mike's meanderings
Bucket list adventures
BUCKET LIST ADVENTURING
The idea of photographing far-away places where things might be a little different has always been particularly intriguing to Jana Kristin and me. Although some of these places might be beyond what most people think of as "vacation" destinations (think Antarctica or the jungles of Guyana, for example), they certainly offer the opportunity for unusual adventures like hand-feeding wild hyenas or walking in Shackleton's icy steps.
Despite what we might gather from the media on a daily basis, the world beyond North America is not really a scary place. Certainly there are some places that you'd be ill-advised to go at the moment, but there are many others that are just waiting to be explored. Moreover, no matter how strange a destination might first appear to be, things are mostly the same everywhere in the world. People are just people. Their language, lifestyle and politics might be different, but inside they're pretty much all the same.
The photographs
Photography is not just a way to document our adventures, photography informs our adventures, and the adventures inform our photography. In other words, we usually plan adventures specifically to provide opportunities to capture compelling images, but the photographic process often changes the nature of the adventures themselves. While we are never reluctant to point our lenses at a beautiful landscape or a strange creature in the jungle, we are mostly street photographers, discarding tripods, flash or setups in favour of wandering down alleyways and peeking around corners to capture candid moments that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Our mission is simply "f/8 and Be There" .
And let the pictures tell the story.
The blog
I always wanted to be a writer. Or more properly put, I always envisaged myself as a writer. This ambition was partially satisfied by more than three decades of reading and writing engineering reports. Now I have the opportunity to simply express my (sometimes) unique perspectives on life, love and the pursuit of happiness in a better format than Facebook can capture. I’m certain there’s no novel lurking in my laptop, so don’t anticipate finding any earth-shaking takeaways here. As I get older my thought processes tend to meander somewhat, and therefore you may expect the theme of these irregular posts will do the same.
If you’re okay with that, sign up and enjoy the ride!