Previous Featured Pictures
I took this picture in Northern Laos in on 10th November 2009. I was staying in a village called Muang Ngoi which is an interesting place in that it is only accessible by river boat and I had taken the boat from the Vietnemse border and stopped at Muang Ngoi, although it is possible to continue on, all the way to Luang Prabang on the Mekong. Muang Ngoi has been discovered by more intrepid travellers but a real delight is to walk out into the surrounding countryside. Here there are villages scattered amongst the beautiful limestone hills and the people make a living from cultivating rice. It’s poor and very primitive, the rice is still threshed by hand, there’s no machinery.
Walking along the trails between villages I came across this young man who had in his hands, a gun. A homemade gun made of bits of scrap metal, no doubt the gunpowder was homemade too, and it fired small stones. It did work as I heard him blasting away with it presumably at birds for the pot, but I can’t confirm any kills.
Walking along the trails between villages I came across this young man who had in his hands, a gun. A homemade gun made of bits of scrap metal, no doubt the gunpowder was homemade too, and it fired small stones. It did work as I heard him blasting away with it presumably at birds for the pot, but I can’t confirm any kills.
In took this picture in Central Vietnam in October 2009. Anyone who travels in the Far East will soon become used to seeing mopeds and scooters carrying hoards of people, mum, dad and three kids being very common but also cargo like chickens which are just tied on. In China I once saw about 50 ducks tied onto a moped hanging by their legs and seemingly quite content as they speeded along.
This particular picture was taken out of a bus window so I was very lucky to get it, but if you look at the moped you can see its carrying another moped with the red helmet of the passenger who is hanging onto it just visible.
Can anyone beat that? Two mopeds? A moped dragging a car?
Taken in November 2015 in Prague - Czech Republic
After the tragic events in Paris on November 13th the whole world but especially Europe seemed to be in mourning. In Prague where I was that weekend, the Place flew black flags and the flags of the embassies were at half mast and draped with black ribbons. The people of Prague showed their solidarity with Parisians with this impressive collection of candles and flowers outside the French Embassy.
A bitter irony is that opposite the building is the John Lennon Peace wall, with its graffiti and messages of peace and love.
After the tragic events in Paris on November 13th the whole world but especially Europe seemed to be in mourning. In Prague where I was that weekend, the Place flew black flags and the flags of the embassies were at half mast and draped with black ribbons. The people of Prague showed their solidarity with Parisians with this impressive collection of candles and flowers outside the French Embassy.
A bitter irony is that opposite the building is the John Lennon Peace wall, with its graffiti and messages of peace and love.
Taken in Germany in August 2013
This is a picture of a ‘Stolperstein’ which in German translates to being a ‘Stumbling Block’. This is one I saw in the Bavarian town of Bamburg close to where the city’s synagogue used to stand before it was destroyed on ‘Kristallnacht’ 9th November 1938. It was put there to commemorate Willy Lessing a Jew who lived in the house before which the ‘Stolperstein’ was placed. The idea of a ‘Stolperstein’ was started by a German, Gunter Demming who wanted individual memorials to all the victims of the Nazis put in place where they once lived. There are now 48,000 in 14 European countries. The stumble comes from the pre Holocaust custom for non Jews to say when tripping over a stone ‘There must be a Jew buried there’. This ‘Stolperstein’ says: “Here lived Willy Lessing, born 1881, victim of the pogrom, Mistreated, Defamed, Died 17th January 1939” For more information on Stumble Stones visit Wikipedia.