Lost time. Lost memories. Lost opportunities.

#NewZealand #Travel #TravelPhotography #Photography #Sony #SonyAlpha #a7R #TeMoekaoTuawe

I visited Batad twice, while living in PHL. It's a lovely village in the rice terraces. The first visit was memorable for a typhoon and landslide that we had to cross to get back out and back to Sagada. The second visit was memorable because it was with my yet to be wife.

#Philippines #Travel #RiceTerraces #Rice #RiceIsLife #Sony #a7R #Photography

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."
~ Emma Goldman
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#nationalpark #california #yosemitenationalpark
#nature #natura #outdoors #gooutside #forest #mountains #wilderness
#photography #gooutside #exploration #goexplore #wanderer #hiking #forest #quote #sonyalpha #sony #alpha #sonya7R #A7R #fisheye

Sloshing up thick red mud.
#Kauai #Hawaii
#sonyalpha #sonya7r #A7R #carlzeiss
#nature #outdoors #mountains #forest #photography #natura #geology #gooutside #exploration #goexplore #wanderer #hiking

Before we moved to Oz, my wife and I met and lived in the Philippines where I was working at the time and were married. For our honeymoon we visited New Zealand. During our time driving around the South Island, I of course had to visit the lone tree in Wanaka and was lucky enough to be there before it had the limb cut off.

This print hangs near our dining table as a reminder of that wonderful trip that we had.

#Tree #NewZealand #Lake #Mountains #Landscape #Photography #LandscapePhotography #Sony #a7R #Nikkor80mm28 #HDR #HDRPhotography

Midnight Oil Tank

Shot on a friends’ property in regional Queensland.

#NightSky #a7R #Sony #Stars #NightPhotography #Nikon14mm28 #Queensland #Australia

Cecil Plains Shakedown


While living in Queensland, a friend and I went out one July night for some Milky Way photography. The night sky did not disappoint. This is a multi-image panorama shot with a 14mm Nikkor f2.8 on my Sony a7R.

#MilkyWay #NightSky #Astrophotography #Sony #A7R #Nikkor14mm28 #LongExposure #NightPhotography #Queensland #ThisIsQueensland #Australia #WinterNights

Anna

I don't share many personal photos here. This is one of my favorite photos I took of Anna this year. There were many beautiful stretches in 2023 but also many tough ones. She helped me get through the latter, and to enjoy the former even more.

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🌏 | #taiwan #taipei #maokong #臺灣 #台灣 #臺北 #台北 #貓空 #🇹🇼
📷 | #a7r #voigtlander #voigtlander40mm #manualfocus
🏔️ | #portrait #portraitphotograpy

A Different World

"Having a baby teaches you to see the world with new eyes" they say. I guess having visitors from Europe over does just the same, especially if they have not been to Asia... ever.

At the beginning of November, our mothers visited us for a few weeks. (Or "stepmothers," as a friend phrased it jokingly.) It was a great time and Anna and I both very much enjoyed to show them around, to experience their curiosity and wonder, to see their wide-open, mesmerized eyes. "Now I understand why you want to stay."

Even when coming, I was very happy that I felt like being friends with my parents. It was work, of course, but very much worth it. It allowed me to be candid about my experiences here, also in hard times; to visit them for extended periods when traveling back home and enjoy that shared time.

Having my mother over now was even better. She had not traveled outside Europe yet, and I loved how she lived the time here as if re-living a youthful adventure. I am glad to have shared that time with her.

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🌏 | #taiwan #jiufen #臺灣 #台灣 #九分 #🇹🇼
📷 | #a7r #voigtlander #voigtlander40mm #manualfocus
🏔️ | #portrait #portraitphotography

Proud & Open

In a different timeline, I would be spending the next two months packing. Moving to Taiwan was an opportunity taken, not a decision made on a clean slate. I had no idea what to expect. We hence decided to first commit for three years to this place - until January 2024. Yet, having the option we decided to stay for another one-and-a-half years earlier this year.

Here and now, I am very happy with this decision. Staying here is the right thing for us for many reasons, and leaving here would be wrong for many others. The island itself is a great reason to stay - see yesterdays photo (or basically any photo of the last six months). There are many private reasons. And there is the Taiwanese society.

"The people are so great" is one of the first things any visitor or have-been-visitor tells me and I have to agree. Most Taiwanese show many virtues, hospitality, kindness, respect, openness - to name just a few. I learned to love Taiwanese society, too. Like any it has its edges of course, some of them shielded away by our living situation and my lack of speaking Mandarin properly. But there are many parts I deeply admire, its cultural stance between "West and East;" its cultural tolerance, curiosity, and liberalism; its openness towards technology and the future; its pride and humility.

More than traveling, living abroad teaches you a lot about not only other countries but especially your own. I feel very grateful to be offered these experiences.

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🌏 | #taiwan #taipei #taipei101 #臺灣 #台灣 #臺北 #台北 #象山 #🇹🇼
📷 | #a7r #voigtlander #voigtlander40mm #manualfocus
🏔️ | #architecture #architecturephotography #urban #urbanphotography