La costa de Chorrillos, Lima, Perú

Chorrillos es un distrito de la provincia de Lima en Perú y parte de la ciudad de Lima. Toma su nombre de la palabra en español para “chorro de agua”. Está ubicada a un costado de Barranco sobre la línea costera de Lima y tiene diferentes áreas de playa sobre el océano Pacífico.

Playa Pescadores es una pequeña playa pesquera muy activa, un lugar muy interesante para pasar algunas horas observando a la gente y disfrutando del atardecer. A la orilla del mar puedes comprar ceviche fresco (El platillo tradicional peruano hecho a base de pescado crudo marinado en jugo de limón y chile). En el muelle chico se puede ir a pescar cangrejos y pescados pequeños o tomar un paseo en bote por la costa de Chorrillos. Desde ese lado de Chorrillos se puede disfrutar de la vista panorámica de la bahía de Lima, abarcando desde Barranco, Miraflores y mas allá. En días claros, a la distancia se puede ver La Punta y la isla de San Lorenzo en el distrito de Callao.

Justo a un lado de Playa Pescadores hay una exclusiva playa privada con club deportivo llamada Regatas. Es uno de los clubes deportivos más exclusivos en Lima el cual atrae la los peruanos mas ricos y famosos quienes acuden ahí a hacer ejercicio, asolearse y relajarse.

A la vuelta de la bahía se tiene la pequeña y alejada playa de La Herradura la cual fue un lujoso centro vacacional en el siglo XIX. Ahora en la playa hay varios restaurantes donde se puede disfrutar de la cocina tradicional peruana mientras se disfruta el atardecer. Esta playa también alberga uno de los mejores lugares para el surf en Lima. La marea necesita crecer para funcionar como debe y ha sido lugar para muchas competencias internacionales de surf.

En el camino entre el malecón de Chorrillos y La Herradura se pasa frente a la saliente rocosa El salto del fraile. Aquí se localiza un restaurante con el mismo nombre proveniente de una leyenda de amor prohibido que tiene un trágico final. La leyenda involucra un amor joven que resulta en embarazo y al joven hombre siendo enviado a un monasterio y obligado a convertirse en fraile para el perdón de sus pecados. En estos tiempos se pueden encontrar a los locales recreando la leyenda. Hombres de la localidad se visten como monjes y se tiran desde el precipicio al peligroso mar. He escuchado rumores de que al menos un hombre ha muerto intentando este clavado. Un lugar fascinante sin embargo. Trataré de regresar en las siguientes semanas para capturar más saltos.

Más de mis fotografías de Lima pueden ser encontradas en mi sitio web, Instagram y mi cuanta de Flickr. Si te interesa comprar alguna impresión, usar alguna imagen en línea o te gustaría obtener mas información, por favor envía un correo a geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

www.geraintrowland.co.uk

www.geraintrowland.co.uk

Travel Photography and Abstract Art Prints for Sale 

I now have several of my abstract art prints for sale via the ETSY shop of Linda Wisdom Photography. The abstract photographs can be printed on any material and shipped to anywhere in the World, they look great blown up large and printed onto canvas. In addition to my ocean abstract images the store also sells some of my most popular travel images from India, Africa and Peru:

Linda has been running her successful ETSY shop for several years where she sells some of her award winning iconic London street images. Linda is a professional photographer & lens based artist, specialising in fine art street, urban and lifestyle photography. She has been a part of many successful exhibitions including the London Photo Festival in Borough, Photo City London in 2017. Linda won 'Best Street Life' category with the British Life Photography Awards 2016 and was commended again in 2018. Her portfolio focuses on creatively capturing candid people, lifestyle, urban & city environments that convey a clear message, visual impact, or storytelling themes. If you are interested in street photography and are ever visiting London be sure to contact Linda for one of her fascinating street photography tours of the City.

In addition to my abstract seascapes, I also have several of my most popular travel images for sale via Linda's Etsy store. These include: a cheeky Llama photobombing the view of Machu Picchu, posing Monkeys in The Gambia and several classic Indian travel photos from Varanasi and the Taj Mahal.

So if you would like to purchase an abstract art image, a travel photograph or a classic piece of London life go to the Etsy store right now! More of my abstract photography can be found on my website, my Instagram, my Twitter and my Flickr account.

Fotografía en blanco y negro en el pueblo de Belén, Iquitos, Perú!

