On this week’s edition of my first travel photos, we look at

SCULPTURES

Sculptures are timeless, classic, and sometimes make beautiful photos.
But not this time…

Low contrast, blown out sky, and weird, slanted angle makes this photo awesome….awesomely bad!

I zoomed in for this, which makes it better, but the sky is still all blown out, and the contrast is still quite low, making this statue look rather dull and silly, not powerful and stoic.

Do you know what is wrong with all three of these statues?  If you said they are blurry and taken at a HORRIBLE angle – YOU ARE RIGHT!

These photos are also part of the “Horrible Tourist” film rolls.  We jumped on the back of a German tour in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and every time the group looked up, ‘ooohing’ and ‘aaahing’ and snapping photos, I’d point my camera in the same directions and snap without looking.  It ended up being hilariously fun, and I ended up with 3 horrible rolls of film.  Ok, I had A LOT more horrible rolls..but these ones were on purpose.  I swear.

But if you keep looking, these ‘purposely bad’ photos are still not the worse….

If you are ever in a church, and not allowed to use flash, the best thing you can do, is hold the camera in your hand, and take a long-shutter exposure.  Because blurry is so much easier than carrying a tripod.

Backlighting is beautiful! Or backlighting is not beautiful.  It was one of those.  I wish I could remember which….

You don’t need the bottom of the statue when you have low-contrast and a SUPER light background.  And don’t forget to add random people.  Random people rule!

Beautiful memorial wall of some sort?
Keep the mystery alive by backing way up, and making the words barely visible in the morning light.  Because who wants to REALLY know what this is all about anyway?

Blurry, overexposed, and cropped funny – it’s the trifecta of how NOT to take a photo!

So here are some of the many styles of brilliantly horrible statue photography out there.  Seems I’m just awesome enough to have spanned the spectrum of badness. Go me!

Stay tuned for next weeks My First Travel Photos, and don’t forget to check out the post that started it all:

My First Travel Photos – People

Cheers!

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Have you ever gone back and actually LOOKED at the photos you took from the first time you went traveling?
Well I just did, and it’s a horrifying  eye-opening  educating experience seeing the photos I took during my Balkan’s trip in 2005.

In September of 2005, I packed 75 rolls of film (black and white, slide, 400 speed, 800 speed), a Canon Elan 7 EOS with a 28-80 and a 70-200 lens, and headed to the Balkans for 5 weeks, alone.  This was not only my first trip out of the country, it was my first time doing travel photography.

And is it obvious how first time this was. 

Personally, at the time I was all,

“I’m better than National Geographic bit*#es!”

And now I’m all,

“What the hell was I thinking?”

I still have all the negatives and slides from this trip, and many of them were copied by an expensive  a professional the only non-CVS camera company in the area onto CD’s for me. (The prints had dust, scratches, bad exposure, you name it. Luckily the actual slides and negatives don’t.).

But, even if these were the greatest printed photos of all time, the composition is similar to a drunk 2 year olds (sorry 2 year olds). 

So, in my great knack for exposing my utterly embarrassing  greatest-achieving moments, and to show everyone just starting that YOU DO IMPROVE, these are some of the worst most brilliant photographs from my very first time doing travel photography of ….

PEOPLE

 What the hell was I thinking?  I have no idea.  I would love to say that I was probably just testing the film here, but seeing some of my other horrific outstanding photographs, I probably had a reason for this.  There’s come people, and some street poles, and a totally washed out sky.  Obviously I was trying to get something without actually approaching people.  I think I will call this photo “Stalker in Zagreb, Croatia”.  No idea what I am thinking here.

And here is a random dude with a backpack in Zagreb.  Another from my Stalker series.  I was probably trying to get a photo of the fountain, from across the street, on the other side of the trash and light post.  Why I thought this was good is beyond me.  But don’t worry, I have a bunch of awesome Fountain photos in the next My First Travel Photos post (oh god, I have so much awesome I need multiple posts)

Here is a couple of a guy making bread at something like 5:30am on Otok Vis (Vis Island, off the coast of Split, Croatia).  I remember following the smell of bread and happened upon this man, who let me photograph him making bread.  So I thought it a great idea, to not actually photograph the bread, but stand back 20 paces and photograph his back and a very insane asylum looking room, missing all the ambiance and actual activity of his amazing bread kneading skills.  Good job me.

