MindStorm Photography Blog and Gallery – Page 15 – Travel Photography by Burt Johnson and Evelyn Johnson

May 12, 2022June 3, 2022

Balkans 6 – Albania 2

In Prizren, Kosovo, we got up before dawn to photograph the blue hour (half an hour before sunrise) of a historical bridge and mosque (above). We then left for Tirana after breakfast to return to Albania for a few days.

Enver Hoxha was the president of Albania from 1941 until his death in 1985. He was paranoid that America or Russia would invade his People’s Republic of Albania. He therefore built more than 175,000 bunkers across this tiny country between 1969 and 1986, or roughly 15 per square mile. We saw the bunkers throughout while driving the countryside, and stopped to look inside one of the larger ones (top left and middle left).

We then stopped to photograph the ruins of an ancient Greek city of Apollonia upper right and middle right). It had an old chapel with peeling frescos (lower left), and overlooked the city (lower right).

As we passed through Immigration to return to Albania, we saw ads for BunkArt. We were not really sure what it was. When we asked, we were told it was a major underground nuclear bomb shelter for the Albanian elite, created during the Cold War. After being closed for decades, it has been renovated and turned into a huge museum.

You approach the bunker through a very long tunnel, close to a KM in length (upper-left). Once you begin to enter the bunker itself, you pass through several concrete doors, each a foot thick with ship-style air-tight sealing hatch (upper right). You then pass through a maze of corridors, able to house thousands of people. There were communication rooms (lower left) and even a small grocery store down there (lower right). The museum was well done, with films, old photos, furniture, gas masks, and old uniforms.

Enroute to Kruje, our lunch stop to photograph the castle of Kruje, we saw a field of red poppies and stopped for a break and to grab some photographs (left column). After that lunch, we strolled down a tiny shopping street just below the restaurant. While much of the stuff there was souvenirs, there were a couple of stores selling interesting used musical instruments (middle column) and even antique cameras and telephones (right column).

Our Albanian guide knew of a pair of old trains that were being stored on a track in the city of Durres that had been turned into a graffiti canvas, so we decided to make a side trip and check it out. Surprisingly, we were told that these two trains are actually still used on occasion from this train station, though it was not clear just when or for whom.

This was Mehmet’s 58th birthday (our Turkish guide with whom we have traveled on seven tours, under his company Turfantastik Turizm). I had asked our Albanian guide (Arber) to have a special cake made. He asked Mehmet for his favorite image from Thethi, without telling Mehmet why he wanted it. Arber then arranged for a delicious cake to be made using that photograph on the surface, and a miniature photographer standing on the cake.

Mehmet was completely surprised, as we had hoped. You can see him taking a photo of his own cake and grinning (right).

May 11, 2022May 25, 2022

Balkans 5 – Kosovo

Today we drove south from Albania to Kosovo. This is a “partially recognized” country that unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and has since been recognized as an independent country by 97 countries in the UN, or less than half the UN membership. It is a tiny country with a population of less than 2 Million.

As we wandered the streets of Gjakova in Kosovo, a wedding couple walked down the street towards us. It was not clear if they had just gotten married or doing a photo session, but they looked like models straight out of a fashion shoot. Their flower girl (upper right) was with them also.

On our way to Prizren, we saw a used tractor yard, and stopped for a break and for photographs. These are all used farm equipment, some in fairly good condition, and some ready for the junkyard, but all for sale. As we continued driving, we saw equipment older than this in active use in many of the fields, so this is likely where smaller or poorer farmers come when they need additional farming equipment.

One thing that was interesting was to note the variety of religions that was represented in this small country. While 90% of the people are muslim, many are not strict with practice, and Kosovo does not have an official religion. Here the various religious groups seem to coexist, and even graveyards are multi-denominational.

We walked through the quaint downtown area of Gjakova, and met with several shop owners doing business the way their fathers and grandfathers had done. This included a tailor (lower left) working on a foot pedal sewing machine making traditional costumes. Also, a cabinet maker (upper left) who told us that his grandfather had opened his shop, that his father had run it, and now he does. However, he said his children are no longer interested in the business, and his son is studying computer engineering in college.

