Shooting in the rain and sticking my head where it didn’t belong. 24-Sep-2012
More shooting in the rain – playing with my GoPro on the slow train between Bled and Jesenice last September when a camping trip was rained out.
I’m leaving for my extended trip in 19 days, but the moving van will be here in 33 hours. Why I’m playing with photos when I’m surrounded by half empty boxes that need to be filled remains a mystery.
Bohinjska Bistrica Station, 24-Sep-2012
And a quaint station it is. On this quiet, lazy and rainy fall mid-afternoon it bordered on the sublime.
These were taken in late September just before an unscheduled return from a rained out camping trip, another contribution for my Slovenian train station project. The goal? To snap a few shots from each of the country’s 272 train stations and stops. That project has been moving slower than the slowest SLO train.
Bohinjska Bistrica is where you’ll stop if you plan to visit Lake Bohinj, a much more pristine setting than the better known and more heavily-visited Lake Bled. It’s only about 20 kilometers up the road/rails and well worth it. Even if all you’ll wind up doing is shooting a timelapse in the rain.
Somewhere between Bohinj and Bled, 24-Sep-2012
My bike was stolen today, the third since I moved to Ljubljana. It was locked but still snatched in broad daylight, ruining what was an otherwise excellent day. I’m leaving in 94 days so I won’t dwell on it. One less thing to store, right?
Chairs are this week’s #FriFotos theme on twitter to celebrate places we like to park our behinds. One of my favorites was my bike, but I’m not dwelling on that. So instead, I’ll go with what is probably my second favorite mode of transport, a seat on a train. The one above was taken in late September, somewhere between Bohinjska Bistrica and Bled, Slovenia, on the way back from a would-be camping trip that was a disastrous washout. (It would be the last time my bike was on a train.) Below is a quick snap taken earlier this month on bus somewhere between Varna and Kavarna, Bulgaria. It broke down about a half hour later which made me wish I had my bike. But let’s no dwell on that.
Between Varna and Kavarna, Bulgaria, 03-Oct-2012
Sometimes you just gotta love kids who climb railroad bridges with cans of spray paint. This pic even inspired a very short video which you can find below and watch when you’ve got 44 seconds to spare. That in turn – and this is the best part – led to several hours acquainting myself with the soundscapes created by Sol Rezza.
From her bio on the Free Music Archive:
Sol Rezza (born April 7th 1982, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a sound artist, sound designer and sound jockey focused on the transformation of soundscapes into strange sound narratives. Her works are developed from field recordings of her own, sound objects from nature recorded by the artist, vocal experimentation and computer generated virtual instruments used as sound modulators. Her pieces are noted for their unconventional way of working, achieving unique sound textures for each of her compositions through the layer modification of previously recorded sounds. The narrative and the constant play with the symbols of language is a fundamental point throughout his work.
I used about 40 seconds from her piece, Revolution as a Loop, from her album Spit. Check out the whole thing. Parts of it made my couch spin. And that hasn’t happened in a while. Excellent stuff.
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.
I was inspired enough by my first lesson in stealth mobile street shooting last weekend to wander out for more these past few days. At top is a gentleman patiently waiting for something in the train station’s ticket office on Wednesday afternoon. I’ve been in that position myself on occasion and have found that a book helps.
While on the topic of trains, I wanted to pass along a few newsy links of interest from Slovenia Rail, but since the English language section of their site’s news section hasn’t been updated for more than two years, I won’t bother. I hope the guy in the picture isn’t waiting for it to be updated.
One of the most read/searched for posts on Piran Café is this one, published just a few weeks shy of three years ago, about plans for Ljubljana’s new main train station. The post read in part, as follows:
The two phase project, with a total price tag that ranges from 220 to 300 million euros, includes a new bus station, shopping and entertainment center set for completion by the end of 2009. The train station, a new high rise business center, luxury apartments and four-star hotel, is to be completed by the end of 2010.
Here’s an update snapped at lunchtime today. Nice shades of green in that greenspace, no?
