Lazy Sunday in Lima

Another postmodern architecture in Urban Lima.  I like how the colonial window sits below a more modern window.  The blue curtains harmonize well with the yellow wall.  The red brick building on the right creates a nice contrast.  The traffic light - well, it just happened to be there but I think it makes the image more interesting.

Shot taken with the iPhone 7 plus while on a coach driving through the city.  Not much activity going on.  It was a lazy Sunday.

Where there is Despair, Hope

Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy - Francis of Assisi

This was at our last night in Peru.  I must have taken close to a thousand photos in a course of a week, and I decided to skip the rest and head to the last batch of images.  Shot using the iPhone 7 plus prior to our farewell dinner.  Not sure what kind of leaves were these.  Probably some kind of Ivy.  I love how the colors were changing.  It's springtime in Peru.  Every plants are green except this one.  I thought it seemed odd for this time of the year.  

Hope you enjoy.

Postmodern Architecture in Lima

By now, many of you would have guessed that the most popular color in Lima urban architecture is yellow. The window on the left is a colonial style influenced by the Spaniards.  On the contrary, the two other windows are minimal and modern in design.  This architecture is definitely postmodern - a style that is no longer unique in the States and in Europe.  

Hope you enjoy.

How One Selfie Stick Can Make People Happy

Don't you just love how happy they are?  It's fascinating how a single selfie stick can turn all smiles.  The smiles are natural and not contrived.  They are looking at themselves at the screen.  They must like what they see.  Even the passer by appears to be humored.

I still like shooting street scenes.  It is getting more and more difficult nowadays.  As people are tending to be cautious about privacy.  Yet, the rise of selfies using smart phones makes for an accessible condition for shooting images of people operating these devices on the street.

I believe this was shot at the Miraflores district of Lima, Peru.  Miraflores can be translated as "looking at flowers" in English.  In this case, they are looking at themselves as beautiful flowers.  Or so what I think it is.

Juzno Appropriates Art from Urban Lima

Urban art is not suppose to make sense.  Unless if you’re Banksy, then social and political commentaries are permissible.  I made this art work with no objective nor purpose in mind other than I wanted to create art.  What is art for art sake? Perhaps this is one example.  A happy chef delights on one of his customers who had breakfast at his kitchen.  The irony is the customer doesn’t care.  She just wants to move on.  After all breakfast should be optional.  Nobody died from missing breakfast.  On the other hand, people died from eating their first meal of the day.  Some choked.  Others had a heart attack.  Others just dropped dead.  For whatever reason.  Eating can be hazardous to ones health.  This is folly. 

Hope you’re enjoying your day.

Peruvian Style Street

Claire and Jason are Ozzies.  They belong to our tour group in Peru.  Half in our group are from Adelaide, Australia. About 15 or so.  They're a good bunch.  They like to drink and party almost every night.

At this point, we are still in Lima.  There is noticeable police presence at the town square.  This is a good sign.  Or not.  The place is a favorite among tourists.  So that means there could be pick pocketing or petty crimes.  After all Peru is still a third world country.

Really love this image.  I love the combination of yellow and blue that paint the overall urban scene.  Claire is very photogenic, but she gets conscious when she knows her photo is being taken.  Jason is Jason. They are not a couple.  But I managed to capture them together.  Don't know who the water bottle belongs to.  The police are laid back.   Perhaps that is a good sign.

Hope you are enjoying your day.

Casa Cultura in Lima

This was shot by mistake.  I inadvertently had the camera set on Miniature so the image looked like it was shot with a tilt shift lens.  I like the result so I ended up keeping it.  As the saying goes, there are really no accidents.  Nothing happens by chance.

Hope your day is going well.

Still Life with Red and Green Apples

Still in Lima.  I wasn't sure what to make of this image.  It appears to be a painting but it's not.  Shot with the Fujifilm X100F with a teleconverter.  Layered the original image with textures and played with the curves to get a painterly effect.

Here in the States people are celebrating Thanksgiving Day.  It's a day when most people also splurge and over eat.  Roasted turkey is very popular as the main course.  Most likely stuffed with all kinds of all American goodies that I don't really care for.  At times, dinner table decorums are thrown aside, and people start talking about religion and politics.  The next thing you know is food fight on the rise.   It could get worse.  I know.  I've been there.  Rose and I are just by ourselves as we are both under the weather.  I think we'll just have a fruit bowl.

Hope you enjoy.

Cebiche at Lima

Our first meal upon arriving in Lima, Peru.  Cebiche consisting of raw octopus, onions, herbs, yellow chili sauce, and some magical ingredients.  Kind of looks no different from the Mexican Ceviche except the Peruvian Cebiche has more in common with the Japanese Sashimi.  The Mexicans use raw fish which is marinated for three days or so.  The Japanese and the Peruvians eat their dish as soon as they are prepared.  Apparently, the Japanese came over to Peru around late 1800s.  In Japan, the fisherman would eat raw fish while they are fishing in the open sea.  This manner of eating raw fish influenced how the Peruvians prepare their Cebiche (correct spelling as opposed to Ceviche).

Not for the faint hearted.  But if you try it, you may want to drink some Pisco Sour or Brandy for extra precautions - to kill the bugs.

Wisdom Superior to Folly

As obvious as it may be, we continue to fall trap into folly and ignore wisdom.