There were many other businesses along this area, including the restaurant shown lower-right. However, there were also a surprising number of shuttered and permanently closed businesses, such as upper-right. Our guide said that part of this was due to Covid, but a larger portion was simply Kosovo citizens leaving the country, looking for better opportunities elsewhere.

We always enjoy watching the people in any area that we visit, and Kosovo was no exception. Almost everyone welcomed being photographed, such as the man upper-left, sitting in front of a restaurant, who laughed when our cameras came out.

Our group also tries to often shoot photographs of unusual details, and sometimes a photo of someone taking the photo turns out better than the originally intended photo — such as the lower-right image where Mehmet (our guide from Turfantastic) tried to capture an interesting image of an ancient fountain with the minaret in the background.

May 10, 2022May 27, 2022

Balkans 4 – Albania 1

After leaving Montenegro and traveling for most of the day over windy rough roads, we arrived in the village of Thethi in the alps of northern Albania. Thethi is a hiker’s paradise, and there is quite a building boom with new hostels and guest houses. The main reason for coming here was to photograph this old Catholic church against the stunning stunning mountains in the Theth Valley during the Blue Hour (roughly half an hour after sunset, when the sky turns a deep blue for about 10 minutes), producing images such as lower-right.

Mehmet was shocked by the physical changes that had been made to the area, so the image of the church that had been shot years earlier has changed drastically. Instead of a church painted by auto headlights, this church had its own harsh wall lighting, with a power pole and fence across the front of the church. Travel to this part of the world has been largely blocked for the past two years due to COVID. Now that travel is starting up again, we are viewing scenery not seen by outsiders for a couple years. It turns out that many locations used that time to “improve” their environment. Of course, adaptability is needed by photographers and travelers. The power lines that were added (upper right and middle left) required careful framing to keep out of the image, or use of photoshop.

Enroute to Theth Valley, we came across a sheep herder Mirac from Serbia, with his flock walking down the road (upper left). He smiled and laughed when we stopped our bus and said we wanted to photograph them. Later we came across an old woman with a small flock of sheep in a field (middle left), where we also stopped for photos. What we love about photo tours vs traditional tours is the willingness to make unplanned stops whenever a Kodak moment presents itself.

The village itself is tiny, and mostly survives by farming and catering to hikers. It is surrounded by high mountains (lower right) that hikers love to explore.

We ate a home-cooked lunch at a small farmhouse. Our group (upper left) enjoyed the lamb, along with copious amounts of rakia and wine, both of which were surprisingly good and home brewed. All the food was cooked by Prenn, the mother (middle left and lower left), while the lamb was raised and butchered by Deda, her son (lower right). The home-brewed rakia was potent, and reminds us of the Turkish brew, Raki, without the anise.

After leaving Thethi, we drove to Shkodra, one of the most important and oldest cities in Albania and known as the center of Albanian Catholicism. One of our first stops there was to photograph the legendary Rozafa Castle.

The Albanian flag flew over the fort ruins (upper right), as we were presented with a stunning view of the city below (middle right, with Arber, our Albanian guide looking over the scene). The other side of the fort shows the winding river. This river made this area strategically significant, and was the main reason this country has been invaded countless times over the centuries.

We spent one afternoon just wandering around town and watching people and architecture. We found one man making clothes on an old pedal tread sewing machine (upper left), while a woman in gold stood on a balcony and lip-synched songs to attract people to the restaurant below (lower left).

One of our favorite “catches” was a group of men playing dominos (center) on the main square. Each man held his cards out of view of his opponents, just as you would commonly see in a game of poker (lower right).

Shkodra was a very busy town, with people always moving. Motorcycles (upper row) were plentiful, but bicycles (middle left, middle, lower right) ruled the streets and plazas. As the evening wore on, numerous young women with strollers (middle right) started showing up on the streets, along with the occasional child on a scooter (lower left).

This was a vibrant part of town, with businesses of all types open and often filled with customers.

