Blue Indigo Window

This blue coloured shuttered window was photographed in Lorong Stewart in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. The back streets and lanes of Georgetown are great to wander through to view old historical and heritage houses. I particularly like windows and doors and this window was a great example of that run-down, dilapidated and decaying style that I like in these Asian buildings. You can make out a blue colour in the surrounding walls as well as on the window shutters and this was a very typical colour used in the colonial period. The distinctive blue colour is made by mixing lime with the natural blue dye made from the indigo plant and this dye was imported from India during those days.

Heritage Buildings of Georgetown, Penang

Backstreets and lanes of historic towns like Georgetown, Ipoh and Malacca are a wonderful place to find some colorful old heritage style houses and shops. This corner house has had some rather unique renovation carried out as you can see with the tacked-on extra room made from corrugated iron. Of course I'm sure that proper planning permission was granted here and that these modifications adhere to good building practice and regulations!

Graveyard Greenery

This old Christian graveyard in the center of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia lies overgrown and run down providing an atmospheric environment of tropical crumbling, decay. It's fascinating to explore these types of abandoned urban areas which provide opportunities for HDR photography. 
Urban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. Urban exploration is also commonly referred to as infiltration, although some people consider infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or inhabited sites. It may also be referred to as "draining" (when exploring drains) "urban spelunking", "urban caving", or "building hacking". 

The nature of this activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and the possibility of arrest and punishment. Many, but not all, of the activities associated with urban exploration could be considered trespassing or other violations of local or regional laws, including—but not limited to—invasion of privacy and certain broadly-interpreted anti-terrorism laws.

Prinsengracht Canal

This is a view along the Prinsengracht canal or Princes Canal with the Westerkerk (Amsterdam's tallest church) seen in the background and on the left one of the buildings is the famous Ann Frank House. Many of the buildings along the canal were built during the Dutch Golden Age, a period spanning the 17th century when Dutch trade, science, military and art where the most acclaimed in the world. This canal is the fourth and longest of the canals in Amsterdam and is named after the Prince of Orange.

Turn To Clear Vision

This classic viewing binocular was shot at Seaport, East River, New York just close to the Brooklyn Bridge. This was a 3 bracket HDR shot post processed in HDR Efex Pro and then Silver Efex Pro 2.

Boy Liam

It was low tide at Plockton harbour and this little fishing boat Boy Liam was sitting proudly above the shore waiting patiently on the incoming tide. The tide in this part of the country moves in quickly as we found out when my mother was almost stranded on the small island just in the distance of this shot due to the rapid influx of the water. Luckily she made it back to shore with only a few blue stains on her feet from the seawater soaked shoes!

Torridon

The Torridon area in the north west of Scotland has some of the most spectacular scenery with a number of stunning mountains. The mountain in the image above is Liathach with Beinn Eighe seen partially on the right. 

Liathach is one of the most famous of the Torridon Hills. It lies to the north of the A896 road and has two peaks of Munro status: Spidean a' Choire Leith at the east of the main ridge, and Mullach an Rathain at the western end of the mountain. The name Liathach means 'The grey one'. Liathach conveys an aura of impregnability when seen from the roadside below, as the slopes appear to rise up in a series of near vertical rocky terraces

High & Dry

This is the small remote village of Toscaig in on the west coast of Scotland on the Applecross peninsula and this bright blue boat stood out having been left high and dry at low tide. This image was post processed in Nik Software's HDR EfexPro 2 and Silver Efex 2 applications.

Canal Boat

This scene, shot on one one of the canals in central Amsterdam, almost looked like an oil painting with the murky canal water, the floating leaves and the run-down boat with the peeling paintwork. The photo comprised of 3-bracketed shots and was post-processed in Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro.

Brooklyn Bridge

The intricate design of the Brooklyn Bridge as seen from below which highlights the details in the girders and the mass of supporting wires.
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.
Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in a January 25, 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972

Pluck U

The colourful Pluck U restaurant in the Greenwich Village area of New York stood out from the usual gray buildings. A quick Google search on the restaurant comes up with a wide range of reviews .... from "New York's #1 chicken wings 6 years in a row" to "Do not, I repeat, DO NOT eat Pluck U chicken wings without having a toilet and double-roll of toilet paper nearby." Don't know who to believe here.

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal in New York is the largest train station in the world by the number of platforms; 44 with 67 tracks along them. It is often incorrectly known as Grand Central Station and sometimes shortened to Grand Central. The station was built by New York Central Railroad in the heyday of long distance train travel.

The image shown here is the Main Concourse which is cavernous and usually bustling with crowds of people. The large American flag seen at the left was hung in the station shortly after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre.

The classic meeting spot is at the central information booth with the four-faced clock which is the most recognisable feature of the station.

I was blown away by this station in terms of its architecture and the beautiful condition of all the fixtures. Not many train stations around the world can claim this.