As we demonstrated in a recent MBTP, good photographs can sometimes be made by getting the angle just right. Taking a photograph of the subject from above can result in a great image while the same subject shot from a lower angle can result in a poor one, and vice versa. But whatever the angle you choose to get that perfect photo it is safe to say pointing the camera lens up at a bird’s bum is not the best one.
Salta is an attractive city of colonial streets, palm trees and statues surrounded by mountains. I often like to climb hills and buildings to get an overview of a city and we did just that. Due to some fear of heights issues from Deirdre we ignored the perfectly good gondola service and schlepped up step by step to take this crappy picture.
Thanks to Wandering Earl for the idea behind this series. If you want to submit a bad travel photo please feel free to email us at payawaytravels (at) gmail (dot) com
The first time I saw an elephant outside of an enclosure I was incompetently riding around Ko Samui on a motorbike. This was my second time on a bike. Though encouraged I hadn’t crashed into a stationary milk float this time I found working down the gears difficult and needed a runway longer than that required by a 747 to come to a halt.
The thing about elephants is they are quite big. Despite plenty of warning from first sighting the animal in the distance to actually stopping I still perhaps got a tad too close.
Continuing our series inspired by some of Wandering Earl’s* photographic failures combined with self-depreciating humour, this picture of the Iraqi town of Amadiya is a fine edition to our own efforts to blur and misrepresent some of the astounding things we’ve seen around this planet of ours.
Majestically perched on a level mountain top, this picture makes this scene look like a slightly unusual natural feature rather than the harmonious man made compliment to geography it really is. Wikipedia, along with telling us Amadiya was the home of the three wise men of shopping for Jesus fame, uses a photograph by someone who made a better fist of things by climbing one of the surrounding mountains and taking the shot from above.
I am not going to be too harsh with myself on this one. Ascuncion on an overcast day is not going to get anyone excited. On a bright sunny day things are possibly even worse because it can be seen with more clarity just how big a dump parts of the city are. This, behind the parliament building, would be prime real estate in any other capital city.
Paraguay does have its charms – and despite only a short stay there I have a soft spot for the country – and I’m sure a good photographer could get some good shots of Ascuncion. But I’m not a good photographer and as you can see I did not.
The previous night had been spent in the hostel garden with a chap called Rick experimenting with the effects of a bottle of SangSom ‘Thai Whisky’ on the brain and body. Rick had been travelling for seven years and had collected enough tales in that time to merit a second bottle and – once the shops had shut – a visit to the hostel bar.
Despite the hostel owners kindly rescheduling our morning trip to a tea plantation and a rose centre to the afternoon I was still slightly drunk when our guide picked up the biggest bug I had ever seen. This photo is an accurate representation of how I saw the creature at the time while these ones looked a bit blurred.
The Angkor complex is a delight to roam around with a camera and over three days I went snap happy and got a lot of good photographs. The 200 serene faces staring down from the Bayon caught my particular attention and I like to think I also got a few good shots (for me) of Ta Prohm (the Tomb Raider one). The interior of Angkor Wat was also decently captured but I couldn’t get a passable long shot of the exterior for love nor money.
No
No!
No! No! No!
Butrint, across the straights from Corfu and near the modern Albanian city of Saranda, is a ruined city dating from at least the 6th century BC. Surrounded on three sides by water the city survived the ancient Greeks, Romans and Byzantines until environmental changes forced its abandonment in the Middle Ages.
I think this shot was an attempt to show the encroachment of the floodplain that so influenced the city’s fate. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the picture, especially when compared to the photographic misdemeanours I’ve committed elsewhere, but it is a bit dull when compared to the ruined buildings from several eras directly behind my back.
Talk about being blinded by the light! I must have not been paying attention to where the light was coming in from. The sun was extra bright that day and after noticing how badly that photo came out, I started to pay more attention to where the sun was shining on. Overall though, I should always be paying attention. I guess at that moment, the wackiness of the place had me confused in what angle I should be taking pictures from.
This was taken in Dalat, Vietnam at the “Crazy House.” A wacky hotel that looked more like from Alice in Wonderland.
Natalie Sayin recently was a guest at a concert performed by Turkish pop singer Hande Yener. Despite taking many fine photos something popped up to ruin this one: “Don’t ask me what happened because I really am not sure! It looks like Hande Yener has an extra body part.”
Natalie Sayin writes about living and travelling in Turkey at Turkish Travel Blog and can be found on Twitter at @turkishtravel
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