And, of course, Mehmet continued to feed us like kings. I was starting to wonder if this was really a photography tour or a gastronomy tour. He makes sure we get both in the package.

May 8, 2022May 27, 2022

Balkans 3 – Montenegro

After leaving Bosnia, we traveled South and entered Montenegro, which means “Black Mountain.” This country is ringed by mountains that are… you guessed it, largely black. In recent history, this country was declared a kingdom in 1910, then merged into Yugoslavia after WWI. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Montenegro combined with Serbia to form a federation. Finally, in 2006, Montenegro declared independence and became its own country. They are members of many international associations, and are in advanced stages of acceptance to join the EU.

After arriving in Kotor, a quaint city located right on the Adriatic Sea, we walked up a very steep hill, mostly on cobblestone steps (upper left), to the medieval St. John’s fort for most of an hour, to see an overview of the city and bay (upper right and lower left). There are 4 Unesco World Heritage sites in Montenegro, which is a coastal city that is a summer home for many (including former President Tito) and where real estate prices are escalating. Cruise ships regularly stop over, as well as many sailing ships.

We often enjoy market scenes, so a visit to the local market just outside the city walls was an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours.

We visited a lake for some water reflection shots of the local town. As it happened, the water level was such that we really had to be on a boat to get the reflection shot Mehmet envisioned. The visible boats were mostly rowboats that were flooded and not exactly ready to carry photographers (bottom).

Never to let a small thing like that interfere, Mehmet went into gear and hired a boat to take us out. Our boat captain was related to one he hired years earlier (middle right), and steered us carefully out to the middle of the lake, so as to not disturb the calm water that created the reflection of the village (upper and middle).

Our boat captain took us through a tunnel and through a mangrove forest, to an area of open water with hundreds of water lilies (upper left), where we were able to practice shots using foregrounds and backgrounds.

The next destination is Kotor, a medieval town with Venetian and Austro-Hungarian palaces and fortifications, which is located on the picturesque Adriatic Sea. Kotor has been classified as a UNESCO world heritage site since 1979 with its red roofs, narrow cobblestone streets, walled city, spires, domes and architecture. The highlight of the excursion was chartering a boat to photograph the church islands at the small fishing village of Perast at sunset, then a fish dinner watching the sun set on shore. the Medieval Old Town, Kotor, is known as the most beautiful town on Montenegro coast.

The Bay of Kotor is a playground for boaters. It has become a favorite of the cruise ships, so our guide carefully started our walking tours before the tour boats got into town and scheduled outings on the water and dinners after the crowds disperse. When the water is calm, reflections can be found everywhere you look.

There are at least 6 historical churches worth exploring and the city is lined with architectural details. It has less than 25,000 residents.

While exploring around the Old Town it didn’t take long to notice that Kotor has an unusually high population of cats. They seemed to be everywhere, including having its own Cat Museum! There is a story that because Kotor is a town between sea and mountains, there were lots of mice and rats and snakes, and it was necessary to have the cats in the town to protect it. So cats have become a symbol of good luck for Montenegro, at least according to the souvenir shop owner. You can find ceramic cats, souvenirs, t-shirts, jewelry, as well as live cats in almost every home. The official symbol of Montenegro is the Venetian lion, but the cat appears to be is the unofficial symbol of Kotor.

Great food and outdoor dining can be found everywhere. As always, Mehmet introduced us to the tastiest restaurants.

May 6, 2022May 20, 2022

Balkans 2 – Bosnia 2

This is part 2 of 2 describing our travels in Bosnia and Herzegovina (which will be shortened to Bosnia in further comments). Part 1 can be viewed here. As before, this is a continuation of our photo tour with Mehmet Özbalci of TurFantastic.

Before meeting up with our photo group, we explored the streets around the Old Town. At the photogenic Old Town Square was the historic wood Sebilj fountain, and behind it was where several hundred pigeons roost aka Pigeon Square. In this area were children feeding them corn that they had purchased from a vendor on the square. We spent hours just watching, photographing, and occasionally talking to the people in the area. Although it is was mostly children feeding the pigeons, one married woman in a full hijab and other adults were also delighted to have the pigeons feed from their hands (left-middle). If you sign up for a walking tour, you can also visit the site where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated that started World War 1.