I just came across a blog by traveler Wandering Earl, who set off on a three-month trip to Asia in 1999. He’s still on the road 4,294 days later.
He arrived in Ljubljana a few days ago via rail from Vienna, so check out his blog and say ‘Hi’, ok?
His is a lifestyle many fantasize about, but very few have the wherewithal, resourcefulness or guts to actually take the plunge. His website and blog are worth spending some time with if you’re looking for experience-tested ideas on how to sustain yourself on the road long-term.
Best of luck, Earl, and I hope you enjoy your stay in this little corner of the planet. It’s a pretty nice one, too.
slo train 006, a photo by pirano on Flickr.
Since August has almost wound down and I’ll be away for most of the next three weeks, there’s no time like the present for my second vidblog, combining bit and pieces from June and July 2011.
Shots taken in Rabat, Morocco; Lille, France; Menton, France; Sarajevo; Monaco; in and around Ljubljana, Slovenia; and during a long train ride between Zagreb and Sarajevo. I’m hoping to put together a piece on that train journey itself, a leisurely 17-hour jaunt (Ljubljana-Sarajevo, one way) through Bosnian countryside during which I finally experienced the term vukojebina. (To my Bosnian friends, no offense intended. It truly was beautiful. That’s just how I felt.)
Enjoy and feel free to share! 
Music:
Baba Bobo Mastered by Cobra (avec logo panthère)
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cobra_avec_logo_panthre/
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
May’s vidblog, with bits and pieces from Doha, Qatar; Hengelo, The Netherlands; Ostrava, Czech Republic; a few airports, and in and around Ljubljana, Slovenia is here and here.
From Slovenia, that is, but they are fairly slow, too.
I recently made the leap into the world of video and shot these for Vimeo’s 1 Minute project. I like the idea of trying to capture the world in 60-second bits, adding some context to the beauty of the banal. That’s the goal, anyway. The rules are simple: the video must be exactly one minute long, remain unedited, have no camera movement (ie panning, tilting, etc), and should only use original sound.
Both of these were shot at Ljubljana’s main train station on 21-April-2011, and both star regional, graffiti-splattered trains.
It’s always a pleasure to encounter inquisitive people.
This is at the train station in Brescia, Italy, on 21-March-2011, just one of several long shots I collected for a project that might come to pass at some point. I couldn’t have planned the stop better if I tried.
If anyone knows this person, drop a line.
I was on the ground in Bangkok for just over 10 hours, more than ample time to get a visa, hop the new train into the center of town, stroll around a bit and get a delightful fix of Thai cuisine before heading back to catch my midnight flight back to Europe.
The airport recently celebrated it’s 4th birthday, and it’s a massive place. At 563,000 square meters (just over 6 million square feet), it’s the world’s third largest single-building airport terminal. Despite its size, it’s surprisingly quick and easy to get around.
A few items of note for day-trippers:
- Citizens of many countries don’t need visas, including the UK, USA and Australia. More visa info is here.
- For many others, Visa on Arrival is available. Here’s a list. You’ll need a passport-sized photo – if you don’t have one handy there are photo booths nearby where can get four pictures snapped and pick your favorite. 200 baht (about 5 EUR, 7 USD). If time is short there is a fast track line available (cost is 200 baht) and it does seem to save a considerable bit of time.
There’s a great new airport train, The Airport Link, which after numerous delays, finally began operating in August. The City Line runs every 15 minutes, serves eight stops and ends at the Phaya Thai station roughly 30 minutes away. The best part – there’s an introductory promotional fare of just 15 baht (USD 0.50/ Eur 0.36) through 1-Jan-2011. After that, fares will range from 15 to 45 Baht.
A quick stop in Milano Centrale, one of my favorite stations, yesterday to snap a few pics and check out the progress of the massive €100 million renovation. New artworks –one-fifth of the total budget was earmarked to restore “areas of high artistic value”– appear during every lay over. No word yet on completion date.
Milano 014 (top), originally uploaded by pirano.
