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From snow-laden fields to scorching hot deserts, every trip is unique. Navigating unfamiliar alphabets, languages, and customs. Here are some of the stories behind the photos.

Home of the emperor


The Forbidden City, in the center of Beijing, was once a place where only those with the emperor's permission could enter. Nowadays, everyone can visit the palace.

This large metallic pot was used to collect water and features these beautiful dragon heads that connect the handles.

This photo was taken using a 70-200 mm zoom lens, with a fully open aperture (f/2.8) a nice bokeh is created in the background. The sky has been blown out for dramatic effect.

D.F.


Mexico city at night. A buzzing city with a population of 9 million, or over 21 million in the urban area. The light of the city is clearly visible in the sky and on the clouds as can be seen in the photo. 1.3 second exposure at an ISO of 800 at f/5.6.

Palacio de Bellas Artes


A wonderful performance in the Palace of Fine Arts. This building is in the center of Mexico City. The stage `curtain' is not your typical curtain; the curtain is actually a foldable panel with nearly a million pieces of stained glass.

Survival of the fittest


One of the places where the famous Charles Darwin did his research: the Galápagos Islands. From mainland Ecuador a flight will take you to the island Santa Cruz, a small town is located on the island: Puerto Ayora. This is the port of Puerto Ayora. The boat is an important mode of transport for people on the islands and there's always activity in the port—even at night.

This is the last photo I took before I left the islands. It was taken using a 28mm lens. (ISO5000, f/4, 1/25)

Up north


Our first day in Kiruna, Lapland, Sweden. With a latitude of nearly 68°, we were well north of the polar circle. It is roughly -5° Celcius, we are waiting for our Huskies to arrive for our sledding tour. This photo was taken in near pitch black, I had to use an ISO of 12800 and 1/4th of a second to capture this photo.

Aurora borealis


Coming from the Latin word aurora meaning sunrise. This natural light display caused by charged electrons and protons is truly mesmerizing. This was on our second day in Kiruna, temperatures dropped to a chilling -10° Celcius. We were very lucky seeing the aurora dance so vividly above us. This is a 20 second exposure at ISO 1000 at f/4.

California clouds


During a roadtrip we stumbled upon a marvelous turbulent sight right at Point Reyes in California, United States of America.

An abandoned quarry


The source for many of the granite stones needed to construct the 15th century Inca site Machu Picchu in Peru. Each stone was carefully cut and often had many corners so the bricks would interlock into each other like a jig puzzle. This made their walls very sturdy in this seismically active region, despite not using mortar.

Runoff


During a nice warm summer day we saw this stunning view of multiple cascading waterfalls pouring their water in to one of the many crystal-clear lakes inside Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia.
 
 
 
 
 

An arid place


Endless plains of sand and rock and scorching heat; the Wadi Rum in Jordan is a desolate place where very few people dare to live.

Indiana Jones


This is the passage way, called the Siq, that leads to the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. At the end of this narrow passage you will arrive at Al-Khazneh or The Treasury; and old temple entirely carved out of the mountains.

Fortification


A castle that stood the test of time. The Ankara castle has extremely thick walls and was needed to protect the capital of Turkey for many years. Fortunately there was not a lot of wind the day we visited this as there are no railings at the top! The castle gives an impressive panoramic view of the city.