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The high-altitude plateaus above Lalibela, in northern Ethiopia, are a haven of tranquility. Silence is so deep that you can hear you heart beating.

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Another glimpse of Old Bagan from above ( from a balloon )

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France – Somewhere between Moulins & Montresor (Loire)

I have taken this picture in a day journey from Lyon to La Loire. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where this village was exactly. Nevertheless, I have the best memories of this wonderful setting, one of the many in the extraordinary France. If someone could help me to localise this village, I would be so grateful

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San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts

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Overlooking the beautiful Andaman sea, this sunset, taken from the club at the Hyatt Regency Phuket, was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen!

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After yesterdays photo, a bit of further exploration in the Al-Andalus Caliphate great mosque to show you the 960-970AD Mirhab – the indentation that marks the direction of Mecca (but here a small room pointing south), the focal point of the original complex. Gold tesserae create a dazzling combination of dark blues, reddish browns, yellows, and golds that form intricate calligraphic bands and vegetal motifs that adorn the arch, which is crowned by a gilded, heavenly dome.

This was quite a fun one to capture and process – the Mihrab is nowadays protected by a mettalic grid that doesn’t allow public access to this closer PoV, but only to a more direct and slightly distant view of the arched door and a lesser, truncated view of the dome. So you would find me on the floor, in the midst of a considerable crowd, avoiding the feet of the selfie-stickers while putting my faithful a6000 through the grids, then using its tilted screen and all my arms length to get in a sequence of hopefully decent shots (the sparse lighting and glares were not helping) which were composed to bring you the final processed image you see here.

Only while indulging in the pleasures of fine processing was I able to really feel the powerful and delicate artistic work here – it retains its punch after a thousand years. This is one of the few places in the mosque where the Quranic inscriptions remain, and indeed as the mosaic inscriptions in Kufic characters read: “Praise be to God, who has guided us to this, never could we have found guidance had it not be for God’s guidance”!

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