Happy Halloween [Back from Budapest]

Our stay in Budapest has come to an end, and while that may seem sad to me, it certainly should be happy news to you all, because I have returned with over 700 new images from this beautiful city, including a big announcement later next week.

I am now back home, slowly but surely settling into old routines. And with my favorite holiday Halloween today, I think it's a good time to be re-exploring and adjusting into the dark season that's to come.

Happy Halloween to you all.

Lillian Russell 1890s

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Wedding portrait of Reynaldo Morales and Isabel Hernandez, Orange, California 1930

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Budapest On Location - Part 2

We are having so much fun in Budapest, and lots of new images are being taken, but until I return home, I'll show you more iPad photos of our trip to the inner city today. The Budapest Metro is the oldest Metro in Europe, and it shows. But still, it's oddly beautiful and fascinating.

Angela Lansbury

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Angela Brigid Lansbury, CBE (born 16 October 1925) is a British American actress and singer in theatre, television and films. Her career has spanned seven decades and earned an unsurpassed number of performance Tony Awards (tied with Julie Harris and Audra McDonald), with five wins.

Budapest On Location - Part 1

Our first official day in Budapest is slowly coming to an end, and I can now show you some of the images i took with my iPad. Of course, my Canon has been working non stop to give you some great travel images, when I return.

I will start with our visit to the Fisherman's Bastion:

Budapest National History museum:

The Budapest Metro:

I hope you'll these short On Location Posts. Once I return, I will share detailed images and stories. Thanks for visiting!

Dominique Sanda by Helmut Newton 1974

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Dominique Sanda, born 11 March 1951 is a French actress and former fashion model. Sanda was born as Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris to Lucienne (née Pichon) and Gérard Varaigne. She appeared in such noted European films of the 1970s as Vittorio de Sica's Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist and Novecento, and Liliana Cavani's Beyond Good and Evil. She also appeared in The Mackintosh Man (with Paul Newman) and Steppenwolf (with Max von Sydow).

Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 1920 – 23 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."

Mysteries of the Night

The Night isn't just a veil of darkness. Night changes everything. The mood and atmosphere are different, people have different habits, and only the glow of artificial light punctuates the blackness.

The following images were taken from the balcony of our apartment in Sarajevo, and show various views of the city at night. I took these last winter, while the snow was still holding on to the ground, and heavy clouds drifted on the horizon, promising that more snow would come. The city lights lit the clouds from underneath, coloring them in dark purple colors, while the ground was merely shining away...

click on the images for a bigger view

I have often found myself standing on this place and gazing upon the lights in the distance, and wondering who flipped them on...

Big man enjoying a cigar and glass of beer in a New York tavern circa 1908

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Dramatic Fall Landscapes

I love moody skies. They can give a great dramatic effect to images. By moody skies, I mean skies that are filled with heavy clouds, but where the sky still peaks through, and gives nice rays of light. Like in these fall images below, the gaps in the clouds gave light to different parts of the landscape, and made the warm autumn colors glow.

click on the images for a bigger view

These images were taken on the Grabovica Lake on the drive up north from Mostar. As you can see, the sky is very moody, but the clouds do give way to the blue sky, that is shedding it's warm glow back to earth.

I love the small island with the trees on the right bottom side of the first image.

On the left side you can see parts of the small village called Glogosnica. The valley is very calm and not much goes on. A newly dug up road can be seen on the other side of the lake.

I parked my car on the side of the road and went somewhat downhill to get these shots. This road leads further into the mountains to our weekend-house.

Has fall taken over your part of the world? I love it when the colors start changing, and lushes greens become warm orange and yellow tones.

Scene from Cocteau’s Phedre - Justin Locke

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Somewhere over the hills (8 Photo Panorama)

My recent post featured some golden hour photography on our local hills. During that photoshoot, I also made a panorama of the hills structure and the very famous rock formations of Herzegovina, called Krs. 

click on the panoramas to view their bigger versions

The rocks are many and very sharp, and cover like a bed of flowers the surface of the hills. I present you the black and white version first.

Here is the colored version. They both have different feels to them. I like the black and white, because it goes well with the stones, but on the other side, the golden light of the sunset is unbeatable in the colored version.

Is your neck of the woods known for some interesting geology or unusual landscapes?

Fall in the Countryside

Here are a couple of shots from the countryside, during the golden hour, and also a little bit after. The warm glow of the sun, gave great light to the wide plains. These were taken south of Mostar on a really great spot, from which I also took the recent River Valley Panorama.

click on the images for a bigger view

If you want to see more Fall/Autumn images from Bosnia and Herzegovina, check out these articles on my blog:

- Why I love Autumn in South Herzegovina

- Autumn Colors along the River Neretva

- Colorful Autumn Changes

- Fall Days in South Herzegovina

- Fall on the Grabovica Lake

- Late Autumn Days In the Mountains

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World 1971

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Clouds over Mostar (9 Photo Panorama)

I made this panorama a while ago, and also posted it on this blog. But it was long before I became really familiar with editing and also the panorama I posted before, was only a small image. Now, I present you with the bigger and reedited version of this 9-Photo Panorama of Mostar.

click on the image for a bigger view

Gladys Cooper by Alexander Bassano 1910

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Traditional Bosnian Deserts

Recently I took some shots of my mom's old recipe notebook for this blog, and I promised to go back and actually make some of the recipes. And we did, mainly focusing on deserts. I'll try to go through them all and say something about each. Of course, not all of these recipes originate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some are of oriental origin.

click on the images for a bigger view

The first two images show a desert called Cupavci which roughly translated means "something furry". The name probably comes from the fact that the coconut flakes resemble a furry coat. They are cake squares (made with oil, not butter), that are moist. Then they are dipped in a chocolate milk mixture and then covered with coconut shreds or flakes. Super yummy.

Next up, we have Baklava and the rounded Ruzica. Both taste similar they are made with Phyllo Dough. that is filled with a nuts mixture, and then covered with a sugar syrup, that makes both super moist and sweet.

On the next image, you'll see Kadaif, a Turkish Desert, also made with nuts and the special pastry called Kadaif.

The two following images show Breskvice which means Peaches. They are the round cakes on the right side. First you make a round shaped outer biscuit, then you scrape the inside out and add peach extract to it, and then you fill the biscuit rounds with the filling. Also, very moist and delicious. One of my favorites.

Lastly we have Sape, that translated mean Paws. They are a moist cookie (but not so much, they don't crumble), covered in powdered sugar.

I hope you like these images and the traditional deserts depicted. If you have any questions or recipe requests let me know in the comments below.