From City to Island Life

My posts here have been sparse and infrequent recently. Photography has had to take a less prominent role due to two main factors: Firstly, work has developed a habit of getting in the way of my hobbies, and secondly, we decided to move our home base from Valencia to the island of Lanzarote.

Regular readers of this publication will have noticed that my wife and I have visited the Canary Islands rather frequently. We have taken a particular liking to the island of Lanzarote, due to a combination of beautiful scenery, ideal climate and a welcoming community of similarly minded people, where making friends has been easy. We therefore decided to make a more permanent move to the island.

Apart from the obvious impact the logistics of such a move have on spare time, I expect my photography to be different here. Urban street scenes will surely give way to landscapes and other rural motives. We shall see.

For now, I want to share a few frames taken over the last few weeks on Lanzarote (and the neighboring island of La Graciosa). All images were taken on a dedicated monochrome camera (yes, I got the Ricoh GRIV Monochrome) or on my phone. Hence, focal ranges are in the range of 24-28mm equivalents.

The Images

A Delayed Trip Report

It has been too long since my last post, but work keeps getting in the way of hobbies. In March, my wife and I travelled to Phuket to join a lively group of fellow swimmers in a Swim Camp. This is a photography publication, so I won’t go into the details of the camp, but we had a great time with some lovely people, learnt a lot, and were sad to leave after just over a week. Shout out to Be Water Training for a great experience!

Since we were travelling with a group, and for a different purpose, photography took a back seat on this trip, and I “only” carried two small pocketable cameras with 28 and 40mm lenses (yes, the popular Ricoh offerings) instead of anything big, but this turned out to be a good choice. I managed to get a few shots in between group activities that I am happy with. The Thai people lived up to their reputation of being very camera-friendly and happy to pose for a picture.

I will definitely have to go back for more photography, but in the meantime, here are some images from this trip! You may notice that motorbikes and umbrellas feature rather prominently.

Images

Hong Kong’s Rural Side

In my last post, I reported on the first part of my escape from urban Hong Kong to Lantau Island. After visiting the Tian Tan Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery, I took a taxi to the fishing village of Tai O, a popular tourist day trip destination. There is a regular bus service, but in the interest of optimising my spare time on a work trip, I decided to take a taxi, which took less than 15 minutes.

The fishing village of Tai O features traditional houses built on stilts in the water. I was in two minds about visiting the place, since I had read that it had become a bit overrun by tourists and had lost its authenticity. As it turned out, there is authenticity to be found, as long as you are prepared to walk a bit further than most visitors, which is not very far at all.

The white dolphin spotting boat ride is indeed a tourist trap. It’s only 20 minutes long, and I only got to see something white far away for about 2 seconds. For all I know, it could have been a plastic bag. It is also true that the area closest to the car park and Tai O market is overrun. However, after walking along Tai O Creek for about 5 minutes, I found myself pretty much on my own in parts of the town where local kids played on the street, and locals went about their business. Riding around on bicycles with fresh fish and separating egg yolk from egg white on front porches seemed to be the main activities.

Enjoy some of my images from this unique fishing village, all taken on the newly aquired Zeiss Sonnar 50mm F1.5 lens I already raved about in my last post.

Images

Lantau Island

In my last post, which also covered my recent work trip, I mentioned that Hong Kong is surprisingly green. In fact, beyond the high-rise urban areas, there are plenty of natural and rural areas to be found, including Lantau Island, the largest of Hong Kong’s over 260 islands and a major tourist destination. Today I want to share some images from a day trip I managed to sneak in after the work was done.

I accessed Lantau, like most visitors, through the Tung Chung MTR station, where I transferred to the cable car up to Ngong Ping village. The cable car ride is quite scenic and takes longer than I expected. Ngong Ping village itself is mainly a single street with souvenir shops leading up to the main attraction everyone comes to see, the Tian Tan Buddha.

Tian Tan Buddha

The Buddha is a 34-meter bronze statue on top of a hill accessed by climbing a staircase. It’s relatively new, constructed in 1993, but quite a sight!

Po Lin Monastery

A visit to the Tian Tan Buddha is usually combined with a visit to the Po Lin monastery, which is close by. I spent much longer than planned there, working the scene (see below for my deliberate lens limitation), before taking a taxi to the fishing village of Tai Po, which will feature in my next post. First, however, enjoy some of the images I took at the monastery.