Estas fotos fueron tomadas en el pueblo de Belén en Iquitos Perú. Algunas formaron parte de un foto ensayo previo para la revista Dezine. El pueblo de Belén es parte de Iquitos, la metrópoli más grande del Amazonas peruano. El pueblo entero es inundado por las aguas del río Amazonas a lo largo de varios meses. La única forma de llegar es en bote por lo que incluso los niños aprenden a remar y navegar en pequeñas canoas desde pequeños. Haz clic en las imágenes a continuación para ver una selección de fotos del pueblo de Belén:

El pueblo de Belén está repleto de oportunidades de tomar fotografías extraordinarias. Los habitantes locales usan el río como fuente de trabajo, transporte y diversión. Los niños se sientan junto al río a vender comida y mercancía a los botes que van pasando, los hombres ofrecen botes como taxi o para la pesca, mientras que las mujeres lavan la ropa en el río. Alrededor de 65,000 personas viven en Belén, ya sea en casas flotantes ancladas o elevadas en pilares. Es un vecindario donde muchas de los habitantes viven en condiciones de pobreza.

Puedes encontrar más de mis fotografías de viaje en mi página web, Instagram y mi Página de Facebook. Si estás interesado en comprar alguna de mis fotos impresas, utilizar alguna imagen en la red o necesitas más información, envía un email a: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Geraint Rowland Photography Exhibited at the Praxis Gallery

One of my travel photographs is currently being exhibited in the Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, USA. The Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Center is a non-profit community-based arts organisation that aims to support the development of new and emerging photographic artists. The Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Centre regularly holds ‘Open Call’ events which are followed by an international juried photography exhibition. I entered my image, ‘Here Comes the Sun’, to the ‘Animal Beings’ exhibition which was guest curated by Laura Valenti. Click through the slideshow to view photos from the exhibition at the Praxis Gallery:

The Animal Beings exhibition is a celebration of the astonishing beauty and diversity found in the animal world. Praxis Gallery Presents photographic art works that showcase animals’ inner beauty, strength, character, resiliency, and wisdom. Compassionate images of companion animals, wild animals, farm animals, insects, and fish are all heartily featured - showcasing the very best of furry, scaly, feathery photographs!

I have always enjoyed taking images of animals on my travels so had plenty in my portfolio to choose from. I also enjoy taking silhouette style images, and I thought this minimalist artistic style of image would suit the theme of the gallery well. I was honoured to receive the ‘Directors Choice Award’ for my selected image. I took the silhouetted image of the camel in the Thar Desert in the Northern state of Rajasthan in India.

More of my travel photography can be found on my website, Instagram, Facebook Page and my Flickr account. If you are interested in writing a guest travel or photography blog for my website please send me an email to discuss. Likewise if you are interested in buying one of my travel images please send me an email: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Photography Competitions, Travel & Lockdown

I have been a bit lazy with my photography blog of late due to the never-ending lockdown, each day being the same and therefore lacking any writing motivation! Having not taken any photos for months I have been delving back into old hard drives and revisiting some old favourites. My stock photography work has been keeping me busy with further image editing, uploading to Getty, and then carrying out the mundane and time consuming admin process required. I now have over 16,000 of my travel photographs available for license on Getty Images and still have several hard drives to get through! As well as the stock photography work I have also entered a few more photography competitions. In addition to potentially winning a great prize, entering photo competitions is a great way of revisiting your photos and seeing what images work well with each other. A couple of weeks ago I entered the Open Walls photography competition for 1854 photography. The theme was, ‘Then & Now’ with the artists being asked to explore the theme in many ways. Through visual imagery the photographers were asked to portray a sense of reflection and to convey the changes that time brings. Click through the slideshow below to view the ten images which I entered for this theme of ‘Then & Now’:

When entering photo competitions I normally go through my back catalogue and look out for any images that may be suitable. This normally results in a large collection which I then have to go through to eliminate the weaker images, those which I do not think quite make the cut! These omissions may be based on the photo technique and quality of the image: focus, lighting, composition and so on. In addition I will take out photographs that do not quite fit the themes, although the interpretation is often very vague and up to the photographers imagination. Before entering competitions I will first read the biography of the lead judge to discover his or her style of photography. It may not always be the best taken image that wins a competition, but instead ones that are unique, individual or unusual in some way. Photography competitions must get inundated with thousands of similar images (especially in today’s Instagram age) so if I have something that may stand out or catch their eye I may enter that over a personal favourite. The important thing is to enter in the first place, as if you don’t you certainly won’t be winning. Many photo competitions require fees to enter, but there are still some to be found that are free, or where the fees are very affordable. In addition to the prizes to be won, competitions can introduce you to galleries and other photographers as well as providing you with much needed exposure for your work. If nothing else the selection process for the competition above gave me a nice trip through memory lane, reminding me of some fantastic adventures I’ve had over the past years. It also gave me the opportunity to share rediscovered favourites through my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram social media accounts. If you are interested in purchasing a print direct, writing a guest blog or exhibiting some of my work please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Fotografía artística abstracta del océano por Geraint Rowland

