Category
Solo South America
Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Lima, Tim had not been back to South America since he turned 17. These blog posts are about his solo return journey round Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, to celebrate his 50th and to take stock of his life so far. If you’d prefer just to see a selection of images from this epic journey and avoid his thoughts, best go to the four ‘Journey with Myself’ galleries in the Portfolio section.
The Costanera Centre in Santiago, Chile, has some pretty impressive stats. It has the largest mall in all South America and the Gran Torre Santiago, at 300 metres, makes it the highest building on the continent too. I did walk around the mall but was a little overwhelmed by the scale and had to retreat to a less shopping-frenzied environment. One good thing about having packed to the limit is that I have no room to buy anything, so can walk away […]
After being holed up in bed for two days with fever, I only had a day to walk around the beautiful lakeside resort town of Puerto Varas in Chile. The centre of town looks a little more polished, ready for the regular influx of visitors during the summer break, but it doesn’t take long to venture out and find some of the traditional wooden homes looking a little worse for wear. Photographers like to call it ‘character’, but this rundown home in […]
Sony A7RII : f4.5@250th : ISO 320 : EV 0.0 : FE 55mm f/1.8 If I was a dog, this is how I would want to look. Nothing flashy, just fit, alert and ready to do the deed, when necessary. He took one look at me, decided I wasn’t going to be a problem and carried on checking out the surroundings. And there was none of that barking business, waste of effort when your stare is as hard as that. I’m pretty […]
Sony A7RII : f2.8@400th : ISO 200 : EV +0.7 : FE 55mm f/1.8 I was wandering around one of the parks in Mendoza, Argentina, and saw this gentleman sitting on a bench watching the world go by. I approached politely and he had no problem me taking his portrait. A lovely guy, from Chile originally but he had left there just over 40 years ago. We didn’t talk politics, so I don’t know why, but my maths is good enough to work […]
Sony A7RII : f/5.6@250th : ISO 2000 : EV +1.0 : FE 55mm f/1.8 I appreciate a beautiful landscape, or a good portrait, but capturing an ordinary day in a moment is special too. There’s something that comes from concentrating a little slice of life into a single frame. I love the balance of all the elements, the colours from the domestic items, the curve of the tap, the blue light on the curtain against the warm wall behind… I […]
Sony A7RII : f/3.5@320th : ISO 100 : EV -0.3 : FE 55mm f/1.8 How about this for a portrait of a quintessential border guard. I saw him striding over when there was a queue of us waiting to cross into Chile from Argentina, somewhere between Bariloche and Puerto Varas. He said it was okay for me to take his portrait, but there was no way that expression was ever going to change. I asked him to move over to […]
Sony A7RII : f11@800th : ISO 640 : EV +0.7 : FE 55mm f/1.8 I took this photo on the day of my 50th Birthday. I suppose I could have gone for a more joyous shot to celebrate the big day, but I felt that this conveyed rather well the existential angst that surrounds reaching a new decade. My way of dealing with the beyond-midlife crisis was to take a 60 day sabbatical, one day for each year, plus 10 extra […]
Sony A7RII : f6.3@250th : ISO 125 : EV 0.0 : FE 55mm f/1.8 When you’re waiting for a bus, it’s called a bus stop. When you’re waiting for a boat, it must be called a boat stop, no? This was taken halfway between Bariloche in Argentina and Puerto Varas in Chile. It is a rather impressive journey, with tall mountains on either side. You can do a similar route by bus, but I thought I’d spoil myself a little […]
