Archive for June, 2010

In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, author David Mitchell seems like he’s telling us a secret. A long secret. A long, human secret about a secret land in a time shrouded by history and distance. His latest novel leaves behind the clever tricks of structure of his earlier works in favor of a purer, undistracted treatise on the human condition, nestled into a very unique historical setting.

At the dawn of the 19th century, a group of ragtag, conniving Dutchmen working for the East India Company make up the only westerners that can even steal glimpses of the forbidden Japanese Empire. From a tiny, walled island called Dejima outside of Nagasaki, the handful of Europeans trade and cheat, maximizing profits from copper, camphor and other Japanese goods while occasionally inadvertently enriching the East India Company as well.

Sunset over ripening wheat fields near La Grande Maison, a several-hundred-year-old fortified house converted into a bed and breakfast. This is in the Loire Valley, somewhat near Saumur, France. More photos to come from the trip as I catch my breath upon returning to Portland.

Though Iceland has about eighty-seven thousand hundred waterfalls–enough that you glaze over at a certain point–Gullfoss is the tourist heavyweight. It’s impressive and huge. But everyone photographs it and comes away with the same general shots. I thought I’d try my 9-stop neutral density filter. This was taken in broad daylight and is a 75-second exposure.