This one was from inside the Blue Grotto off Biševo (another island an hour or so west of Vis in the central Croatian coast).  I had an idea, to get the vivid blue of the water against the blackened silhouette of the boat captain.  I failed at the idea.  Maybe if I had, I don’t know, zoomed in to fill the photo with the electric blue water, instead of 70% black nothing, this would have looked better.

This photo I actually still find kind of cute.  I have one of him blowing his nose too (no idea why).  I promise, on the actual negative, the colors don’t look so washed out and low contrast (thanks awesome printing company).  I could have taken a way better shot if I had moved to the side and got closer so you could see more of the birds and the man’s face. 

Oh hey look…a bunch of heads.  A bunch of back of heads.  I’m not sure what the subject was here? I’m in Mostar at the famous bridge.  Was I shooting the archway? The tattered flag? The random backs of heads?  I rock.

This is actually just an argument against using your camera flash as a flashlight, when wandering a secret tunnel, while trying to find a sneaky and free underground way, into the castle in Belgrade, Serbia. (PS. It dead ends. We had to pay.) In doing so, you will waste film accidentally taking a bunch of photos of your friends’ bums.

But sometimes you think you are taking awesome photos of the secret tunnel, under the Sarajevo airport, that was used to smuggle goods in and out during the siege.  In reality, you are still just taking a bunch of photos of your friends’ bums.

This one may have been cool, if you could actually see what this guy was showing us, or I hadn’t used the horrible on camera flash.  Or if anything interesting at all were going on.  Perhaps I was trying to be artsy.  Perhaps I failed miserably.

Guys rebuilding the train lines in Sarajevo.  This would have nicer if I hadn’t cut off the guy’s head, or actually caught the workers welding and not just setting up.  Sparks and fire always make photos better.

Ahhhhh, yes.  A beautiful cityscape and the side of someone’s torso.  If in doubt, add torso.

The ubiquitous “Gazing Upon Something Breathtaking” photo.  Too bad you have absolutely no idea what that ‘breathtaking something’ is. 

People walking over a brick bridge.  There is so much going on my brain can’t decide what awesomeness to focus on.  Yes.  That’s it.  Or, there is actually nothing going on. Maybe I should have added a torso?…

So, yes, this is one example of my utterly brilliant, embarrassing, first-time ever travel photos.  I can’t believe I’m actually showing these.

If you love laughing at learning from this, wait for the rest.  We have Fountains.  Buildings, and Landscapes coming up for your enjoyment.

CHEERS!

Have you traveled in Eastern Europe? What did you know about the region before visiting? If you haven’t been to Eastern Europe, what country or city appeals to you most as a place to visit? How much does knowing about the history of a place inspire your future travels?

If you’ve read any of my blog posts or Indie Travel Challenge posts, you know that I LOVE CROATIA!

Roof tops in Dubvronik, Croatia taken from the top of the famous wall.

My first trip out of the country was to eastern Europe.  I’ve never actually been to western Europe.  And I would love to move to Split, Croatia.   Its gorgeous.  The old roman architecture, mixed with Middle Eastern and Slavic buildings and culture.  Eastern Europe is the true melting pot of cultures, ideals, food, people…and its just kind of fucking awesome!

I spent 5 weeks in the Balkans – Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Bulgaria.    It is amazing.  hearing the morning calls to prayer while people in their Sunday bests walk down the street to go to the local Catholic church next door to the mosque.  There was no religious tension in the Balkans.  I would see a school girl in modern tank top and shorts laughing over the cute boys with her best friend in full Muslim dress and head-covering.

The food was a culinary eclecticism of middle-eastern kebabs, rich desserts, stews, fresh fish, ripe, pungent fruits, fresh herbs, and clear, jet-powering libations (me amo Rakia).

Eastern Europe still has much mystery about it because of its long history of being owned by various civilizations and regimes, the communism that shrouded the area in danger and spy stories, and its recent release into freedom.  Although this area has been famous for its beautiful coastlines, and great getaways for centuries…the political strife of the area has kept many westerns out, and makes this a relatively ‘new’ are for travel.  I was lucky enough to visit Croatia a few months before Lonely Planet named it ‘The Most Beautiful Country In the World’” , so there was many travelers, but it was by no means overflowing…and I would love to return to see if this ‘new status’ has changed my beloved Balkans in any ways.

getting ready to enter the blue grotto on Bisevo Island in Croatia.

Before heading to Eastern Europe, I read as much as I could about the history, political, cultural, economical, of this region…and it was not just informative…it helped me understand people there.   It also helped when talking with people, they appreciated that I knew some of there history…and had tried to learn there view of prior events (and the wars) …and they opened up to me more in describing their own personal experiences.   I know that I am definitely at a disadvantage here in South America…because I didn’t have time to study the history here more…because I didn’t know I was coming here until 3 weeks before I arrived.