Soy un gran fanático de este tipo de arte tanto en pintura como en fotografía. Creo que la primera vez que vi a alguien utilizar esta técnica fue al fotógrafo de surf Morgan Maasen. Así que, ¿Cómo se hacen las fotografías abstractas? Crear estas fotografías es medianamente sencillo, simplemente se toma una fotografía del océano con una larga exposición (1 segundo o más, dependiendo de la luz), mientras se mueve la cámara de izquierda a derecha (o derecha a izquierda, según tu preferencia). Comúnmente es una buena forma de crear hermosas e interesantes fotos incluso en una locación monótona. Adicionalmente esta técnica no requiere uso de trípode, el cual no me molesto en cargar usualmente, lo que significa que aun así se pueden crear buenas imágenes de larga exposición en circunstancias en las que otros necesitarían un trípode. El resultado final es una imagen de tipo pictórico, más parecida a una pintura o un trabajo artístico que a una fotografía.

Una foto abstracta del agua al atardecer por Geraint Rowland Photography.

Una foto abstracta del agua al atardecer por Geraint Rowland Photography.

La misma técnica puede usarse con árboles por ejemplo en la selva o el bosque. El truco es mover la cámara en la misma dirección que las líneas principales del encuadre. Por ejemplo, en el mar, moverse de izquierda a derecha siguiendo la línea del horizonte y las olas. En el bosque se movería la cámara verticalmente de abajo hacia arriba o de arriba hacia abajo. 

Haz clic en las siguientes imágenes para ver más ejemplos de fotografías abstractas. Estas fotos fueron tomadas en Perú, Inglaterra, España y el África Occidental.

Estuve involucrado en una “Exhibición de artistas emergentes” en Lima en 2013 en la cual exhibí y vendí varias piezas impresas en lienzo. El tamaño era 1 metro x 1 metro y se veían grandiosas colgadas en una pared. Más ejemplos de mi trabajo artístico del mar y las olas puede ser encontrado en mi sitio web.

Mis fotografías abstractas ahora pueden comprarse en Etsy vía LindaWisdomPhotoCo. El atardecer rojo en lima por ejemplo puede comprarse aquí. Mi blog de imágenes abstractas del océano puede ser leído en Inglés aquí. Mas de mis fotografías abstractas pueden ser encontradas en mi sitio web, Instagram, Twitter y cuanta de Flicker. Si te interesa comprar alguna impresión, usar alguna de mis imágenes o quieres recibir mas información, por favor envíame un email a geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Working with Stock Photography

During the last six months, whilst in lockdown I have continued to work on my stock photography portfolio.  This mundane task involves editing and uploading thousands of old photos to the Getty Images portal.  Once on the portal you spend a further number of hours filling in titles, descriptions and adding numerous keywords.  I am now back in the UK after spending the majority of the year in Mexico City.  At home I have several more hard drives dating back over ten years providing me with thousands of additional travel images to keep me busy with this endless task.  

My Current Stock Photography Portfolio

My first experience with stock photography was around ten years ago.  Back then I was a new photographer and avid user of Flickr.com, one of the original photo sharing sites.  Around this time a handful of my Flickr images were hand picked by Getty to be licensed by them through a deal the two companies had together.  For years nothing much happened and due to having a full time office job at the time didn't really do anything about it.  Without any guidance or need to make any money through photography I only started to take stock photography more seriously around two years ago.  Here's the first blog I wrote about the ins and outs of stock photography back in 2018.  Back then I had around one thousand images on my Getty portfolio.  By the end of last year I had over five thousand of my travel and art images for licence via getty and wrote another blog about my experiences.  In February of 2020 I had over seven thousand images for sale on the portal and wrote about that month's sales in this blog.  That month earned me just over $300 with forty of my Getty images being licensed, at the time my best stock photography monthly income to date.  The following six months saw the travel industry and the rest of the World take a big downturn due to the Worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.  The majority of my stock photos are travel related and with lockdowns around the world and the majority of flights suspended the tourism industry ground to a halt.  For me, that unfortunately meant less of my images being sold, with little or no tourism there was no need for companies to buy travel images.  Being in a lockdown myself for those months I used the time productively to continue expanding my Getty portfolio and now have over 12,000 images. After a string of bad monthly payments during these months, my September sales saw an improvement and my best monthly payout to date.  In September 2020 I licensed over fifty images with an average sale price of 6.29 bringing me a monthly income of $350.  Click through the slideshow to view my top five selling stock images in September 2020:

What helped my overall monthly income in September was three big sales each of close to $100. This ensures the overall photo sale average is higher as you also get a large number of sales bringing in less than a dollar per image after Getty take their cut! My top five sales in September included: a silhouetted image of people climbing the famous sand dunes in Huacachina, Ica, Peru. An abstract soft focus image of the Costa Verde in Lima, the Capital of Peru. And one of my best selling travel images of a llama in front of Machu Picchu in Peru. None of these images contain recognisable people or property so do not require model releases to license them. September’s sales have given me the confidence and encouragement to continue my stock photography quest. Whether stock photography is worth it or not is down to your individual circumstances. The process is monotonous and extremely time consuming, the trick to succeeding is having a good workflow in place and regularly uploading instead of letting the years years pass before you start! I wish now I had started years ago, but as always hindsight is wonderful thing!

In addition to having a potential income, Getty gives you an element of prestige as a photographer (although arguable when your images sell for pennies…).  In addition it provides your photography with another channel to be viewed on the Internet.  Hopefully the upward trend of sales will continue and my efforts this year will eventually pay off. You can view my stock photography portfolio on Getty Images here.  If you would like to buy any of my travel images directly please contact me via my website.  More of my travel photography and abstract art photos can be found on my Flickr and Instagram accounts.  For any more information about my photography send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

London Photo Festival 'Womanhood' Competition Finalist & Exhibition

One of my Cuban travel portraits will soon be exhibited in London as part of the London Photo Festival 'Womanhood' competition. I was delighted to be one of ten finalists chosen to be involved with the upcoming exhibition, the images are currently being printed and will be exhibited for six months on the London Photo Festival Fence in the grounds of Marble Hill House, Twickenham from 1st October. My selected image was of this beautiful Cuban lady I captured on a trip to Havana a few years ago:

Geraint Rowland is a photographer from Cardiff, Wales, UK. He specialises predominantly in travel based photography, capturing people around the World often in a candid manner. He likes to showcase the beauty which he believes can be found everywhere. He became interested in photography ten years ago and took a couple of introductory courses in Cardiff. He has exhibited his photography in Cardiff and London in the UK, and Lima in Peru. He has had over one hundred photographs published in newspapers and magazines. He licences his photographs via Getty images and sells large abstract images through a gallery in London. He has spent a large part of the last ten years travelling and living in other countries including: Peru, Senegal, India and Mexico. He is available for photographic work especially if there is travel involved!

The photograph in the 'Womanhood' exhibition was taken on a trip to Cuba three years ago. I spent two weeks in the Capital, Havana exploring the streets everyday and taking hundreds of images. On the last day I decided to take some portraits of the beautiful Cuban people. I took the portrait in natural light with a large depth of field using my favourite lens, a 50mm. I love the flowers in her hair, the classic Cuban cigar and the interest in her gaze. I highly recommend visiting Cuba, it is a photographer's dream. I won a competition for Wanderlust Magazine with another Cuban image taken on the same trip. The other great photographs to be exhibited can be viewed on the London Photo Festival’s Facebook page here.

More of my travel photography can be found on my websiteInstagramFacebook Page and my Flickr account. If you are interested in writing a guest travel or photography blog for my website please send me an email to discuss. Likewise if you are interested in purchasing any of my travel or abstract images, please send me an email: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.  

Street Photography in India

I am a photographer from the United Kingdom who loves to travel.  Last year I spent over six months travelling around India.  I started in Bangalore before making my way down the west coast to the southern tip of India before making my way up the east coast to Calcutta.  After some time in Bangladesh I returned to explore the north of India visiting Varanasi and the state of Rajasthan as well as the Capital of New Delhi.  There weren't many days during the trip that I didn't head out with my camera to document my experiences.  As well as capturing the iconic sights such as the Taj Mahal, and beautiful nature images on the coastline of Kerala and in the immense Thar Desert, some of my favourite photographs from the trip were ones I took on the streets, capturing everyday life in India.  This blog includes some of the many street photographs I took whilst travelling through India.