If the ax is dull,

And one does not sharpen the edge,

Then he must use more strength;

But wisdom brings success.

Ecclesiastes 10:10

Salmon Breakfast

Smoked Salmon, soft boiled egg, cheese curd, dills, capers.  A glass of chilled Prosecco coming up.

Have a great day.

Scallop Mango Salad

Bon Appetit!

Hope your day goes well.

Lennon Glasses

He has been gone for decades but his music lives on.

Captured on expired Kodak 100 Tmax using the Hasselblad 500CM and 80mm with extenders.  Self-developed using Ilfosol 3, Ilfostop and Ilford Rapid Fixer.  All 1 + 9 solution.  I made mistake by using the fixer after the developer when it should have been the stop bath.  Still, I think the result is decent.

Film is not dead.

Tannery Building

Taken from the balcony of a tannery building at Fes in Morocco.  The place is really a compound comprising of several buldings.  The smell coming from the outside is remarkably strong.  Strong as in really really bad as blood from the animals are washed and tanned on several pools.  The skins which will be processed as leather are dried to hang.  I think Fes is one of my favorite places I visited in Morocco.  Not that I especially like Morocco.  But to me it's one of which I have good memories.  The other ones gave me bad experience.

Hope your day is going well.

OCD Girl

OCD = Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Girl = any female homo sapien who thinks and acts like a child; sometimes referred to as a babe by Millennials; a gal by Baby Boomers; and a broad by old men born before 1940.

Life is like an Onion

Life is like an Onion indeed.   Layers keep peeling off, and new sprouts come out.

Hope your day is going well.

Bienvenido

Welcome, welcome.  We are your Spanish hostesses. You like cerveza?  We have mucho.  Por favor, please come in.  Welcome, welcome.  You like tapas?  We have mucho.  Why you not like to come in?  Is it because we are airheads?  You must be sexist!  Go away!

Keep us Together

Have a wonderful weekend.

Red Wine and Chocolate Laderach

A great pairing in my opinion.  Enjoy!

Selling Castle Haarzuilens (ii)

Somewhere in Haarzuilens

Dear Ms Real Estate Person,

I trust that you are in good disposition.   You will recall my previous request for you to look into selling my castle in Haarzuilens.  I am hoping that you have made significant progress to my request as  a lot of things have happened.  Not only has the tax people been threatening to sequester my assets, I am now being pursued by the Dutch court for allegations concerning illicit use of recreational medicinal in my own humble abode.  Nonsense.  The concept that recreational medicinal is illegal is oxymoronic.  Besides I have stopped doing illicit drugs since our last North American tour.  I now confine my habit to Jack Daniels, which I believe is still legal.  By the way, the moat in the castle has been fixed so you don't have to worry about  prospective buyers falling into the water.  The water is cold but it won't kill ya.  I remember when Mick was stoned out of his face one time that he thought it would be a great idea to play a small gig with the band on one of the castle's boats.  We all went along with him.  Mick sang Satisfaction, which was the craziest sound I have ever heard since we were playing Brown Sugar instead.  Anyway, Bill got so upset that he finally threw Mick off the boat.  A sorry sight to see - considering Mick was wearing my Armani jacket.  Mick survived but never wanted to visit my castle again.  Oh well, I digress.  Again, I would appreciate if you can expedite the selling of my property.  I'm attaching an updated photo that my friend Juzno recently took.  I'll be driving down south to Luxembourg in the next few days so I hope we can finalize a deal before then.


Very Much Yours,
Keith Richards

Children in Iloilo

Clickity clicking bang bang.

They loved to be photographed.  Especially by a strange Kano, which they called me because they thought I was blond and was fair skinned.  Truth was I have gray hair turning more into white, and I hadn't gone out in the sun for too long.  Or maybe it was the "fancy camera" I was using.  I shot this with the 20mm Voitlander mounted on the Canon 5D.  Not sure if it was the original 5D or the Mark II.    The lens was a bit tricky to use since it can only focus manually.  I think I shot mainly at f8 or f11 to compensate if I missed the focusing.

Rock Outtakes

One of the outtakes of the photo op I did with the band Rocktanes.  Sometimes the test shots turn out to be the best ones. Captured in sunny Southern California.  That day felt like we were in Mad Max country.  Hot hot and hot.

She can be your date

She's the perfect date for men who are afraid of the dark.  She doesn't eat much and will always shine a light on her date.  Her blouse doubles as a checker board in case her date gets bored and decides to play a game.  The bird who acts as a chaperone is really a spy.  So be careful what you say to her.

Art by Chihuly

Saw this at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.  The place is dedicated to the art, history and science of glass. The piece above is made by Dale Chihuly, an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur. His works are considered to possess outstanding artistic merit in the field of blown glass.  I've seen some of his works in Seattle.  I heard that he is already blind but he continues to work.

Hope you enjoy.

Unknown Vegetables

I was bored while Rose and her high school classmates were waiting for the baker to finish the cake. So I roamed around the grocery store and started taking pictures of vegetables.  I dig how this one came up.  I think it's a lettuce or maybe a cabbage.  I just call it unknown vegetables.

We are watching you

An imaginary scene at the Amish Market that only exists in my head.  The price of the grapes is a great deal though.  That one is real.