Kabul Street Shots - July 2012

Another installment of a few street shots over the past month.  Several opportunities to venture forth and get some decent photos.  As always, many more cast-offs than keepers.  Here are a few of the best.

Kabul Street Shots, 11 July 2012

Kabul Street Shots Plus a Few Others

Managed to get out again yesterday, but had my trusty Nikon L10 camera instead of the better Canon.  I sprayed and prayed and ended up with about 350 photos, and managed to salvage seven through creative cropping and the usual tweaks in Lightroom.  Just got a book on the program, too, so maybe I can figure out what I'm doing.

Yesterday's photos...

About a week ago, we went out west to Herat, and I ended up with a few decent pictures from that trip as well.  As soon as we landed, I saw a minaret that was due to line up with the sunset, so we dropped our kit, and then ran to find a place to shoot it.  Of course, surrounded by a berm, it was difficult to find a place, but eventually, I hung off the side of a cargo shipping container and squeezed off a few shots.  As the short trip progressed, I made a few more keepers.

Kabul Street Shots 20 June 2012

I'm having to develop some new techniques as I'm getting out every so often.  Basically, since I'm shooting with my travel camera, a Canon PowerShot SX130IS and not my SLR, I'm a little bit limited, especially because I don't have RAW.  But, I'm figuring out some things that work.  

Much of the shooting is from inside a car while moving.  Mostly, I set the ISO for the light conditions, fairly low usually since it's pretty sunny these days.  I'm usually shooting in Program mode at the widest angle to account for the movement and try to get as much as possible in the frame.  It's a 12.1 megapixel camera, so I keep it at the maximum settings to allow for cropping if something actually ends up in the frame.  I also set it to shoot as long as I keep the shutter button pressed.

Since we're driving, and usually not slow enough for proper composition, I tend to look ahead for something interesting, and then as we get close, press the shutter button and "spray and pray" hoping I catch what it was that I wanted.  I just shoot a lot of pictures, and then sort them out later on.  I try to remember to wipe the window down that I'm shooting through, although sometimes the smudges give the photos an interesting look.

As I go through the photos (pulling them into Lightroom), I 3-star the ones that I want to work on and mostly ignore the rest.  Then, I go through them each individually, cropping out the distracting bits, and applying a preset that I created that increases the contrast, clarity, gives it a bit of vignetting and a couple of other things.  Then, I export them to a new folder for use later.  

Such as here and now.

Kabul Street Shots from 20 June.

This was a lucky shot caught just as this school crossing guard was guzzling some water as the kids look on. It looks like they're all giggling at him...

Looking up, I noticed a burka clad woman negotiating her way up a very steep path to her home.  If you look closely, you can see she's being helped by a boy, and you can see another child near the top of the trail. 

A youngster who was hanging about as we were wrapping up our business at the hospital.

Another lucky shot caught just as this lady was passing by as we were driving.

People just doing their thing, walking up and down and across a side street.

A guy hitching a ride behind a truck.  

 A traffic police stand on one of the many traffic circles.  Unoccupied, and probably of minimal effect even if it was.

Move

Move...a video that captures the essence of travel better than any I've seen in a long time. Take a look.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

New Sponsor of Sand and Tsunamis

A couple of days ago, I got an email from one of the advertising representatives at the Adventure Center.  As regular readers know, I've taken three trips that I set up through them.  The first was to Morocco back in 1999.  The second was with Melody and our friend Lori to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam in 2006.  About six months later, I used the company again to set up a trip to China with my buddy Steve.  

Alan, the AC rep, wanted to know if I wanted to put up an "Adventure Finder" widget on the site.  This will be a portal to finding the perfect trip for anyone who would like to use it.  Just fill in the blanks with where you want to go, when you want to go there, and what type of adventure you want.  It will churn around a bit and take you to the Adventure Center website and a multitude of choices.  Give it a try!  

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the widget is an advertisement for the company, and I actually will get a few cents for each click.  In the event that anyone books a trip, I'll get a small percentage of the price as well.  But don't let that stop you from taking a look. It's a great site, with trips that can fit any budget and traveling style, from family to ultimate, multi-month London to Kathmandu via Cape Town overlanding.   

I've been really happy with the trips I've been on, and look forward to our first family trip that we'll book through the Adventure Center.  

LPC China Adventures

Gary Li, our guide from the Silk Road Trip last May, was finally able to set up his company, Lonely Planet China Adventures (LPC China Adventures). The very first day of the trip, he mentioned that he was working on it as we were driving to Tienanmen Square to start our day's touring.

So, if you're traveling to Beijing for the Olympics this year, and have a yearning to see more of China than just the sporting events, head over to Gary's website, Lonely Planet China, and sign up for one of his tours. They span much of the country (unfortunately skipping the farther western areas - maybe in future tours) and he can give you an exciting, safe and incredible experience.

If you mention that I sent you, he'll give you 20% off the already very reasonable prices!

Travel with Gary!