Category Archives: Portrait

Watching Norway v Italy, Oslo Gardemoen airport

Tuesday 11th June 2013, 6.30pm (day 656)

Norway v Italy, 11/6/13

Gosh, here I am in an airport, that hasn’t happened much this year has it (sarcasm warning). Sat out a half-hour flight delay at Oslo airport (which doesn’t seem to be particularly near Oslo) by watching others watching Norway v Italy in the UEFA Under-21 championship: final score 1-1, if you’re interested. Slightly strange light on the guys in the middle but I like the shot anyway, it was taken very candidly and quickly so you never quite know how they’re going to turn out.

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Maria-Carme on the Nordnes peninsula

Friday 7th June 2013, 10.25pm (day 652)

Maria Carme, 7/6/13

Maria-Carme is my hostess/contact/employer/friend in Bergen and almost every trip I have made here during the course of this blog has been down to her, so it’s about time she made it onto the site. As you can see, she has a great look, and this photo also deserves to get on when you consider a) the time it was taken and b) the amount of daylight still in the sky. So much light here at this time of year, so much to see.

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Joe waits for his picnic

Saturday 1st June 2013, 1.05 pm (day 646)

Joe and leeks, 1/6/13

Joe here shows his opinion of gardening, refusing to be impressed even by the relatively substantial leek harvest (these have been in the ground at least a year). Only the promise of a picnic got him up to the garden in the first place, despite the decent weather — but here it is still 10 minutes away.

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Early morning, Abu Dhabi airport

Monday 27th May 2013, 1.05am (day 641)

Abu Dhabi airport, 27/5/13

The title of this post is used with a mild sense of irony. Because of the role this airport wants to play — a bridge between Europe and East Asia/Australia as well as a destination in its own right — many of the flights seem to land and leave here between midnight and 3am, to fit in with flight schedules to and from countries that have stricter controls on when planes can come in and out. As a result, Abu Dhabi airport was as busy at 1am as anywhere I’ve ever been. I didn’t deliberately get a shot of these two, but was taking something of the decorative pillar in the center of Terminal 1 — as many other people were doing to pass the time — as she turned around. Cropping did the rest, it’s a bit out-of-focus but never mind, I quite like this shot.

And so, thanks to a three-hour stopover, another country, the United Arab Emirates, technically makes it onto the blog, though I don’t consider I visited the place. However, I think this shot is a little more representative than the dull one, technically of Singapore, that I got on the stopover during my flight out just over four months ago. This shot also becomes the earliest on any of the 641 days so far, and one of only four taken before 6am.

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Getting the boat back home

Thursday 23rd May 2013, 2.10pm (day 637)

Child on boat, 23/5/13

The boat that took us to the village trip a couple of days ago also serves as a kind of bus service between the two villages on the island of Wayasewa, this little girl was amusing herself while waiting for it to depart this afternoon. My last full day in Fiji, and only three more left in the Southern Hemisphere before I head for home.

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Beach volleyball

Monday 20th May 2013, 1.55pm (day 634)

Beach volleyball, 20/5/13

Is there any point trying to convince any of you that I have actually been working while here on the Yasawas? Going through academic papers and taking notes for my book? No? Didn’t think so.

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A glass of wine at sunset

Sunday 19th May 2013, 5.35pm (day 633)

Wine at sunset, 19/5/13

Almost all the sunsets on Fiji have been good, but seeing as I have a backlog of posts to work through I can pick the best depiction of one and not worry about repetition. Sometimes one is just in the right place at the right time to get a particular shot.

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The ‘Bula’ party

Saturday 18th May 2013, 10.55am (day 632)

Bula party, 18/5/13

‘Bula’ means ‘Welcome’ or ‘Hello’ and you hear it a lot in Fiji – because they are very nice and welcoming people. Each 11am, when the Yasawa Flyer turns up at the resort, the staff gather on the beach to greet the new arrivals. It’s the major event of the morning.

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Uli in the forest, Waya Island

Friday 17th May 2013, 8.30am (day 631)

Uli in forest, 17/5/13

We went on a hike up Mount Nulakaokao (or something like that) today, 10 of us of various nationalities, led by our Fijian guide Ameo, who astonishingly, climbed up and over the volcanic rocks in bare feet. Impossible to cover the whole trek in one picture, but this one wins just for being rather different: it would have been easy to pick one of the views from and of the mountain itself, which were spectacular, but I like the flare effect on this one. This is Uli, from Dortmund, Germany.

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Approaching the Yasawas

Thursday 16th May 2013, 10.00am (day 630)

Approaching the Yasawas, 16/5/13

The Yasawa islands stretch in a more-or-less straight line into the Pacific ocean from a point somewhere to the north-west of the main Fijian islands, and are probably former volcanoes. They are also to be my home (and the home of this Californian girl, and everyone else who was on the Yasawa Flyer catamaran out of Port Denarau marina early this morning) for the next few days. The word ‘Paradise’ is often overused, but in this case I think it’s entirely appropriate. This is a good time.

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