A Note on Gear

I had planned to use a 35mm lens on the whole trip for consistency with my earlier trip to Hong Kong a year ago, backed up by a 21mm for tight spaces. However, I came across a wonderful pre-owned Zeiss Sonnar 50mm F1.5 lens in one of Hong Kong’s camera shops and made a spontaneous decision to use my new purchase.

Hence, all the images in this post (and for the rest of my Hong Kong trip) ended up being shot on this wonderful lens with a 1930s optical design, presented in a 2004 package with modern coatings and a short focus throw, very much to my liking.

I think this imperfect little standard lens will be my new favorite. Shooting everything on a 50mm lens proved challenging but rewarding. For some reason, I always end up back at 50mm focal length, on which I started my photography as a young boy in the 1980s.

Urban Hell?

Work took me to Hong Kong again for a full week. I had already been there almost exactly a year ago, so this time I came with a clear idea of what I wanted to explore and photograph. In an upcoming post, I will write about my exploration of the more rural parts of Hong Kong, which are surprisingly expansive and beautiful, and do not match the high-rise urban hell reputation Hong Kong has gained over the years.

Whilst the lack of space and the housing problem are well-documented, the urban part of Hong Kong does not feel as oppressive, dark, and gritty as some publications make it out to be. It is, in fact, an incredibly diverse city with great public transport, impressive architecture, and, above all, excellent food!

In this first post on my recent visit, I want to share some urban shots from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. I committed to shooting this part in black and white to complement the images I shot last year and create a consistent body of work (maybe a zine?). I will share some color images of different subject matters in future posts.

Images

Today, I want to share a short collection of street portraits, some candid, some posed, that show what I call quirky characters. All of these subjects were strangers to me that I came across on photo walks.

The idea of this post came up when I re-scanned the negative of the image below. Seeing this image prompted me to go through my backlog of images and look for portraits of people that stand out. As photographers, we are naturally drawn to these characters.

Without further ado, here are the images.

Shooting Differently

Most of my photography involves wide-angle lenses and whole scenes. Subjects are usually shown within a context. 28mm is what works well for this type of photography.

However, I want to try a different style, more detail-oriented, maybe even abstract. The idea is to experiment with disembodied subjects, deliberately leave things out, and make the viewer ask questions.

This weekend, a new vintage lens acquisition was the perfect excuse to get started. I had bought a lovely 1979 Leica 50mm Summicron R-mount lens, which I wanted to try out, so I went for a short photowalk in the city of Valencia. My thinking was that the tighter field of view of the 50mm lens would force me to shoot differently in the narrow streets of Valencia’s historic city center.

I call this a moderately successful outing because it felt like a good start in this type of composition, but the outcome is not what I had in mind yet. I managed to have fewer things in my scenes, but that’s the easy part. After all, you cannot fit the whole cathedral into a 50mm frame without renting a helicopter. However, I found it hard to create more abstract compositions and work with disembodied subjects. More practise is required!

On the plus side, I got a good idea of the capabilities of my new lens. It really seems to hit the sweet spot of character and performance, and flares just the way I like it. After all, I would not have called this publication “Lens Flare” if I didn’t like the odd aberration.

Maybe I should write a post about my vintage lens obsession next?

In any case, here are some results of this single test outing!

Images

Repeat Performance

I have already shared some images of Lanzarote’s volcanic landscape in my last post and a couple of months ago. Today, I just want to share some of the remaining pictures that I consider fit for public consumption. They include some shots from a day trip to the small neighboring island of La Graciosa, which is car-free (apart from a few 4x4 taxis) and has some beautiful, quiet beaches.

Since Lanzarote is slowly turning into our favorite place to retreat, there will probably be much more to come in the future. For now, enjoy this current set.

Images

Escaping Winter

We are currently on the Canarian island of Lanzarote, escaping the European winter for a short time. My wife is working remotely, while I have some downtime, which means that I have a few hours most days to explore the island on my own, with a photographic mind.

I don’t consider myself a landscape photographer, but the unique volcanic origin of the island calls for photographing nature, rather than hanging around in sleepy towns waiting for the perfect street photography scene.

