A Nostalgic Feeling

I was lucky enough to spend three years studying for my undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford in the UK, and I still miss it at times. The city is a charming mixture of many architectural styles, dating as far back as the 1000s, when it was founded. My college was more modern than most, built exclusively with the purpose of accepting women as students and academic staff at the University in Victorian times, but I still got to explore almost every other college in my time there. The collection of images below is a little longer than my usual blog post length, but I hope it will be a fun one to scroll through.

Memories of a Greek Summer

This week’s blog post is a mishmash of a last few images of the photogenic island of Santorini, in Greece’s Cyclades archipelago. Again, you will find the relatively common white-and-blue theme, and variations on it… Next week, it’s back to the mainland for a final Greek blog post!

Streets of Santorini

The villages of Fira, Imerovigli, and Emporio in Santorini are just as stunning as their more readily recognised cousin, the exclusively blue-and-white Oia. Here, the houses and churches take on different architectural styles and residents get a little more creative with their house paint colours. So here is a little more Santorini…

The Three Bells of Fira

The Catholic Church of Dormition is another famous spot in Santorini. However, it is located in the village of Fira, where the architecture is a bit more mixed and buildings come in light yellow, orange, and pink shades, besides the traditional white. The image of the church is taken from a very narrow staircase, which makes sunset a bit annoying, as it will involve constantly readjusting your tripod as people need to get through… Still, it is definitely worth stopping by this spot for another must-have postcard Santorini moment.

Visions of Blue and White

Oia village, in Santorini, is a minimalist photographer’s dream. The white buildings and their blue details sit crisply against the cloudless blue skies. Everywhere you look, you see only the colours of the Greek flag. The whole town is one large postcard you can walk through, with photo opportunities at (very literally) every corner. To me, this was one of the few places I’ve been where I found the harsh afternoon light in the middle of Summer to make for just as stunning images as sunrise and sunset. Oia took my breath away - enjoy some of my highlights below!

Chapel of the Lord of the Stone

The beaches near Porto are relatively under-explored, and yet contain photographic gems such as the Capela do Senhor da Pedra (Chapel of the Lord of the Stone). We arrived just before sunset, and caught the golden light just before sundown from the air, followed by more traditional images from ground-level. By sunset, we were mostly alone at the beach, a truly unusual occurrence for a place like this!

More Around Uyuni

When thinking about Uyuni, the first picture that comes to mind is of the white salt flats stretching to the horizon. However, there are other incredible landscapes in this extremely arid part of Bolivia. One of them is the fantastic Train Cemetery. A couple hours’ drive away lies San Cristóbal, a traditional village on the ride to the Andes from the salt flats.

Below are some of my favourite photographs from these two locations (and see this for tips on how to best explore Uyuni and its surroundings as a photographer).

Snow at Lake Tekapo

The next day at Lake Tekapo proved to be a lucky one: we woke up at 5am to find that the town was covered in deep, fluffy snow. We headed out before sunrise to catch The Church of the Good Shepherd in the snow, and captured some aerial photography in the surrounding area.

The change of weather was a pleasant surprise. Over the span of three days, we had a beautiful purple sunset, followed by an almost-clear starry sky, and a snowy morning.