Dispatches & Sketches

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Under sails

The latest entries in the ongoing series of stunning photo books open a fascinating world of tall ships at your fingertips. While independent yacht sailing is out of reach for many of us, both physical…

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Capri, off season

The Rock is the latest addition to the ever-growing collection of exquisite coffee table photo books featuring my pictures. It truly deserves its own page, though, for several reasons. It is the first …

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Cool latitudes

These new additions to the popular series of photo books will lead you to destinations so wild and remote that only few people manage — or care — to visit them. Pictures you are about to discover are …

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Independence day

A couple of days ago I launched my creator page on Patreon.

The platform allows writers, performers and artists of all genres to attract fans and followers who would support their creative work financially in exchange for exclusive benefits like insights into creative process, early bird access to original output, special editions — you name it.

So, after some consideration about what I could give back to my future patrons, I've started my own presence there.

I hope, with your support, to become more independent, to be able to work more as a photographer, and — who knows? — even to do it full-time some day.

This is what YOU can expect in exchange for a small monthly contribution towards this target:

  • behind the scenes reports from my journeys and sneak peeks on work in progress after them
  • exclusive posts "for members only"
  • a photo book or a paper print of your choice delivered to your doorstep once each year of your membership, depending on a tier you'd join
Everything's set up and ready. I look forward to getting to know you as my next partner!

Found Italy

Hidden Italy is the newest entry in the growing collection of exquisite coffee table photo books featuring my pictures. The book contains 35 selected panoramic photographs taken during three week-long…

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To new horizons!

I am delighted to announce that print orders are now also available in Iceland and Canary Islands!

Starting immediately, both custom and express orders are eligible for new destinations.

Please note that photo books are subject to other delivery options.

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Cool as cool can

"Iceberg!" The shout emerges on the bow. This makes me wonder how the folks on the top deck managed to miss the cause. The place, like the crow's nest of yore, seems always occupied, I never saw it un…

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Cameraless

It should have become the last picture of my short vacation in Austria.

The roll still had two frames left, and I hate wasting film, not at the current stock prices.

There was a half-hearted click from the shutter release, and then — silence. The film didn't progress.

At first, I was puzzled but not concerned, blaming the batteries for having died too fast.

The frame counter was still on, though, so I tried the shutter release again…

My camera was built in 2000. It's rather reserved in its reports and reactions, but now it exploded with all available displays blinking at the same time. The shutter release went all the way down without effect.

This shouted trouble. At least, I got the shot roll out. The last exposed frame on it has something resembling trees on the left, an irregular greyish area to the right, and a perfect white stripe along the bottom.

The maker's service center agreed to take the camera in without promising anything.

I haven't heard from them yet.

Lake Achen, Tyrol, Austria

The pictures from Lake Achen in Austria are online and ready to order.

Time for a change

Breadcrumb navigation is a simple way of showing your web visitors "You are here". At the same time, it provides a nice overview of how the current page fits into your site structure and a handy means…

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Love songs

This is quite an unusual newsletter. I mean, its topic is not necessarily what you would expect on a photography site. On the other hand, I promised newsletters would be different, and with the Valent…

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Books go PRO!

Photo books now feature a new exclusive option from the manufacturer's Professional Line.

This is slightly larger than the ubiquitous A4 — and distinctly larger than the usual small format. Moreover, the books are handmade from specially selected high-quality materials.

To celebrate their introduction, photo books from the Professional Line are offered at a special price with savings of 20 € per piece until January 20.

Additionally, the first buyer of a PRO photo book will be awarded a 15 € PayPal credit.

Be sure to check it out and order right away!

For the books

Good news! In addition to large, framed photography prints, you can now order exquisite coffee table photo books full of original, spectacular landscape pictures. These luxury, professional coffee tab…

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Sweden, slowly

I think I haven't been photographed that often in my whole life.

If you spend most of your time on the bow of an old boat on its way along the Göta Canal in Sweden, this is inevitable.

It seems, the whole country is out celebrating the summer on a party of a national scale, and you come invited—and looked at.

It is a perfect holiday.

Yes, the boat is old (from 1931), the cabins are tiny, and the facilities are shared. There's no TV, not even a radio, and guests are asked not to use their mobiles when on board.

On the other hand, the going is so slow, the space is so limited, the concerns are so non-existing, that all you seem to have is time, and that in abundance.

This is like being a child again, with long days of nothing to worry about, of having nothing to do, of doing nothing, just sitting on a deck, or standing on another, watching the world go by, not fly, for a change, not waiting for anything to happen, not expecting anything to happen, aside from the next meal being called out, delicious as always.

Taking your time.

Having the time of your life.

Morning along the Göta Canal, Motala, Sweden

The pictures from the Göta Canal in Sweden are online now.

Rain in paradise

"You better leave your life vests at the pier before venturing out. They might go off in the rain, we saw it happen."

We are in the small harbour of Puerto Edén, just out of zodiacs, and from head to toe in waterproof gear.

The village sits on a small island lost in the labyrinth of Chilean fjords, only accessible by boat, facing the nearing winter, drowning.

The guides are seeing us off to roam the place on our own, and off I go.

It's raining cats and dogs, and all other creatures. I am glad to have left the camera on the ship, it is awkward to be without, the hands seem totally useless, hands down, I shrug to keep them busy.

The hamlet is a crisscross of boardwalks in different states of repair, it seems they would keep it in place from sliding downhill, and it looks as if missing planks already put some ends out of reach, lost them to the elements, forever, irreversible.

Myst, Stoneship Age

I can't help thinking of Myst, that old adventure game, and its Ages, with their isolation, and their confines, and their pathways.

I have to think of its unnamed hero, fallen into its world by accident, having opened a wrong book, or was it the right in the end? There wasn't even an end, just thereafter.

The boardwalk here does have an end, it leads to a gazebo protruding into the sea, there is a chair, not very comfortable one, plastic and tubes, with legs thin enough to pass through cracks in the floor.

I move the chair, trying to avoid the void underneath with all legs, and sit down. I look out to the sea and check the time on my mobile, there is still plenty.

The rain hasn't stopped, but at least I have a roof over head here. I listen to the rain and keep thinking about Myst and this, my adventure.

The weather was nicer in the game. Yes, the weather was so much nicer.

The pictures from Patagonia are online now. If you need a soundtrack while watching them, try this.

YouTube and you

Do you manage a website or a blog, and include YouTube videos in your posts or articles? If yes, have you ever wondered about better ways to embed them? Because, in the end, a better way always exist…

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Tags: #plainlight #whatsnew #getinspired

Archived posts

2016
Follow these stories to Copenhagen, Italian Alps, South Greenland, and Brussels.
2017
Join me for new journeys, and other stories.
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