Therefore, here is a post about unique volcanic landscapes!

The most important aspect of my photo walks here is timing. Leave too early, and the light is still blocked by the mountains (volcanoes). I am not a “golden hour maximalist”, but leaving too late means hordes of tourists in the more scenic places. Arriving at the car park close to the scenic spots about one hour after sunrise has proven to be the sweet spot, and in winter, this is a very leisurely schedule.

Purist landscape photographers would probably disapprove of my approach, which is optimized for covering a lot of ground and lacks heavy gear and a tripod. All the images shown here have been taken with tiny crop sensor cameras at 28mm and 40mm. Enjoy the results below!

Images

At the end of June, I published a post on my own favorite photos from the first 6 months of 2025. On the last day of the year, it is time to cover the second half of the year. This is neither a “best of” nor a “greatest hits” collection, simply a subjective selection of my own favorites among the images I have produced.

When looking at them retrospectively, I have a few observations:

• All of these images are fairly straightforward, without any complex layering or compositional tricks.

• There are a surprising number of color images for someone who thinks of himself as a black and white photographer. Whenever I switch to color, I seem to like the result.

• Most images are shot with a 28mm lens, and the others are taken at around 50mm (40-52 to be precise), even though I did spend quite a bit of time with a 35mm lens. This validates my view that a 28 and 50mm lens combo works best for me. My longer lenses are mainly used to decorate a shelf.

• Even though I shoot a lot at home, all the images are from my travels. I bet this is my own selection bias. Someone else might find my photos from the places that are too familiar to me more interesting.

• Cats remain a major theme (I had to restrain myself from adding more to this post).

In any case, I wish all my readers a Happy New Year!

Images

An Annual Tradition

Every year, just before Christmas, I go on a nighttime photowalk in the centre of Valencia (last year’s post). This year’s outing felt a bit like a forced expedition, and I struggled to get going. The 35mm lens I had on my camera felt too tight (after having used the 28 for a period of time), and the scenes I saw just felt repetitive. The low temperature and large crowds did not help to lift my spirit.

Nevertheless, I had committed to this post in my mind beforehand, and treated the outing as an assignment where I had to deliver. I know from sports that training is not always fun, so why should photography be different?

It took me a while to achieve something with which I am reasonably happy, and the overall result is not of the quality I had envisaged. Here are some of the images.

Images

Night Photography

Today, I want to share a few images I took on a recent trip to Lublin, Poland. The purpose of the trip was to participate in a swimming competition (my other hobby), and I was travelling with a group of 11. This meant that photography was secondary at best and had to happen mainly in the dark and in a relatively short time window.

Hence, I did not expect much in terms of images, and was not even sure if I would write about the trip here. However, capturing some of the pre-Christmas atmosphere in the dark turned out to be more productive than I thought, so here are some of the photos I made.

Images

Great Access but Tricky Light …

… is the trade-off photographers usually have to deal with at small venues. This became apparent to me when I photographed the Swedish act “The Baboon Show”, supported by “Deaf Devils”, in a small concert hall in Valencia, a few days ago.

I love live music, and sometimes apply for a media pass to be allowed to bring a proper camera and get better access. Surprisingly often, this is granted, even though I only represent myself instead and not a dedicated music publication.

At bigger venues, a phot pass means access to the pit, a reserved space between the audience and the stage, for exactly three songs before being sent on my way. Pro tip: progressive rock acts with epic 15-minute symphonies are an advantage here. The other big downside of the photo pit at large venues is that the stage is big and high, meaning you end up shooting uphill with a long lens. For example, all the photos I posted in my report on Ash’s performance at Visor Fest were shot with a 70-200mm lens, loved by many, but hated by me.

Photo passes for small venues are more informal. The absence of a dedicated pit or barrier means photographers can get really close. The stage tends to be lower, and a wide-angle lens can be used, which feels much more immersive and is to my liking. In addition, while the 3-song rule may still be in place officially, shooting through the whole show might be tolerated, as long as one is careful not to get in the way of the paying crowd or the band. This means being aware of not constantly blocking people’s view and moving around accordingly.

