate night sky (rt.com)
- Wonder What Werewolves Are Doing Tommorow – It’s a SUPERMOON!! (bugeyedupdates.wordpress.com)
- Look Up: Tonight, ‘Supermoon’ Is Closer To Earth (wnyc.org)
- Supermoon 2012 (111collagedesign.blogspot.com)
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Attention Travel Guidebook Consumers: How Important are Upscale Dog Boutique Recommendations to you?
Like this one for Un Chien Dans le Marais, a shop in Paris that apparently does such a good job meeting spoiled dogs’ most demanding needs that it merits Lonely Planet‘s seal of approval?
I have no idea what the context here is but I was reminded of these pics I snapped a few weeks ago of this pooch outfit shop by a discussion on the.ego.tripper where the.e.t. discusses a recent disappointing episode with Lonely Planet’s India guides. And wondered if Lonely Planet was getting a bit over-the-top commercially.
From the shop’s point of view, any publicity is probably good publicity. For Lonely Planet it’s a tidbit for their readers who like to shop for their spoiled dogs in Paris. And another sticker on another window.
I just found it odd.
Odd enough to take pause, snap a few pictures and post them here when the first opportunity arose. Along with a link to the shop and LP’s description on their site.
Oh. My. Dog! God! I guess that was the point.
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(Mostly) Latin Quarter Bookstore Stroll
Independent bookshop subsidies? Oh yeah, I’ll drink to that.
During a stroll past bookshops and between wine bars stops in the Latin Quarter a few years ago, a colleague, a crusty reporter for a daily paper, told me that independent bookstores in that area of the French capital were subsidized by the local and national governments. I wondered how such an idea would go over in a place like Cleveland.
Some of the subsidies, he said, took the form of low interest loans. There were also tax breaks and incentives available, as well as cheap below-market rate rents in otherwise very pricey areas. Like the Left Bank’s Latin Quarter, still considered the city’s intellectual lifeline, where the goal of an independent government agency was to preserve book-related commerce and fend off the high end designer apparel shops that were encroaching the area. One thing Paris didn’t need, the argument apparently went, was more clothing boutiques in a neighborhood that witnessed nearly half of its independent bookstores disappear between 2000 and 2010. No not very Sorbonne-like.
I don’t know if austerity measures and Sarkozy era budget cuts have affected these subsidies in the time since –I hope not. But if another casual stroll through the same area last month is an indication, it appears they haven’t.
Stand along the Seine
There were dozens of shops, small and slightly less-small, tucked in and around the zigzag streets, with window displays showcasing titles as varied as the shapes of the worn cobblestones underfoot. That was the best part: discovering obscure books and little-known writers whose only appearance in a shop window –ever– will most certainly be somewhere in this corner of Paris.
I have some doubts that this model will ‘save’ the independents from other book buying and selling trends –online sales made up around 7% of book sales in France in recent years– but it’s certainly saved the parts of the Left Bank that are home to the shops from looking like other parts of the world that are starting to look far too much alike.
Most of the shots here were taken in the Latin Quarter. The few taken in the stands along the banks of the Seine are the lone exceptions.
Good indy bookstore karma near the Sorbonne.
With Lenin on the Seine. In this case, the right bank.
Slovenia’s hero Zizek is everywhere.
Shop windows – political passions welcome
Anyone read The End of Work?
What the mood of the day? Dada or Groucho?
Marilyn infatuation knows no boundaries
I bet you didn’t know that Dumas wrote a dictionary of cuisine.
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These snaps are this week’s somewhat late contribution for Travel Photo Thursday (#TPThursday on twitter) hosted by Nancie on her website, Budget Travelers Sandbox. When you have few minutes to browse, check out Nancie’s photos and those of others who take part. You’ll see some great photos and visit some wonderful places. The direct link this week is here.