During our wanderings in various Bosnian towns, we saw a diversity of people of different ethnicities and religions all living together. The men lower-right are praying at a mosque. Sometimes you could see a person looking out of an upper floor window at the passing crowd (upper right), and many young people were shopping for clothes or jewelry (middle-right). One painter with many good pieces of the Old Bridge spoke to us briefly through our translator, and happily posed while showing off the art he was currently working on (upper left).

We arrived in Sarajevo a couple days before the rest of our photo tour group. At Mehmet’s suggestion, we made a beeline to the cable car, for a view from above the city. We were fortunate to have a clear day, since it began to rain and be overcast the very next day. Above are views from the cable car trip up and down.

One afternoon we hiked up a very steep and rather long hill to see the fort at Pojitelj (upper-left). The other images are things we saw on our way up that climb. One item of interest was the very thick slate roofs that the buildings had (closeup of roof lower-right).

In this part of the world, you are never far from reminders of the destruction of war. We stopped on the side of the road at one such location, a bombed out hotel (above). This had been a luxury hotel, but was bombed by the serbs because it was being used by the enemy in the 1990s.

Grafitti is throughout Sarajevo. Some of it is just gang signatures. Some is a bit higher level, but still gang related (top-left and lower-left). One famous graffiti artists is Mr Chat. Though he has not been active for years, his signature style can still be seen in some places (upper-right) Much of the other graffiti is actually spray paint over templates, and thus repeated multiple times in town (middle, lower-right, lower-middle).

One such frequent template graffiti is calling for justice for Vedran Puljic (middle). In 2009, there was “football riot” at a game in town, a fairly frequent occurrence at soccer games throughout Europe. In this instance, an off-duty policeman opened fire on the crowd, and killed Vedran. That policeman was arrested, but then escaped and fled to Croatia. The graffiti is calling for Justice for Vedran, wanting that policeman extradited back to Bosnia for trial.

The Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo in 1984, just 8 years before the Bosnian War began to put the town under siege. The bobsled track was used for various events after the Olympics, but has not been used since the War began. It is now one of the largest platforms for artistic graffiti in the area, as seen above.

Watching vendors and street musicians (upper right) is always a favorite pastime of ours on these trips. The local indoor market was a treat, and we sampled several smoked meats and cheeses.

There are always souvenir shops in pretty much any large city in the world. Many of the items for sale in Sarajevo are made from old bullets (center and top right). Interesting, but also rather disturbing… There are also many silver and copper smiths shops (top left), creating bookmarks (top middle) or serving plates (bottom middle) and serving sets (bottom left). We even saw several Russian Matryoshka dolls (bottom right).

Any time you travel with Mehmet, you can be sure that you will never be hungry, and that you will have the chance to sample local foods in every country you travel in. The classic street food we enjoyed included cevapi, pite and burek. Above are a few of the dishes we sampled in Bosnia.

May 5, 2022May 27, 2022

Balkans 1 – Bosnia 1

We have just started our latest adventure with Mehmet Özbalci of TurFantastic, this time to photograph five Balkan countries. Mehmet has become our favorite photography tour guide, and we have traveled with him to Iran, Sri Lanka, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and other countries. He knows where to go at which time for the best photographic light, and he worries, so that we don’t have to… ☺

We started in Sarajevo, the capital, and this is the first of two blog posts covering Bosnia & Herzegovina. You cannot really travel in this country without being constantly reminded of the Bosnian war, when Serajevo was encircled and under siege from 1992 until 1995, making it the longest siege in modern warfare (3 years, 10 months, 3 weeks and 3 days). The city looks sparkling and new, but many buildings have signs telling that they were totally destroyed during the war, and that what we see has been rebuilt since the end of that war.

For example, the building shown above was the local library prior to the war. The plaque (top-middle), says that arsonists burned it to the ground on August 25, 1992. They destroyed over 2 Million books and manuscripts, many of with were original and one-of-a-kind, dating back many centuries. The building you see here replaces that library, and is now used as a City Hall plus museum.