On the flipside, small venues tend to have bad light. Performers are often backlit or backed in red light, incompatible with bringing out reasonable skin tones. Additionally, the lack of a barrier means the audience can easily bump into cameras or get in the shot. Toilet breaks can mean loss of access, since getting back to the front row might be impossible.

Below are the photos I took of the two bands mentioned on this particular night. All images are shot at 28mm except the image above this text, which was taken with a 10mm fisheye lens.

Images

A Proper Vacation

Today, I am pleased to share some images from a short vacation on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. This beautiful island in the Atlantic belongs to Spain, and its volcanic origins are evident.

I had never been to this particular island before, but a direct and affordable flight connection from our hometown of Valencia made my wife and me choose it as a destination for a short vacation.

We found Lanzarote to be a wonderful place, the landscape being a strange contrast of dark volcanic desert and crystal clear beaches. The weather is good all year, and the food is exquisite. I highly recommend a visit, but since there is a lot of tourism, I would recommend avoiding peak season.

This having been a family vacation, there really is not much more to say here. I did, of course, carry a camera everywhere, but the focus was not on photography on this trip. Here a some of the images with some captions.

Images

A Road Trip Through Herzegovina

Reading back my last two posts on Croatia, there is a slightly negative undertone. It is, of course, impossible to get an accurate idea of a city if you only have a few hours. One rude waiter and one slightly underwhelming attraction can skew the whole experience. Therefore, my opinions of Split and Trogir should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, it has to be said that what I saw of Croatia failed to meet my expectations.

This all changed when work was finished and I had a full day to take my rental car into the neighboring Herzegovina, the southern part of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I found the landscape breathtaking, the towns I visited very picturesque, the few people I interacted with seemed very welcoming, and I very much enjoyed the food I tried. As an added bonus, the country seems to share Turkey’s love for cats and dogs, and I found plenty of communal pets ready to pose for photos (see my post on Istanbul’s cats).

The only slight hiccup was a small misunderstanding when crossing the border on the way back. I had already stopped at two checkpoints to show my passport when I mistook a signal indicating a vehicle check for a friendly wave. I smiled, waved back, and tried to accelerate away, which caused a bit of a hectic situation and some shouting. After some awkward questioning, the customs officers laughed it off and sent me on my way. Amusing in retrospect, the incident caused my heart rate to accelerate at the time.

Mostar

Mostar came up as a must-see destination in my research and did not disappoint. The city is mostly known for its medieval old town with an impressive arched bridge that was destroyed during the Bosnian war in 1993, and later reconstructed. The break-up of Yugoslavia was a conflict that my generation followed closely from Germany. We grew up with Bosnian refugees amongst our friends.

Thus, visiting and seeing this heavily fought-over city, which has since become a popular tourist destination, was very interesting for me. Outside the old town, one can still observe some of the damage from the war. Several buildings still show bullet holes. I made a point of visiting the infamous “sniper tower”, an abandoned building that served as a sniper hideout from where soldiers and civilians alike were targeted.

Despite the surprisingly large number of tourists roaming the streets of the old town during the off-season, the city felt like a place where people actually live, and everyone I interacted with seemed friendly.

The Koski-Mehmed Pasha Mosque, which, according to my research, was one of the main attractions, was almost empty and very welcoming to non-muslims, allowing even the minaret tower to be climbed for the views. I don’t know why most tourists seemed to just pass by without visiting the interiors.

Počitelj

The next stop suggested to me by my AI travel planner was the historic village of Počitelj, which consists of a few houses, a mosque, and a hill fortress on a hillside connected by very steep cobbled streets. Much smaller than Mostar, it turned out to be a great place to photograph.

The Šišman Ibrahim Pasha Mosque is another impressive 16th-century Ottoman building that was severely damaged in the war and rebuilt recently.

I spent far too long photographing and playing with the friendly street cats in Počitelj and ran out of daylight, meaning I had to skip the last stop on my itinerary (a picturesque waterfall), but I am definitely hoping to come back and explore this country in more detail.

Autumn in Croatia

As promised in my last post, today I will share some images of Split and the nearby town of Trogir, both of which have been featured extensively in Game of Thrones. It’s easy to see why. The old parts of both cities are a maze of cobbled alleyways and feel distinctively medieval. A large part of Split’s old town is built into Diocletian’s Palace, a Roman emperor’s retirement palace. Trogir is much smaller and built on a small island.

