Photos by Alicia Fox Words by James Galletly Cuba may not be well known as an eco-travel destination, but its eco-credentials, like its musicians and cigars, are first class. In 2006, the WWF’s Living Planet Report named Cuba the only nation on earth achieving sustainable development. This big claim was based on Cubans having a high standard of living (assessed via levels of health, education and GDP) and at the same time maintaining a sustainable Ecological Footprint…. To view more of my published work please go to www.aliciafox.net/published Read More
Autumn in the Mountains Recently, I was having a very interesting conversation with one of my closest friends in which she described heaven to me. I think of her every morning when I see the sun peek over the mountains and spread its long golden rays across the valleys before me, valleys that on most days are flooded by a thick layer of clouds. I’m staying in a beautiful part of the planet, where the intoxicating nature all around can let you forget about the developed, industrialised, fast paced world that begins down at the bottom of the mountain. Right now, the landscape here is making a dramatic transition from green to red to orange. It’s heavenly. Every day the fog seems to sit a little higher in the valleys as winter draws closer, and the deer, squirrels and jack rabbits are harder to spot. I find myself gasping in visual pleasure nearly every time I go outside. .I didn’t do any post production on these shots other than developing them from RAW to JPG in Lightroom. I guess my photography style is changing and I am gaining appreciation for getting the shot right in camera, because I was happy […] Read More
Cartagena is a beautiful, colonial town in the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. We arrived at night to the sounds of Cuban-infused jazz drifting through the warm, heavy air. There were kids playing football in the street, vendors selling maize bread and friendly men offering us water, marijuana, cocaine… Inside the walls sits an elegant city centre, where we wandered the quiet streets and took in the Cartagena in all her beauty. Beautiful negra women sell fruit in the traditional dress of the area. The climate makes for a slow lifestyle with a lot of sitting around and sleeping in the shade of the city streets or gardens. One of the entrances to the walled city, this archway is about 5 metres thick. The traditional mixed with the modern. You can buy anything from local handicrafts from the artisanas on the footpath, to the latest fashions in air conditioned boutiques. Read More
Here are some photos of around where I live, in Ichinomya in Chiba, Japan… I got up at 4:30am to get some sunrise shots on the beach. It was Sunday, and even at sunrise the beach is crowded with surfers – many from Tokyo on their weekend break – quite possibly their one day off each week. Technical: I exposed for the background of this image to silhouette the figures against the back light. By setting the white balance to flash, I enhanced the colour temperature to an even warmer tone than the true early morning light. Black, volcanic sand with tetrapods protecting the land from typhoon swells and tsunamis. People leave their surfboards, bikes and shoes lying around, because nobody steals things in Japan. I love the morning sunlight on this boat. Technical: The hazy atmosphere diffused the sun to soften the warm early-morning sunlight. I shot at a fairly wide-angle to distort the shape of the boat and enhance the surreal feeling of the image. A few of our neighbours, with rice paddies in the foreground. Japanese people tend to have different taste in housing colours, to what I’m used to back in Australia. Pink is a bit […] Read More
