Black Tomato Blog

highs and lows of our picture taking...

The Highs...

Skeleton Coast, Namibia

Red Square at night, Moscow

And the Lows...

Quad Biking in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Spot the Rhino, Zambia

And the Whale Shark (honest), South Africa

my picture of the week...

Having just returned from Colombia, I can safely say that some work gigs are tougher than others...

LC

shut up and let the landscape do the talking...

Some weeks ago, I was very excited about a forthcoming trip to Namibia and wondered on this blog as to what I would see, or more importantly experience. The general gist was that I thought it may be hard to describe as I had heard how breath-taking the landscapes and experience of travelling through the country was and that words genuinely failed to do it justice. And although I left hoping for the "words fail me " experience, I have to admit that there was a tinge of doubt as to whether a country so adored and exalted by others in the BT office could meet what had by then become bascially ridiculous levels of expectation for me. Could it?

Answer: Emphatically. Not meeting the expectations but soaring way above them into that beautiful night sky that I was desperate to see (and got to sleep under outside in the bush for a couple of nights - reading by starlight (yes starlight, not moonlight) was perhaps the defining experience for the incredible trip, although countless others spring to mind)....But I have now realised that these words really don't do it justice. These photos might get you a little bit closer to what I am talking about. But if still not covinced there is a better way to prove it. Pack a bag, get a plane ticket (and hopefully give us a call) and just go. I promise you will not be diappointed - the most magical country I have ever had the pleasure to visit..

TM

what you put in you get out

Picture of the week this week is the striking Greenland. One of the team recently put together an incredible trip for a client to this beautiful country. Not an easy one either.

A keen photographer, the client was taken to Kulusuk, one of only two towns on the 2,700km long East Coast, before being helicoptered to the ice-fields where he landed on an iceberg at sunrise. That was just the beginning of a truly mind-blowing trip, that required the same mind-blowing amount of organisation. But then when you see the images of what the client was photographing you realise that the effort, on both sides, was well worth it.

JM

 

please turn out the lights...

An inspired decision from the Reykjavik authorities has decided this week's picture of the week.

On Thursday night they turned off all the street lights and other public lighting and encouraged locals to do the same in their homes so that they could enjoy the incredible night sky of Iceland. After the lights were turned off a leading astronomer described the night sky on national radio. With the oppportunity to see the northern lights (below) from the city it will have been an incredible experience. For more details click here.

Not sure we will ever see the day over here. Even without the northern lights it would be a truly surreal experience for any urbanite. But given that we hold large celebrations for the turning on of lights each year, I think the day when we focus on turning them off over here could be some way away...

TM

a UK invasion?

So the infamous graffiti artist Banksy cracks the US. Who would have thought that an unnamed guy from Bristol would list his fans as Brad, Angelina, Keanu along with his already well established UK band of supporters. No-one really knows who exactly Banksy is, but he is supposedly the latest big thing in the art world. So is it the secrecy surrounding his work or the accessibility of it that makes Banksy so appealing? With regular press articles and the likelihood of viewing one of his pieces on your way to work; you’d certainly be hard pushed to find an artist so much in the public eye; but he must have gone relatively unnoticed for sometime considering the ever soaring prices of his work.

I saw his exhibition at Westborn Grove last year, and loved his thought provoking reworks of old masters paintings to include ironic symbols of modern urban living, although the addition of live rats made viewing the somewhat tentative!

The inclusion of a live painted Elephant in his most recent LA exhibition has sparked controversy, despite its owner saying no harm came to the animal. However, it’s hardly a surprising reaction to an artist that has courted controversy over his career ( many say Banksy has kept his identity a secret to avoid arrest). Whether you agree or not, this is undoubtedly a thought provoking picture of the week...

CK

a beautiful distraction...

Lots of gasps and wows in the office over a brilliant book that has just arrived.

National Geographic’s “In Focus: National Geographic’s Greatest Portraits” is an incredible collection of portraits taken around the world over the last century.

From the mud-smeared man in the picture of the week below (from the Asaro River Valley and preparing to portray an evil spirit in a New Guinea tribal dance) to the Afgan girl with those hypnotic green eyes that stopped people in their tracks when she graced the front of the magazine it's a collection of stunning images, that crosses cultures and continents.

TM

that's where I want to be...

And is where a number of our customers are this w/end. Glorious landscapes and beautiful skies, Iceland never fails to take your breath way (and no,not because of the temperatures). Below should tell you why. Pic of the week for me undoubtedly.

MPS