photography, random thought, travel, writing

lebanon… day 1

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my host, rev. walid, naps after picking me up from the airport at 3 am. “everyone that comes from the west gets in at that time… i’m used to it.”

peter, said’s boy, working at his dad’s book store after school.

rev. walid

sarah and salina, said’s oldest and youngest daughters.

said and walid arriving at the reformed baptist church of tyre.

the church is next door to a former hezbollah weapons cache that was destroyed in 2006 by the israelis.

mohammed said with the hat he got at petra the week before.

there are lebanese soldiers and outposts everywhere. in that way, lebanon feels incredibly safe. actually, more safe than i’ve felt in many u.s. cities.

sunset over the mediterranean at the beach in tyre. legendary.

remnants of the roman empire.

there are droves ferrel cats and dogs all over lebanon. i’m still trying to figure out where they came from.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2009

photography, random thought, travel

aupa athletic!

morning in gordexola. the trees and hills never get old to me.

we were getting excited on our way to el estadio de san mames… la catedral. ac bilbao was playing that evening. it was our last night in spain, and the spanish weren’t done showing us their superior hospitality.

we stopped at ona to get a have a few beers before we continued the sacred walk down pozas…

unfortunately, we lost 1-0, but our hosts tossed aside their obvious disappointment, and took us out for an extraordinary night on the town.

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the food was phenomenal, and the people were unparalleled in their generosity and kindness. do they treat everyone like this??? i was floored.

and full of great food and wine.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2009

photography, random thought, travel, writing

despues de la lluvia

bilbao in spring. it rains almost every day for a few hours. but after the rain stops… la luz.

barrika cliffs.

sopelana beach cliffs.

we took a day trip to san juan de luz in france.

it became apparent that the light had a different quality in san juan de luz. saint john of light. john must have been a photographer.

i decided to take a bike ride in gordexola one morning. headphones in, innocence mission on the frequency, one hand on the handlebar, and a giant camera in the other hand, i set off on a wobbly course.

geese angrily greeted me. they seemed even more unhappy that i stopped. and nearly incensed that i took their picture…

beautiful old homes lined the long, narrow streets. it’s a mostly rural village, so i eventually passed many sheep pastures.

today was the day of the photoshoot. instead of a wedding, Elaine and Mikel decided to have an all day portrait session all over el pais vasco. i am so pleased with the resulting images… and so are they.

these kids thought we were crazy. a guy in a tux, a girl in a bridal gown, and two photographers chasing them around on the beach.

the guggenheim! i never actually went inside. the outside was enough for me. and besides, i heard that the inside is less than impressive anyway.

bilbao at night.

laga beach, unesco urdaibai reserve. i could’ve spent weeks here.

txaber and his auntie teba. cute little guy. might be in competition with my nephews…

txaber and his dad, xerjio. txaber’s mom didn’t like this activity.

maidercon con un abuelito. that’s what the spanish call a dandelion. it literally means “little grandfather”. makes sense i guess.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2009

family, photography, random thought, travel

bilbao, y mas

teba picked me up and took me straight to the little park in artxanda mountain that overlooks bilbao.

wow. what a view.

my first look at the bay of biscay. really, my first time in the ocean in a long while. sopelana was incredibly beautiful.

i stayed in gordexola, outside of bilbao. the trevinos were incredibly hospitable.

rock bakio.

bakio.

cuevas del soplao.

oh yes… i was quite impressed with myself for driving in spain – not sure why. but i did enjoy.

lunch in san vicente d la barquera.

teba, the hand model.

gaudi house in comillas. the colors. the textures. i’m a fan of this gaudi character…

gaudi, the man. immortalized in bronze.

random thought, travel, writing

chasing sunrise

today, the sun came up seven hours early.

the plane was shaking. i don’t much like it when planes that i happen to be riding in shake.

quite impersonally, a man hands me a water in an in-flight plastic tumbler. one ice cube. that’s the first thing i noticed… the second thing i noticed was a nearly microscopic speck floating dangerously close to my one ice cube.

“i’d better get a closer look,” i thought to myself. “what if it were someone that was accidentally shrunk, like in honey, i shrunk the kids?”

for whatever reason, since i was a little kid, i’ve had the gift of empathy. i could always put myself in other’s shoes, and very eerily feel close to how they felt. at times, a great gift. others, a curse.

i recall watching honey, i shrunk the kids and understanding completely how those shrunken kids felt. just wanting to be noticed. needing someone to notice. before they were squashed by a tennis shoe, or perhaps crushed in the mandibles of a hungry cricket. or worse yet… sipped into oblivion while floating in some aloof schmuck’s in-flight beverage.

so i leaned in to check the speck. oh… just some dirt.

suddenly the plane stopped shaking.

and as i looked out the window, we slid unnoticed through the fading night.

chasing sunrise.

andrew slaton | blog

travelogue and visual catharsis of a nomadic photographer

Category Archives: random thought

lebanon… day 1

aupa athletic!

despues de la lluvia

bilbao, y mas

chasing sunrise

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