What is Street Photography?

Street photography is a genre that has become very popular in recent times with the popularity of Instagram, and the ability to take good quality photos on a mobile phone.  There is some debate as to what actually defines street photography and what it should and should not include.  My understanding of street photography is the documentation of people living their everyday lives in a public space.  Street photography nearly always contains people and is taken in a candid, unstaged way, normally without the knowledge or consent of the people captured.  I don't personally believe that street photography has to necessarily be taken in a street or even an urban environment as not everyone in the World lives in a City.  Street photography involves the observation of humanity, and when done well becomes an art form in itself.  A well taken street photo will evoke some kind of emotion in the viewer, over and above that of a standard snapshot.  The resulting image provides a single moment in time that tells a particular story, often in an amusing or ironic way.  Some documentary and street photographers insist on their photos being black & white but I personally feel this to be a shame particularly if the image was taken in a colourful setting as is often the case in India.   Aside from the possible conversion to black and white it is generally agreed that street photographs should not be overly edited and should be presented in a natural and realistic way.  I am a member of a Facebook group called 'Urban Street Photography' which has some fantastic examples of the different styles of street photography taken around the World.  It is a perfect place to look at the work of great street photographers with differing styles for some urban inspiration!  

Examples of my Street Photography taken in India

India is a brilliant place for every type of photography, street photography included.  The Cities and towns are full of colour and are bustling with life throughout the day.  What can seem hectic and overbearing to many people can be a street photographers dream.  As a street photographer you often just have to be patient, and something interesting will eventually happen.  In addition, Indian people are very friendly, who in the majority of cases do not mind having their photo taken.  It is also a safe place to travel around with a camera so long as you take the obvious precautions.  My normal plan when travelling is to meet up with local people, often photographers from Flickr or Instagram to go and take photos with.  This provides me with some valuable local knowledge as well as making the experience more enjoyable resulting in some better travel and street photographs for my portfolio.  Click on the photo below to view a slideshow of ten street photos I captured on my journey around India.

I highly recommend India for a photographic and travel experience, you will not be disappointed, it really is a unique part of the World.  I have written several photographic travel blogs about my time in India including: Travel photography in Varanasi, Sunset silhouette photography in Fort Kochi, and one on the birds at Marina beach at sunrise in Chennai.  I have always enjoyed taking street photographs on my travels, here is a blog I wrote combining two of my interests: street photography and street art.  More of my street photographs from India and around can be found on my website, my Instagram, my Facebook and my Flickr account.  I have a large selection of my travel photographs from India available to licence via Getty Images.  If you are interested in purchasing a print direct, writing a guest blog or collaborating in another way please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Travel Photography in Varanasi, India

Last year I spent over six months traveling around India, Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka. After starting my trip in Bangalore I made my way down the coast to the very tip of India, Kanyakumari, before working my way up the East coast to Calcutta and then entering Bangladesh. After a month in Bangladesh I flew back to India arriving in Varanasi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.

Varanasi, also called Benares and Banaras was one of the highlights of my India trip and is a fantastic place for both street & travel photography. Located on the famous River Ganges it is one of the oldest cities in the World. It is one of the seven sacred cities of Hinduism and is an extremely important place for Indians. Varanasi is a remarkable place and in many ways a real shock to the senses. With daily public cremations by the river, historic architecture and boat trips along the Ganges there are photo opportunities everywhere. Click through the slideshow below to view some of my photos from the ghats of Varanasi and on the River Ganges itself:

The small city itself is also fascinating and a great place to roam with the camera through the tiny winding streets and alleyways. Varanasi is a very safe place to walk around, and the locals are friendly and very used to tourists taking photos. I spent many days walking the streets and capturing the daily city life of Varanasi, click through the following slideshow below to view some of my candid reportage images:

I have written some other blogs about my India photography experience including: one on street portraits, one about the beautiful state of Rajasthan, and another one in which I printed some of my portraits taken in Pondicherry then returned to give them out to the families there. More of my travel photography from my India travels can be found on my website, my Instagram, my Facebook and my Flickr account. If you are interested in purchasing a print, using an image online or collaborating in any way please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.