[Kombisaurus]

Continuing on with my little Bali theme (I hope I'm not boring people)... here are some of the places Tina and I visited:


1. The street in Legian (Jl Padma) that we stayed on for the first week. Our Hotel is just out of sight around the bend in the background of this shot. The streets remain this busy day and night, and in contrast our hotel provided a wonderful sanctuary to escape the hustle and bustle.


2. The bustling streets of Legian at night, taken just around the corner from our hotel. It's a shame about the softness of this shot, but there's something about it I really like.


3. A spectacular cliff-top temple (Pura Luhur Ulu Watu) at Ulu Watu on the southern tip of Bali.


4. Surfers relaxing in a little beach-side cafe at one of the many beaches dotted along Bali's south-west coast.


5. A "foto studio" (photo lab) in Seminyak. I was thinking of shuttertalk when I took this shot!


6. A large multi-story market lines both sides of the Sungai Badung river in Bali's capital of Denpasar. The market even packs the bridge linking both sides of the river as shown here. On one side a multi-story shopping mall had burnt down and was slowly being taken over by the market (without being rebuilt first - the walls were still scarred by fire and upper levels still gutted).


7. As we continued our walk through Denpasar following the Sungai Badung river we entered a residential area. The living conditions of many locals in Denpasar appear to be quite poor, and as a whole the city has a lot of buildings in need of repair. I understand why Denpasar is not pushed as one of the "tourist destinations" of Bali, yet it is still a worthwhile place to visit to gain a better appreciation of the place and the people.


8. These locals were in the (extremely polluted) river directly below me when I was taking the shot above and they cheerfully called out for me to take their photo as well. I still can't quite work out what they were actually doing, but it looked like they were either collecting stones off the bottom or building something. I don't think they were bathing, washing clothes, or fishing.


9. The accomodation we stayed at in Ubud for our second week was not a hotel, but a collection of small traditional double-story bungalows located on a large property of rice fields and gardens. It was a stunning location and quite a unique experience. The open-air nature of these bungalows makes the experience a bit like super-luxurious camping. I loved it, but if you don't like living amongst the geckos, frogs, bats, ants, birds, cows(!) and the occasional mosquito then you might not enjoy it as much as I did.


10. A scarecrow we would pass guarding the rice fields beside the road on our walk between our bungalow and the centre of Ubud.


11. The colourful market in the centre of Ubud.


12. Rice terraces on the way up into the mountains.


13. This is the story-book view from my seat at a restaurant we ate lunch at on our drive up into the mountains. I've never seen a landscape so green (not even in Tasmania).


14. The temple at Lake Bratan (Pura Ulan Danu Bratan) about 1500m above sea level. The spectacular mountains in the background are obscured by fog.


15. Catfish in a pond outside the Holy Bathing Temple; one of three temples that are "guarded" by hundreds of monkeys within the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud.


16. A statue of a Rangda figure devouring a child. One of a number of such statues outside the Temple of the Dead (Pura Dalem Agung) in the Sacred Monkey Forest.


17. A pair of monkeys lazing in a graveyard beside the Temple of the Dead in the Sacred Monkey Forest.


18. A public toilet at Denpasar Airport upon departing Bali back to Australia. Although the airport as a whole was fairly average as far as airports go, great care had been taken with this public amenity. Apart from the fact it was considerably cleaner than the rest of the airport, it had been decorated with numerous aquariums (containing fish), mobiles hanging from the ceiling, and pot-plants. Somebody had made a real effort to decorate this toilet. It was a strange feeling being there, almost like walking out of a public space into somebody's lounge room. I felt welcomed, yet out of place at the same time. I half-expected to look in a cubicle to find somebody living there!

[wulinka]

wonderful series, kombi!

much reminds me of China, except the clean toilets... In Huainan e.g. people would have been in that river
to wash veggies that are then sold on the market.

I love no. 11, even with the burnt out front left it is still a marvelous composition!

I have been mazing at your people and places series, not yet come around to the animals, and I am interested in some of your processing.... if you don't mind me asking.
It appears the 200mm produdes wonderful separation from the background, that works very well in some of your portraits.

But looking e.g. at no. 11 in this series, the huts in the rice fields, how do you get that very very clear definition in a per-se contrast poor picture?

I'm going on to you animals now...

Uli

[guerito]

Not boring at all! This is a very impressive picture series. I must admit I'm a little envious, not so much for the pictures but for the trip. You must have had a great time there.

[matthew]

Nope, I'm not bored either. I lost track of my favourites -- I can't remember that many numbers, and eventually gave up, but #1 and #4 were early standouts for me. "Taksi" really is universal, and the laying of the roofs is very nice. Overall, I really like the series and the variety that you've included in it.

[Toad]

Looks like a wonderful trip. You would have to be pretty jaded to find this boring, I think.

[smarti77]

I have enjoyed every part of your Bali series. Your ability to create interest in each photograph is exceptional.

[BELLERBY]

fantsatic. I particularly like #2 of the alley with the scooter.

you really get a vibe about your trip from the photo series. nice one.

[Wedding Shooter]

2, 13 & 14 stand out to me - but it is such a wonderful feast you have provided for us Kombi. Thank you.

[Kombisaurus]

Thanks
It's nice to see different people picking different shots as their favourites. I hope that means people are seeing what I saw in the shots, and I'm getting a bit of consistency to avoid the "1 good shot and 15 duds" situation.

Uli, I'm not sure if perhaps you meant shot #13 (not #11) when you asked about my processing of the huts in the rice fields. If so then I must confess I didn't really do anything special in the PP. The colours and detail in the scene itself were unbelievable. I didn't have to put anything more into the shot, I just had to avoid losing anything in it. The processing was done mostly in Lightroom, just by tweaking the Exposure/Recover/Fill-Light/Blacks, pumping the clarity up a bit, and then boosting the highlights and lights in the Tone Curve.
I've been trying to do as much PP in Lightroom these days instead of PS, as it is much faster and easier to manage many photos. Of the 250-odd keeper shots from Bali, I've probably only edited a dozen of them in Photoshop. Usually I just use PS now if a shot needs advanced NR and/or sharpening, or multiple/masked tone curves, or lots of work.