REALLY?? Don’t you imagine Malta as being yellow? (em, isn’t that racist?). This was undoubtedly the greenest part of Malta, I believe it was near Mdina if my memory serves me.
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Malta, Green, Fields
Category Archives: Abroad
My Very First Harley Davidson
While most of my time in Barcelona was surrounded by miserable weather and rain, I did quickly snap this fine piece of machinery parked along a narrow street. I’ve walked by quite a few motorcycles in my time (eh big deal?) but this is actually the first time I’ve had my camera handy when doing so. It’s a real shame that the weather was so shitty while I was there, oh well, maybe I’ll go back later on in the year…
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Barcelona, Bike, Motorcycle, Harley Davidson
Getting Up Early Is Sometimes A Good Thing
I typically hate getting up early in the morning, except when I’m away on holidays in which case I can’t really sleep because I feel like I’m missing out on something. On my last night in Malta I knew I had to see the sunrise next day for it’s own sake – I miscalculated the time though and ended up wandering about Valetta Bay for nearly an hour before the big event!
This shot isn’t actually a sunrise (really?) but the angle of the sun really lit up this bridge and so it was worth tiptoeing across the seaweed cobbles to get into a good shooting position.
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Malta, Sunrise, Bridge, Water, Small
The Pint That Led To Barcelona
It’s been a couple of days since my last post – that pint I mentioned in my last post got completely out of control and turned into a spontaneous two day trip to Barcelona. I did have just enough time to grab my camera along with my passport but unfortunately the the weather in Barcelona was utterly shit for the two days so there won’t really be many pictures coming from there 
So it’s back to busines now anyway, here’s yet another pic from Malta – it was taken at around 06:30, just after sunrise.
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Malta, Sunrise, Ship, Docked, Pint, Barcelona, Water
The Ship That Just Wouldn’t Move
This was without doubt the most impressive ship docked in Valetta Bay in Malta (apart from the Indian Empress: an utterly gigantic luxury ship), but it never seemed to leave the bay! Seems like a waste…
Im at a loss as to why there’s suddenly noise in this picture – there was none in the larger version! I’m off for a pint now so it’ll have to do as it is 
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Malta, Valetta, Ship, Bay, Docked
Don’t Look Up!
Here’s a quick shot of the Eiffel Tower from a rather vertigo inducing angle – I have to run off now though and help a friend move about 6ft from one room to another now!
I’m still slowly upoading some photos (including this one ) to a printing site, I’m still standing by my deadline of Wednesday or Thursday…
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Paris, France, Eiffel Tower
Drinking Coffee At The Brasserie
Guess where you would find a cafe with the words ‘Brasserie’ and ‘Notre Dame’ in the name? Paris of course! I never stopped at this cafe though, I was just strolling by it one evening. This shot was handheld also, so all thing considering it turned out much to my liking!
Also I’ve started uploading images to a printing site finally so I’ll post the relevant link once all that is ready, probably Wednesday or Thursday
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Paris, France, Brasserie, HDR, High Dynamic Range
A Trip Back In Time With The Maltese Bus
Apologies for the short post yesterday – I was in a no fun mood and may have annoyed one person in particular, so particularly sorry to her
As it turns out the buses in Malta (some are dated back to the 60′s!) are by tradition owned by the drivers and so explains the high degree of customisation I saw while over there: pictures and statues of Mary adorned most of the buses I travelled on. Also the drivers are nuts – passengers haggle bus fares while standing at the open doors, all the while the driver has already taken off and is bombing down some dusty road at 50kph, amazing that no one gets killed!
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Malta, Bus, Transport
Time Stands Still
I’m really really tired so here’s the picture and that’s it. It’s Mdina by the way.
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Mdina
Dodging Traffic On The Champs Élysées
The Champs Élysées in Paris is home to one of the busiest and most dangerous roundabouts in the world, so when you’re standing in the middle of the road and hundreds of angry French cars are whizzing by in the dark you’d better be sure you’re in a safe spot! Fortuantly I was, although the friends I was with were none too pleased of the constant hold ups!
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Champs Élysées, Paris, Traffic, Vehicles
Ghosts In Notre Dame
I couldn’t think of anything to write about this photo so I just got my french flatmate to do a guest post instead – I speak absolutely no french whatsoever so I don’t actually know what any of this means!
Instants sacres au pied de l’autel de cette Cathedrale d’une beaute epoustouflante, dans leauel bat le coeur de Paris et le Genie architectural francais.
VIve la France!
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Notre Dame, Ghosts, Paris
Fungus Rock Bathed In Light
You’ve already seen Fungus Rock in a previous post, but it seems to be some sort of special tourist attraction in Gozo so I thought I’d post it again from another angle!