This being a work trip, I only had a few hours in each of these towns. Both towns are nice and photogenic, and well worth visiting (whether you like Game of Thrones or not!). However, I also felt that I had seen enough of them in this short timeframe, and did not feel as if I missed out on anything, not having more time. One can only take a certain number of photos of tight alleyways without being repetitive.

Split

Trogir

Once The Tourists Are Gone

Yet again, I have tried to find some time for photography on a short business trip. This time, Croatia was my destination, where I stayed in Podstrana, a seaside suburb of Split, apparently packed with tourists in summer.

Today I just want to share a short series of images taken on my small point-and-shoot camera on a pre-work morning run, showing what a popular beach resort looks like once the tourists are gone home for the season. Something similar happens around the popular spots near where I live in Spain, and I thought it might make a good theme for a photo series.

I will share some more conventional content on the city of Split itself later this week, once I have had a chance to process all the images. But for now, here is what Podstrana looks like in autumn.

Image Series

My Orange Plastic Toy Camera

I recently acquired a new toy: a Fujifilm Instax camera. Amongst the top-selling cameras worldwide, these cameras produce analog images on instant film that magically develop themselves in front of your eyes in about 90 seconds. The technology precedes digital cameras, but is still a nice party trick.

Although there are modern versions that are essentially digital cameras with a printer built in, I chose a real analog camera made out of bright orange plastic that produces small square prints.

For the first few days, I mainly used my acquisition for snapshots and selfies with a cat that did not share my enthusiasm, arguably, the camera’s intended use case.

I then decided I should take it out for a real challenge.

The Challenge

The idea of this outing was quite simple:

• 10 Frames (A single Instax Square Monochrome cartridge)

• One single short photo walk (about 1 hour)

• One location

• All images must be shown (including the bad ones)

I chose Valencia’s City of Arts and Science as the location for a number of reasons. It’s not far from where I live, I know it well, and it is full of photogenic subjects (a bit of a cheat code, really). But most importantly, it’s packed with tourists doing silly things and posing for pictures, so another guy waving around a huge orange toy camera does not raise any eyebrows.

Without any further ado, let’s see the ten images.

Images

Learnings

Here are some conclusssions from this challenge and using an Instax camera in general:

• For some reason they are fun.

• This particular camera is really more of a fun toy than a particularly useful camera.

• Framing is hard due to parallax with the basic “hole in a bit of plastic” viewfinder.

• A big orange box with a motor noise slowly and visibly pushing out a photo when you press the shutter is not ideal for going unoticed in candid street photography.

I have to research a bit more, but it seems to me that instan film cameras are mainly point and shoot and low quality. I also have an Instax printer, so I know that the medium can produce much higher quality prints. It’s mainly a question of poor optics. It would be great to have a high-end version that allows setting exposure parameters and a better lens.

Monochrome Mood

I try to commit to either color or black and white for a single trip. And once I have visited a place, I tend to stick to my initial choice in subsequent visits, in the hope of having more consistency in a geographically defined body of work. However, when a quick work trip brought me to Munich yet again this week, I really felt like shooting high-contrast monochrome, despite having shot color on previous visits, so I did.

There is not too much to say about these images. As always, the Munich subway was quite an easy subject, but there are some above-surface street shots as well. All images are straight out of camera JPEGs at a 28mm focal length equivalent. My tiny Ricoh GR3 III is proving to be an incredibly versatile walk-around camera.

Images

Cat City

I already shared my reasons for considering Istanbul the best city for photography in Europe in my last post. But the real reason my wife and I keep coming back to Istanbul is that the city is full of cats! Cats in Istanbul are different from the street cats you find in other cities. In fact, they are neither feral cats nor domestic. They are truly integrated into daily life. Istanbul’s cats are not strays but communal pets.

Cats can be found anywhere: they freely wander into shops, restaurants, the metro system, and even mosques, and I have yet to meet a Turk who doesn’t like cats. The 2016 documentary Kedi describes the phenomenon very well. Depending on your region and subscription, you may be able to find the full version on YouTube.

Images