Category: Creative Projects
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My First Panorama — Lake Khovsgol, Mongolia
I’ve been experimenting again… But the small version doesn’t do it justice. Have a look at a slightly bigger size. Continue reading →
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A Story About Giving
Last year Andy organised a donation of bicycles in India through the charity Wheels4Life. You can read about this story on his blog. If you haven’t heard of Wheels4Life, it’s a simple idea to provide bicycles to communities in extreme poverty whose members have no other form of transport — between homes, schools, markets, healthcare facilities, and other fundamentals of life today. The bikes are locally-sourced so that they can be kept on the road long after the point of donation. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41TyWy4SGRo Wheels4Life was started by all-round mountain-biking legend and complete nutter Hans “No Way” Rey. You’ll see what I mean about… Continue reading →
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The Marco Polo of the Middle East
While I was travelling through Europe, people would sometimes smile and jokingly pass reference to Marco Polo, the medieval Italian merchant who brought home epic tales of Asia, now immortalised as one of history’s great adventurers, and whose experiences neither I nor anyone else stand the slightest chance of recreating in today’s world. While I was travelling through the Middle East, people would sometimes smile and jokingly pass reference to another man, named Ibn Battuta. I’d never heard of Ibn Battuta. Some of my readers will have, but nothing like as many as who will have heard of Marco Polo. Continue reading →
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341 Photos of Fully Loaded Touring Bicycles
The FLT gallery is a fantastic testament to the world of differences and similarities of bikes taken on tour. It’s a great page to pull up whenever I need some inspiration to get planning for my next trip, or just to get out there and ride. Continue reading →
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Cycling The Middle East And North Africa — A Photography Exhibition in Yerevan
While I realise that a great deal of my readers won’t be in Yerevan this Friday the 12th of March, I feel that it’s important to put the word out about my first ever photography exhibition — or any kind of exhibition, for that matter. Thanks to the Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art, forty of my more attractive snaps from 2009, blown up to glorious A3 size, will be adorning the walls of the Nicholas Boghossian gallery for the next three weeks. I’m hoping to raise a few pennies for the charities I support through the sale of these… Continue reading →
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A Little Video About Cycling In Yerevan
My last post was an invitation to come along to one of the many global bicycle gatherings that happened last Sunday on the eve of the COP15 climate change summit in Copenhagen. I helped to organise a ride here in Yerevan, and I took my trusty video camera with me. I’ve been slaving over a hot laptop for the last three nights, but now I think it’s ready for public consumption. Please take 10 minutes to watch the clip below. I hope you enjoy it, and that it gives you a glimpse into my currently-static life here in Armenia and the… Continue reading →
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An Original Idea For Your Christmas List
It’s not long until the festive season, with all the left-over turkey, expanding waist-lines, New Year’s Day river and lake swims, and endless lists of resolutions to look forward to. So I’ve just published a photography calendar for 2010. (Last year I didn’t manage this until February, so this year I’m getting organised early!) I’ve done this primarily so I can send my distant family something personalised and practical for Christmas! But it’s also (hopefully) going to be one of many ways in which I’m scraping together a few pennies for next year’s bicycle expedition across Central Asia and into… Continue reading →
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Images From Two Years On The Road
Travel offers enviable opportunities for developing creative skills such as photography. I’ve enjoyed taking these shots immensely, and I hope you enjoy viewing this whittled-down selection of what I think are my best snaps of all. [flickr]set:72157622428654633(square,18)[/flickr] Only the first few photos are shown here. It’s better to go and view the complete album on Flickr or as a slideshow. Or — how cool is this — you can see them marked on a world map! Continue reading →
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How To: Build A Bicycle Wheel In Ten Easy Steps
People fear wheel-building. None more so than touring cyclists. Nobody, apart from a tiny elite of skilled craftsmen in scattered bike shops across the world, should dare impinge on this secretive world of mechanical artistry. But we all have a capacity for art, don’t we? Could it really be all that difficult? I had a new rim to fit to Tenny’s bike, which would involve taking apart the rear wheel in its entirety and rebuilding it from scratch. So I decided to find out what this wheel-building malarkey was all about. After four and a half hours of careful labour,… Continue reading →