Bosnia (the proper name of the country is Bosnia and Herzegovina, but I will generally shorten it to Bosnia in these blogs) is proud of the abundant source of water they have, and many of their bridges are artistic architectural marvels, including the arch bridges Latin Bridge, Mostar and Konije. In many cases, these bridges were originally built as long ago as the 15th century, though many were destroyed during the war, and then rebuilt after the fighting stopped. We photographed the breathtaking Old Bridge at Mostar(top right) during the blue hour, which was also a gem for culinary and nightlife.

According to a 2013 census, 51% of Bosnians are Muslim, 46% are Christian, with an estimated 1000 Jews in the country, and remaining being athiest or other religions. This split was a large reason for the Bosnian war with the Muslims and Christians waging war, despite Sarajevo being almost equally split. The ethnic groups include Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. There are many mosques, churches and a synagogue in town. St Paul II, the then-pope of the Catholic church, visited Sarajevo in 1997, trying to help heal the pain of the recent war. There is now a statue of him (middle) in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral (top middle).

The architecture of Bosnia is quite diversified. Some of the buildings are new, having been built since The War (center), and often sitting right next to older buildings showing much war damage (left building in center image). Spires from mosques, churches, and even clock towers are throughout the city.

Many of the streets are very narrow, with those in the center of Sarajevo filled with restaurants and souvenir shops (top and middle rows). Sarajevo was the first city in Europe to have an electric train system, which means it used to have the newest system in Europe, and now it has the oldest (lower-left). You can also see men (always men…) on bicycles collecting recycling materials (lower-right).

As I mentioned earlier, The War, defined as the Bosnian siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995, is never far from anyone’s mind in Bosnia. Here are a few of the bombed out buildings that can still be seen around the area, along with one phrase inscribed in rock that is the catch-phrase of Bosnia (lower-right).

During the siege, hundreds of mortars were fired into Sarajevo every day for almost four years. Mortars were dropped at an average rate of 330 shells per day. More than 11,000 people were killed and more than 50,000 were wounded from these attacks.

Throughout the city, there are bronze frames in the sidewalk, surrounding a hole and splatter out from that hole. These are places where mortar shells exploded, killing civilians, and are called Sarajevo Roses. The hole is the crater created from the mortar shell, with the splatter showing where the bomb fragments flew. These are colored red, to remind people walking by of the blood that was shed there (all except center image).

Our tour guide held a map for us to see, showing where the enemy surrounded the city (in red). There was a small corridor in the NorthEast that remained held by the Bosnians, which served as the only means for getting food and supplies into the city during the siege (center).

We visited one small War Museum, showing remnants of The War. The story about Cold Kills Too (upper-left) reported on the fact that there was no heating oil, no gas, and little food. The winters in Sarajevo are cold, which also killed civilians. The lower-left image shows the variety of landmines that the enemy put into the ground surrounding the city. Lower-center shows a small underground room where a Bosnian soldier may sleep between battles. Other images show various armaments used by the Bosnian military in the defense of the city. The chart (lower-right) indicates there were 300,000 inhabitants in the city, under siege from 1992 until 1995.

We visited several cemeteries in Bosnia. One was dedicated to soldiers that died during the siege (top and center rows). One was dedicated to children killed in the same War (middle-right and lower-left), which included 6 cylinders (only 3 are shown) that listed the name of each of the almost 1600 children killed. We visited the soldier cemetery on May 2, which is the day that Muslims visit the graves of loved ones (lower-right).

There are only an estimated 1000 Jewish people in all of Bosnia, yet they do have a couple of synagogues. We visited one in Sarajevo, shown above.

Bosnia is surrounded by mountains, which yield many beautiful landscapes. We visited the waterfalls at Blagaj for lunch one day (bottom), where we also had the best seafood restaurant we’ve ever experienced. The other images are views of the cities from various mountain viewpoints throughout the country.