Knowing a bit about the history of a place definitely inspires travel.  People go to Rome to see its historic ruins, I want to go to Cambodia and southern India to see its beautiful temples.   I would love to go to the middle East because it is the birthplace of civilization.    It really is the history of a place that defines everything about a place….culture, food, why certain things exist today, animal species, environment and geography (its not just human history people) so history sort of governs everything about a place that makes people want to travel to it.

It is definitely nice to learn a bit about the history of a place before you arrive.   The locals greet you more warmly when you have taken the time to learn about their history, culture, and life.

CHEERS!

This is part of Boots n All 2012 Indie Travel Challenge. I’m doing this in hopes of becoming a more consistent and better travel-blogger.   And because I really can’t wait until I can go back to see Croatia again (and the rest of Eastern Europe.) 

Germany is a very environmentally friendly country, but as Americans, we were still surprised to have our new bed delivered by a bicycle. It never had a mattress, it was just the wooden bed frame in boxes….and delivered on a bike!

Ali is a travel addict who has been to all 7 continents before her 30th birthday. She met her husband through twitter, and they fell in love while 4600 miles apart. She just got back from a round the world trip and is now fumbling through life as an expat in Germany. She is always planning the next trip.

You can read about her travels and life as an expat on her blog Ali’s Adventures.

You can also find Ali and her adventures on:

Twitter @aliadventures7

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/aliadventures

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/aligarland

This is part of a new series of photos I’m calling:

“Things You Don’t See At

Home”.

Have your own photo of something strange, new, awesome you have seen while traveling and want to guest-post here as part of my weekly, Friday THINGS YOU DON’T SEE AT HOME series?

Send me an email at nomaddanib@gmail.com with ‘THINGS YOU DON’T SEE AT HOME’ in the subject, along with your photo (JPEG), short caption, link to your personal travel/fanpage and short bio.

Look for “Things You Don’t See At Home” photos every Friday. (to coincide with #FriFoto on Twitter).

CHEERS!

What have you done in your own visits to Europe to make it more budget-friendly or to get away from the crowds? If you were going to spend several weeks – or several months – in Europe, where would you go (and why)?

Croatia.

Ok, so I’ve been to Croatia, and I absolutely love Split. (If you’ve read my blog, you’ve probably figured this out by now.)  There are beaches, access to many buses and ferries, and its pretty central to the rest of Europe, Asia, and Africa.    I would move to Split in a second.  Its amazing there.

What did I do to make Europe more budget friendly when I went?

• I avoided going during tourist season (leaving Sept 2 vs. Aug 31 saved me a few hundred dollars).

• I stayed in hostels with kitchens so I could cook my own food (in Croatia  you can eat 3 meals for $10 a day…in Bulgaria its only $3) .

• I didn’t go anywhere on the Euro.  (sorry euro, but I can’t afford you). 

• I avoided tourist groups and larger crowds by shopping in the markets in the morning, (like 6am or earlier if I wanted fish) , climbing along the rocks to pick out my own part of the ocean to relax in versus staying on the tourist sections (its not hard to scramble the rocks on the coastline to get away from 90% of the tourists).  I also just walked around aimlessly sometimes. 

Because I only had a few weeks in the Balkans (5 weeks) and wanted to visit more than just Croatia, I did end up more in the touristy areas, with much less exploration than I would have liked to.  But I also was able through cooking food, traveling by bus, staying in hostels or hooking up with other backpackers to share private rooms and train sleepers stay in the Balkans for 5 weeks, on $2,300 (including round-trip airfare).

Travel hint…often sharing sleeper cars and private room can be cheaper than individual dorm beds or train tickets (with 4 people, it can often be cheaper to pool resources and roommate than buy separate beds in a dorm or separate seats on a train seats.)

If I were to go back to Europe to spend some time (and since this is my fantasy I am going to pretend I am also independently wealthy), I would love to visit more of the Croatian islands, like Mljet.  I also want to visit…you know….id visit every single country in Europe, for at least a month each.

Why?

Why not.

I could list them all here, but it would be easier to say where I don’t want go.

So the places in Europe I DON’T want to visit are:

CHEERS!

This is part of Boots n All 2012 Indie Travel Challenge, and yes, that ending was on purpose. I’m doing this in hopes of becoming a more consistent and better travel-blogger.  And visiting every country in Europe!