This was one amazing view – possibly the highlight of the sight seeing part of my trip to Malta. The weather was great, plenty of clouds in the sky, annoying tourists all around me. Actually, scrap that last part, they were really annoying.
Also, a couple of people have asked about prints – I swear I’m getting around to it! It’s just that the printing site I’m using doesn’t seem to be showing good thumbnail / previews of the photos I upload to it – the colours seem washed out a little. I just want to be sure that what I upload is what gets printed
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Gozo, Fungus Rock, Heaven, Light, Clouds
Intertwining Cobbled Walls
Today’s post is coming in a little late as I was upgrading my OS to Leopard and it took a little longer than expected. Everything’s OK now though – and Leopard so far is looking quite amazing
These cobbled walls that you see here intertwine the outer corners of Mdina like one huge maze – you can spend a whole afternoon simply wandering it’s narrow streets and relaxing in cafes while looking out over it’s fortified walls across the rest of Gozo. I’ll definitely be making a point tp revisit sometime in the future!
Camera Settings (1 NEF file – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, Tripod.)
- Aperture: f/5.6
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/500s
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Mdina, Cobbles, Walls
Mega Construction In The Early Morning
Malta isn’t all quiet landscapes and small towns – these cranes, which were littered across the island, were gigantic! This is taken from across the main docks in Valletta; I tried catching a ferry from there to Sicily to finish off the holiday on this morning but alas I missed it by about 2 hours
Camera Settings (1 NEF file – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, Tripod.)
- Aperture: f/4
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/1200s
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Dock, Cranes, Construction
Looking At A Scene From A Different Angle
One of the great things about using a proper tripod and head is that you can quickyly position your camera at almost any angle quickly and easily for those out of the ordinary shots. I use a Manfrotto joystick head with my tripod now and it’s truly the best – a quick squeeze of the handle and my camera swings around any which way I want it. Also, with the joystick head I’ve been taking a lot more portrait like shots.
Camera Settings (1 NEF file – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, Tripod.)
- Aperture: f/8
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/1600s
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Mdina, calm, Gozo, Mediterranean
Relaxing At Dinner In Mdina
This was one real relaxing day! After wandering around Mdina for an hour or so a friend and I found a cafe on the highest point of the town and relaxed with a pizza while looking over the rest of Gozo. I really wished I could have stayed there longer, but alas we had to move on to other sight
Camera Settings (1 NEF file – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, Camera was propped on the wall.)
- Aperture: f/22
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/100s
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Mdina, calm, Gozo, Mediterranean
Checking Out The Mediterranean
Velatta Bay is a fortified peninsula on the east coast of Malta – from it’s walls you can see out into the Mediterranean Sea at all angles (eh except when looking at Malta). It was from these docks below that getting from Sliema to Valetta was just a quick skip across the bay.
Camera Settings (5 NEF files – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, Camera was propped on the wall.)
- Aperture: f/7.1
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/1600s, 1/800s, 1/400s, 1/200s, 1/100s
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Valetta, Bay, dock, boats, ship, summer, hot, Mediterranean
The Sky Watchtower of Valetta
I really should have some sort of St. Patrick’s Day photo today but Malta just isn’t that green…
We walked around too much on our first day in Malta, from our side of the bay Valetta looked liked the obvious place to check out first. This involved walking around our section of the bay and then momentarily getting lost by heading up an off track part of the coast.
I took this shot while wondering whether to keep getting more lost of just head back the way we came – then some old guy with minimal English stopped us and explained ow his dog’s name (Prince) was so amazing. Luckily he didn’t kill us afterwards.
Camera Settings (1 NEF files – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, No Tripod)
- Aperture: f/3.5
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/2000s
Technorati Tags: projectvisual, Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Valetta, Bay, tower, watchtower
Blazing Sunset Over Valetta Bay In Malta
OK time to start posting some colourful Malta pics! Here’s one from my first day there – it’s taken from one of the corners of Valetta: a fort city and also Malta’s capital. I hadn’t taken my tripod with me on the first day as we didn’t know what we were doing that first evening but the whole place is surrounded by low walls that work just fine as a stand in one.
Did you know that Valetta was on of the first (or even first!) city to be built using a grid pattern to outline its streets?? Oooooooh!
Camera Settings (5 NEF files – Nikon D300 Body, Nikkor 18-200mm VR Lens, Camera was supported on a rock)
- Aperture: f/22
- ISO: 200
- Lens: 18-200@18mm
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000s, 1/500s, 1/250s, 1/125s, 1/60s,
Technorati Tags: Nikon, D300, Tone Mapped, HDR, Malta, Valetta, Bay, Sunset, Blazing, Piercing, yellow, rock, water
