I will be soon moving both my blog and the portfolio over to the absolutely fabulous new site – 500px. They support the much needed html5
and the site can be viewed on iPhones and iPads
The taste of things to come can been seen @ martinkawalski.500px.com
Theresa.
I met Therese on my second morning in Cartagena, like many Cartagenans she was socializing with her friends and family just outside her house.
by maarten
1 comment
I’m typing this post in Bogota, having just returned from the remarkable city of Cartagena. Rather than snapping pictures of once beautiful colonial architecture I decided to focus on Cartagenans themselves. I’d wander the narrow streets of Getsemani (Cartagena’s Old Town poor section) and talk to various, random people. The very first thing that struck me was the incredible hospitality and openness. Not a single person refused to talk to me or tell the stories of their lives in Cartagena. They seemed to derive genuine pleasure from sharing their stories. I will post some of them here.
Despite Colombia’s bad reputation when it comes to safety I never felt insecure in Cartagena. That said, I was advised by most of the people I talked to not to venture outside the old city walls.
by maarten
no comments
Ahhh, underwater video….
I finally found the time and energy to experiment a little bit with an underwater footage from my leica d-lux4. This short clip has been edited from over 3 hours of raw video shot around Sipadan and Mabul in Malaysia.
D-lux4 was protected by a 10Bar uw housing, which did a pretty good job – the camera is still intact and working.
by maarten
3 comments
A hidden piece of underwater paradise is located an hour’s worth of boat ride from Borneo, Malaysia. The island of Sipadan is considered among divers something of a Holy Grail, rivaled perhaps only by Galapagos. A single day of diving there offers such abundance of marine life and biodiversity as to make any first-time-diver almost loose his regulator in from the sheer awe. Enormous hawksbill turtles gliding swiftly almost effortlessly casually ignore white tip sharks.
In order to preserve pristine waters and coral ecosystem a tightly enforced (which, is frankly quite surprising for Malaysia) 120 divers per day limit has been set. I only had limited time in the area (one cannot stay on the Sipadan island itself as it is a UNESCO protected site) and already logged 3 dives in an underwater paradise. Since the permits are usually booked months ahead my chances of getting another try a taking my dream underwater picture were as thin as 1mm lycra wetsuit .
With only 2 days left I was wandering aimlessly in maze of wooden houses built hastily in the shallow coastal water. None of the dive resorts on the Mabul island (this where most of the Sipadan visitors stay) had any permits and even if they did they guarded them closely and sold only to their guests…
Ever since I started diving one particular sight has always been eluding me – a perfect barracuda vortex. A phenomenon, where thousands of sliver bodied, bullet-like barracudas form a gigantic swirl resembling nothing but an eye of an underwater cyclone!
Children’s laughter and slightly accented English bring me back from daydreaming. “Uncle Chang? Uncle Chang” I see the quizzical looks of two Malay boys aged probably between 5 and 7. I answered “guys, you probably confused me with someone else, I’m Martin, not uncle Chang”. Eruption of more laughter.
“No, no, no!! you no! Mr. you want see Uncle Chang ??! ” Having absolutely no idea who uncle Chang was, I let myself be led to that mysterious individual. Uncle Chang turned out to be a local entrepreneur, who runs a super small local dive shop manned entirely by local populations. Nothing like a big and fancy resorts, which draw crowds and serve one-size-fits-all dive packages. What was missing in equipment and frills was more than made up for in a relaxed and easy going atmosphere. I stayed for beer.
Not surprisingly, Uncle Chang was a) extremely knowledgeable b) irritated by the constant influx of divers swarming in “his” waters. Yet, still I told him about my dream picture and so far no luck in taking it. Chang smiled. “You will never get it with many people. Come tomorrow. 5 am, my place”.
Intrigued I could hardly sleep that night. With the first rays of rising sun I sprinted across the island to Chang’s shop. “Grab those tanks and we’ll be ready to go, kid” I heard instead of expected “good morning”. Within minutes we were on our way towards Sipadan. By the time we arrived and readied the gear the sun was already high. Chang gave me a slip of paper with a Swedish name written on it. Jannike Anders, aged 44. ”She’s a friend of mine, and she’s sick. Today you are Jannike”. Being a 29-year old male it might be tad difficult to pass for a Swedish blond, middle aged woman, no?
“Stay with the tanks, and put that big hat on. Guard won’t recognize your from the distance” said Chang grinning with a smile so wide as to reveal slightly yellowish teeth.
I quickly popped my small leica d-lux4 into its underwater housing… 40 meters below thousands of glistering torpedos were waiting.
by maarten
1 comment
by maarten
no comments