Once again, Christmas time is upon us and many public spaces of Brussels have been decorated with festive lights. This is a view of the prestigious Louise avenue, which was among the first in the city to prepare for the winter sales. I especially like the play of light created by the reflection in the parked cars. Today a lot of snow has fallen and I bet the street looks even nicer with the ground covered in white. Happy holidays, everyone!
Piazza della Republica in Rome. This photo is about a year old, but I decided to upload it because I consider it my first successful night shot. It is also the first time I used a tripod – one of those 12 cm telescopic things they sell to tourists. If you have unsteady hands like I do, it is very difficult to do something decent under bad lighting without support. That tripod has crumbled under the weight of my SLR shortly after that shot was taken, but has since been replaced by a full size aluminum one.
This palace is quite close to the Jemma el Fna square. It has some amazing decorations inside, on the floors, walls and ceilings. Some of the tiling done in the palace looks really nice. There are plenty of places inside that provide a nice shade in the summers heat.
The palace looks nice but it is in desperate need of restoration and if this was done it would look a million times better.
There was an entrance fee of 10 dirhams.
Text taken from virtualtourist.com
A spice vendor’s stand at a souq (a commercial quarter in an Arab or Berber city) in Marrakesh. All souqs are specialized and grouped together by craft: there one for spices, textiles, glass, iron, wood, dye and many others. Walking around this labyrinth of winding narrow covered market streets is definitely a picturesque experience, however it sometimes could be tinted by the overly pushy vendors. Also beware of the local youths which will follow you at the pretense of showing you around, while actually attempting to snatch your wallet as soon as you get distracted.
Djemaa el Fna, the main square of Marrakesh literally transforms at sunset. The space, which is relatively empty apart from the freshly squeezed orange juice vendors during the day, really livens up at first signs of sunset. A multitude of food stalls get assembled to cover the bigger part of the square entirely in less than half an hour. As the air cools down visitors arrive and chose a stall to sit down and eat. A variety of dishes is offered on the menu: soups and salads, grilled meat and vegetables as well as local classics such as tajine and couscous. All that is accompanied by drinks from the Coca-Cola company, which seems to be paramount in Morocco, mineral water or tea. Surprisingly enough, with the level of hygiene and the raw mean lying around for hours in the open, I didn’t even get food poisoning after eating there.
Probably the best part of this whole experience was the moment when all the stalls started hooking up their lighting systems – basically wire garlands with evenly spaced white light bulbs on them which plugged into the power outlines provided for that end in the square floor. After that the whole place magically lit up creating a mysterious carnival atmosphere which made my late night dinner all the more enjoyable.
The port of Essaouira, Morocco was once upon a time Africa’s busiest seaport. It was built in order to facilitate the slave traffic to Europe, and later on to the New World. It was a sort of waiting point, where slaves from all over Africa were regrouped. There they created their own kind of music called Gnawa (alternatively Gnaoua) and of which a very popular festival is hosted every year.
Also a really old photo from Abbaye de la Cambre. One of the first successful shots I’ve taken way back when I just got my first SLR – the Nikon D40, which I still have today. Went to the la Cambre Abbey in Ixelles on a sunny day to experiment with lighting, focus and the two sets of lenses I got in the camera kit: the 18-55mm and 55-200mm Nikkors. Not really much else I can say about this shot, except that it somehow always reminds me of the (scarce) Belgian summer.
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