May 2, 2022May 27, 2022

Istanbul – Resuming Travel in 2022

We are traveling again! The world of Pandemic COVID has not completely disappeared, but it is finally fading into the background, where the variants will likely become an embedded part of everyone’s lives forever. For those with access to vaccines, there is not much more of a concern than seasonable flu.

We flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles, and then to Istanbul, to start this year’s travels. We stayed at the Arcadia Blue hotel in Istanbul, as it is our favorite hotel in this city. It overlooks both the Blue Mosque (upper left), which was inexplicably not lit at night this time, and the Hagia Sophia mosque. The images on the left shown here were out of our hotel window just after dawn and sunset.

We only spent one full day in Istanbul on this trip, as it was our stop-over to Sarajevo. We walked a block to the Hagia Sophia in the morning. When we were last here in 2016, this was a museum, and there was scaffolding on all walls. It has since been transformed from a museum back into a mosque. As a mosque, there was brighter lighting, which helped with photography, but also meant there were bright chandeliers at every angle.

Though this is now an active mosque, the tourists far outnumbered the faithful (lower middle). Many people sat on the floors with their smartphones (top row), or followed tour guides (center, lower-left and lower-right). Noticeably missing were the Chinese tourists.

That afternoon we searched for a Whirling Dervish demonstration. Kadir, our host, took us under his wing, and helped us out getting to and from the hotel, and also introduced us to a man next door with unique-colored eyes, who raised hundreds of homing pigeons. We climbed several flights of narrow, rickety steps with no handrail, making me question my sanity in go on this adventure. When we finally emerged, it was worth it though, with a rooftop view of the Bosphorus in the background.

Erdpgan showed us his pigeon roosts (middle left), and fed some of the hundreds he has (lower right). He then brought out a pigeon only 4 weeks old (lower-left) and another only 2 days old (upper-right).

35 second video showing the pigeons and chicks in action.

When we were in Istanbul in 2016, we attended a performance of the Whirling Dervish. We decided to attend a similar performance by a different company on this trip. There was lots of confusion involved, since the group had changed venues during the pandemic, but Mehmet, our Turkish friend, eventually found the new location and purchased tickets. The performance was very similar to our earlier experience, albeit in a smaller room with fewer dancers.

30 second video showing the actual whirling of the dervishes.

As always, we like to watch the people when we travel. When visiting the train station to get the Dervish tickets, we saw this girl eating corn-on-the-cob (lower-right), a popular treat in Istanbul. We captured a couple images before she scampered off. Her parents spoke no English, but offered to have her sit again for us to take photographs. We later sent the parents copies of the photos, and in return they offered us to join them for tea in Turkey (all using Google Translate to communicate).

As we noted in our last Turkey blog posts, cats are everywhere. In the restaurants, they show up at the edge of the table with big needy eyes telling you silently that they are starving and need your food (despite all being obviously well fed!). They are well behaved though, and never climb on the table, nor grab for any treats that are not handed to them.

I rarely photograph my food, and even more rarely post those food photos on our blog. The meals we had in Istanbul just begged to be shown though. Above you see the kind of dishes we got at every meal in every restaurant. You certainly never leave the table hungry here!

April 24, 2022April 24, 2022

Living in Ecuador as an Expat (video)

We have begun to get settled into Honolulu, and establishing our routines here. One of my personal routines is membership into the Eyes of Hawaii camera club here. At the request of members, I have created a couple of narrated slide shows.

The most recent slide show, that will be shown in August, when we return from our upcoming trip to Asia, is “Living in Ecuador as an Expat.”

I present it here, for you to also see.

April 14, 2022April 24, 2022

Travels to Iran (Video)

We traveled to Iran in 2019, spending two weeks traveling the country. We were concerned about going. We expected drab, dreary automatons, afraid of the outside world and hating Americans and a hostile part of the world. We were completely wrong about every aspect of Iran that we had preconceptions about. Instead of being a frightening and frightened society, Iran is now perhaps our favorite country among our list of 89 countries so far.

The Eyes of Hawaii Camera Club asked me to create a slideshow of our Iranian trip. It is now live on YouTube: