Best of 2013

With 2013 almost at a close it is time to look back and reflect on some of the key photographic moments of the year. It was a busy year indeed on the travelling front with 4 major trips to Cambodia, Nepal, Europe and China.

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At the start of the year I was involved in an interesting photo assignment for a property development company who had major investments in Kuala Lumpur and in particular in the Mont' Kiara area. I prepared a portfolio of images of the Mont' Kiara area to highlight all the key facilities such as schools, shopping centres and sporting facilities as well as photographing the properties themselves. This image is a large panoramic view taken from the roof of a property in Mont' Kiara looking over the Kuala Lumpur skyline.

Kuala Lumpur skyline from Mont' Kiara

In February we headed back to Cambodia staying in Siem Reap and this time visiting some of the more remote temples. One of the temples I had always wanted to visit was Preah Vihear which sits right on the border with Thailand in the north and has been in a border disputed area for some time. This magnificent temple sits on top of a large cliff and has a commanding view over north Cambodia and Thailand. More pictures can be seen here.

Preah Vihear, Cambodia

Malaysia has always been known for tin mining and one of the last few tin dredges (TT5) sits close to Tanjong Tualang just south of Ipoh. I made a visit here to capture this incredible piece of machinery. More pictures can be seen here.

Tin Dredge TT5, Tanjong Tualang, Perak

As part of an online video series on photography called "Behind The Lens" by Peter Tan we did one of the video shoots at a favourite lookout point in Damansara Heights overlooking the city of Kuala Lumpur. This is one of the images I captured at this location.

Kuala Lumpur skyline from Damansara Heights

In March it was off to Nepal to trek up the Everest Base Camp Trail from Lukla to as far as Tengboche. After a hair-raising flight from Kathmandu to Lukla it was a 4 day trek up through incredible scenery to Tengboche and then a 3 day trek back down. The views of the Himalayan mountains including Mount Everest as pictured below were just breath taking and worth all the effort of the trek. More photos can be seen here.

Mount Everest from the trail from Namche Bazaar to Tengboche

Kathmandu was a very interesting place to visit and after the trek up to Tengboche we had a few days there to explore. Boudhanath is one of the holiest Buddhist sites, full of interesting sights, sounds and smells as hundreds of worshippers visit and circle around the giant structure. More photos can be seen here.

Boudhanath, Kathmandu

In June we made our annual pilgrimage back to UK and took a visit to the historical city of York for a few days. Clifford's Tower as shown here is part of the York Castle complex. More photos can be seen here.

Clifford's Tower, York

Directly following the trip to UK we headed off to Italy and embarked on a 12 day Mediterranean cruise from Venice, covering Split and Dubrovnik (Croatia), Corfu (Greece), Naples, Civitavecchia, and Livorno (Italy), Monte Carlo (Monaco), Marseille (France)  and finishing in Barcelona (Spain). This was really a wonderful trip and the quality of the cruise could not be criticised. The view below is taken as we left Venice. More pictures can be seen here.

Venice taken from the deck of the ms Nieuw Amsterdam on the Grand Canal

Our good friends Paul and Lindsey left KL for Dubai in July so they hosted a great party with a Black & White theme. She asked me to do the photography so naturally this was done in black & white. 

Paul & Lindsey's "Black & White" Party

In August we returned to Ipoh for a weekend to stay at our favourite spot, Indulgence Restaurant & Living managed and run by the great chef, Julie Song. The food was as ever wonderful and the rooms in the small boutique hotel very comfortable. More photos can be seen here.

Indulgence Restaurant & Living, Ipoh

September was a time to celebrate my wife's birthday and as usual she likes to record this in a photograph taken at home as we toasted here a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Suit Yoo

In October we went on a 12 day tour of China flying to Chengdu then on up to Juzhaigou for a few days. We then flew back to Chengdu and spent a few days in that area, flew to Guilin and completed the trip by taking a cruise from Guilin down to Hangshuo. The scenery, particularly in Juizhaigou was incredible with all the autumn colours of the trees and contrasted by the magnificent clear waters of the lakes. More photos can be seen here. 

Long Lake, Jiuzhaigou, China

Where Science & Religion Meet

The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs is a titular basilica church in Rome, built inside the frigidarium of the Baths of Diocletian in the Piazza della Repubblica. I stumbled upon this church by chance and although it looks fairly ordinary from the outside the inside of the church holds a most fascinating feature which I have not seen before. On the floor of the church is a long meridian line and along with a unique small hole high on the internal wall of the church, which allows the sun to shine, this forms a kind of sundial to measure the sun's meridian crossing as well as the passage of the stars.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Pope Clement XI commissioned the astronomer, mathematician, archaeologist, historian and philosopher Francesco Bianchini to build a meridian line, a sort of sundial, within the basilica. Completed in 1702, the object had a threefold purpose: the pope wanted to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformation of the calendar, to produce a tool to predict Easter exactly, and, not least, to give Rome a meridian line as important as the one Giovanni Domenico Cassini had recently built in Bologna's cathedral, San Petronio. Alan Cook remarked, "The disposition, the stability and the precision are much better than those of the famous meridian... in Bologna".

This church was chosen for several reasons: (1) Like other baths in Rome, the building was already naturally southerly oriented, so as to receive unobstructed exposure to the sun; (2) the height of the walls allowed for a long line to measure the sun's progress through the year more precisely; (3) the ancient walls had long since stopped settling into the ground, ensuring that carefully calibrated observational instruments set in them would not move out of place; and (4) because it was set in the former baths of Diocletian, it would symbolically represent a victory of the Christian calendar over the earlier pagan calendar.

Bianchini's sundial was built along the meridian that crosses Rome, at longitude 12° 30' E. At solar noon, which varies according to the equation of time from around 10:54 a.m. UTC in late October to 11.24 a.m. UTC in February (11:54 to 12:24 CET), the sun shines through a small hole in the wall to cast its light on this line each day. At the summer solstice, the sun appears highest, and its ray hits the meridian line at the point closest to the wall. At the winter solstice, the ray crosses the line at the point furthest from the wall. At either equinox, the sun touches the line between the these two extremes. The longer the meridian line, the more accurately the observer can calculate the length of the year. The meridian line built here is 45 meters long and is composed of bronze, enclosed in yellow-white marble.

In addition to using the line to measure the sun's meridian crossing, Bianchini also added holes in the ceiling to mark the passage of stars. Inside the interior, darkened by covering the windows, Polaris, Arcturus and Sirius were observed through these holes with the aid of a telescope to determine their right ascensions and declinations. The meridian line was restored in 2002 for the tricentenary of its construction, and it is still operational today.

Villa La Rotonda, Vicenza

Villa La Rotonda is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza, northern Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio. The proper name is Villa Almerico Capra, but it is also known as La Rotonda, Villa Rotonda, Villa Capra and Villa Almerico. The name "Capra" derives from the Capra brothers, who completed the building after it was ceded to them in 1592. Along with other works by Palladio, the building is conserved as part of the World Heritage Site “City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto”.

Inspiration

In 1565 a priest, Paulo Almerico, on his retirement from the  Vatican (as referendario apostolico of Pope Pius IV and afterwards Pius V), decided to return to his home town of Vicenza in the Venetian countryside and build a country house. This house, later known as 'La Rotonda', was to be one of Palladio's best-known legacies to the architectural world. Villa Capra may have inspired a thousand subsequent buildings, but the villa was itself inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

Design

The site selected was a hilltop just outside the city of Vicenza. Unlike some other Palladian villas, the building was not designed from the start to accommodate a working farm. This sophisticated building was designed for a site which was, in modern terminology, "suburban". Palladio classed the building as a "palazzo" rather than a villa.

The design is for a completely symmetrical building having a square plan with four facades, each of which has a projecting portico. The whole is contained within an imaginary circle which touches each corner of the building and centres of the porticos. (illustration, left). The name La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. To describe the villa, as a whole, as a 'rotonda' is technically incorrect, as the building is not circular but rather the intersection of a square with a cross. Each portico has steps leading up, and opens via a small cabinet or corridor to the circular domed central hall. This and all other rooms were proportioned with mathematical precision according to Palladio's own rules of architecture which he published in the Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura.

The design reflected the Humanis values of Renaissance architecture. In order for each room to have some sun, the design was rotated 45 degrees from each cardinal point of the compass. Each of the four porticos has pediments graced by statues of classical deities. The pediments were each supported by six Ionic columns. Each portico was flanked by a single window. All principal rooms were on the second floor or piano nobile.

Building began in 1567. Palladio, and the owner, Paolo Almerico, were not to see the completion of the villa. Palladio died in 1580 and a second architect, Vincenzo Scamozzi was employed by the new owners to oversee the completion. One of the major changes he made to the original plan was to modify the two-storey centre hall.

Interior

The interior design of the Villa was to be as wonderful, if not more so, than the exterior. Alessandro and Giovanni Battista Maganza and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint frescoes in the principal salons.

Among the four principal salons on the piano nobile are the West Salon (also called the Holy Room, because of the religious nature of its frescoes and ceiling), and the East Salon, which contains an allegorical life story of the first owner Paolo Almerico, his many admirable qualities portrayed in fresco.

The highlight of the interior is the central, circular hall, surrounded by a balcony and covered by the domed ceiling; it soars the full height of the main house up to the cupola, with walls decorated in trompe l’oeil. Abundant frescoes create an atmosphere that is more reminiscent of a cathedral than the principal salon of a country house.

Landscape

From the porticos wonderful views of the surrounding countryside can be seen; this is no coincidence as the Villa was designed to be in perfect harmony with the landscape. This was in complete contrast to such buildings as Villa Farnese of just 16 years earlier. Thus, while the house appears to be completely symmetrical, it actually has certain deviations, designed to allow each facade to complement the surrounding landscape and topography. Hence there are variations in the facades, in the width of steps, retaining walls, etc. In this way, the symmetry of the architecture allows for the asymmetry of the landscape, and creates a seemingly symmetrical whole. The landscape is a panoramic vision of trees and meadows and woods, with the distant Vicenza on the horizon.

The northwest portico is set onto the hill as the termination of a straight carriage drive from the principal gates. This carriageway is an avenue between the service blocks, built by the Capra brothers who acquired the villa in 1591; they commissioned Vincenzo Scamozzi to complete the villa and construct the range of staff and agricultural buildings. As one approaches the villa from this angle one is deliberately made to feel one is ascending from some less worthy place to a temple on high. This same view in reverse, from the villa, highlights a classical chapel on the edge of Vicenza, thus villa and town are united.

Film

In 1979, American film director Joseph Losey filmed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, in Villa La Rotonda and the Veneto region of Italy. The film was nominated for several Cesar Awards in 1980 including Best Director, and has generally been praised as one of the finer adaptations of opera to the big screen.

World Heritage Site

In 1994 UNESCO designated the building as part of a World Heritage Site.

The late owner of the villa was Mario di Valmarana († Oct. 13, 2010), a former professor of architecture at the University of Virginia. It was his declared ambition to preserve Villa Rotonda so that it may be appreciated by future generations. The interior is open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays, except during the winter months, and the grounds are open every day.

The Canals of Treviso

Treviso is a city in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants (as of November 2010): some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls (le Mura) or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper while the city hinterland has a population of approximately 170,000. The city is home to the headquarters of clothing retailer Benetton, Diadora and Lotto Sport Italia, appliance maker De'Longhi, and bicycle maker Pinarello.

Treviso is also known for being the original production area of the Prosecco wine, and being the town where popular Italian dessert Tiramisu was created.

Like Venice, Treviso has canals, but unlike Venice does not have gondolas or more importantly the mad rushing tourists which makes it a very pleasant place to visit. Walking the many small streets traversing the few canals there are scenes you will see that remind you of a painting …. apart from the large crane that was in operation. It is not as touristic as Venice but has all the other great attributes such as wonderful Italian food and local wine. 

Siena Cathedral

The Cathedral of Siena (Italian: Duomo di Siena), dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church and now to Santa Maria Assunta (Most Holy Mary of Assumption), is a medieval church in Siena, central Italy.

The cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome and a bell tower. The dome rises from a hexagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary city's founders, Senius and Aschius.

Fattoria Castello de Monteriggioni

Fattoria Castello di Monteriggioni was founded in 1964 by Alvaro Gozzi and his wife Luisa Masini Gozzi. Alvaro Gozzi, fascinated by wine, bought lands, between Monteriggioni and Castellina in Chianti. He planted the vineyards and build the new wine cellar. He loved the oenological world and he wanted to know much more every day. During many years Alvaro Gozzi was able to obtain products with improving quality and so the wines of Fattoria became famous in Italy and in many more countries.

When Alvaro Gozzi died, his role in Fattoria Castello di Monteriggioni, passed to his son Michela Gozzi, also director of an other business venture of the family, the Hotel Monteriggioni.

Today Fattoria Castello di Monteriggioni is managed by Tommaso Battignani, graduated in Winegrowing and Oenology. Thank to his studies and his passion, like his auntie and his grandfather, Tommaso works every day, to produced wines of high quality, to keep up the family's tradition.

The Hidden Garden

During a walk I took many years ago through the backstreets of Florence, Italy I came across this gate in the wall leading into a private garden or orchard.