If you're considering a weekend getaway in the US, I cannot recommend Portland enough. Just a few days in and I'm already thinking about moving to the city. Portland has its charms with great food, cheap rent, and friendly people. Not to mention the beautiful state of Oregon. In just a few hours, you have mountains to the east and the beach to the west. I spent part of the weekend hiking to Angel's Rest and grabbing a drink in the seaside town of Astoria, on the Washing state border.
Jennifer and Dave Stark take images that take my breadth away. I discovered them when I was looking up photographers in Toronto to connect with, and I quickly caught serious photography envy when it comes to their work, and their travel stories from all over the globe.
Iceland is popular ever as a destination these days, especially among photographers, and when I stumbled across Jenn and Dave's images, I craved to venture to Iceland myself.
From Jenn & Dave:
Iceland stole our hearts.
We'd planned a trip there with a few friends of ours for late October 2013. We board the plane and already I'm smitten: there are Icelandic lullabies printed on the pillows and mesmerizing landscapes of the country playing on repeat on the screens in front of our seats. We fly overnight and of course I can't sleep. I watch the deepest black and pinpricks of stars out the window, hoping for hints of the Aurora Borealis that don't come, at least not on this night. We arrive in Reykjavik while it's still dark and through the blowing wind of the early morning we pile our stuff into our rental car. We've rented an apartment in the city and by the time we arrive we're ready to crash. The radiators warm the rooms as the winds and rain whip the sides of the building. We curl up into the blankets for a couple of hours horizontal, and my mind flips between excitement and exhaustion.
By mid-morning, we're up. The showers here play tricks on your senses, the smell of soap and sulfur from the hot water battle for your attention. We step outside and the light is perfect. We've been transported to another world and we can't stop looking everywhere. The six of us sit along a bar table at a busy cafe, eating beet salads and tomato-coconut soup, bustling with excitement. We grab coffees to go and set off on our road trip along highway 1, heading east along the country.
I remember before leaving the old fear that creeps up on me any time we're leaving for a trip to somewhere new. It's this fear that I will fail to create something that will accurately describe the beauty that I know I'll see. But perhaps that is the challenge for the photographer, to see how close they can get and to overcome that battle within themselves. To understand that those gaps are what make art human, and what make art ours. And maybe those gaps in the realm of travel and trying to document the beauty of this world are the little push that others need to go and experience adventure for themselves, firsthand.
I love it when photographers step out of their specialization and I especially love seeing travel photographs from wedding photographers. Some how they are able to translate a sense of dreaminess and surrealism from weddings shots into travel photography. Wedding photographers have a special way of capturing moments and emotions that I sometimes fine missing in travel.
When I discovered Vancouver-based wedding photographer Sachin Khona, I was immediately drawn to Sachin's diverse (and international) body of work. Sachin was kind enough to share his travels to Varanasi - India's mythical and sacred city. Although I've never been to Varanasi, the portraits in Sachin's series make me feel as if I were present with him. In his words:
I've dreamed of going to Varanasi in India for a few years and was lucky to finally make my dream a reality earlier this year in January 2014.
Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world and has an energy about it that has to be experienced. For me, it was intense. Life and death and everything in between exist in Varanasi. From the holy waters of the ganges where locals say their morning prayers and bathe, to holy men / Sadhu's lining the ghats of the river bank chanting, to young children playing or working with stray dogs searching for food, and families from over India and around the world bidding farewell to loved ones who have passed and are cremated, their ashes floating down the river.
That is just a glimpse of what happens in Varanasi and I hope some of these images give you that glimpse of what I saw. I used the trip as an opportunity to shoot more on film, something I've only dabbled with previously. It was a great exercise for me in slowing down, connecting with my subjects and shooting with even more purpose.
All the images here were shot with the Mamiya 645 on medium format film (Fuji 400H and Portra 400 & 800) with the 80 1.9 lens. Developed and scanned by the awesome Chris Bodnar at Caribou Film Labs in Toronto Canada.
The streets are lit up at night by the shiny billboards of Shibuya Crossing, and the smiles on lovers’ faces. The city center is full of colors. Individuals dressed in whatever outfits they feel best represent their mood, from traditional to street hip hop. You can be whoever you want to be.
Tokyo is for the spiritual.
The smell of incense fill the temples and prayers flags hang in the air. Visitors are asked to wash their hands and mouth before entering the temple, to cleanse of all sins and dirtiness. A short walk away, at the Japanese rock garden, lines and circles are drawn in white sand and resemble ripples in the water. The landscape is a careful arrangement of rocks, pruned trees, and raked sand.
Tokyo is for the early-risers.
At 4am, fish vendors are setting up their booths. The light at each vendor’s stand light up the aisles at Tsukiji Fish Market - the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. Tsukiji seems intimidating on the outside, but a closer look reveals that everything and everyone is moving at a routined manner. Fresh catch is loaded into the market by car, boat, or truck then parts are auctioned off.
Welcome to Just-in-Time (JIT), a travel photography blog by Tracy Zhang. Began after a year of backpacking around Europe, JIT is a time capsule of 6 years of wanderlust.
As of August 2016, JIT is no longer being updated. For more projects from Tracy, find her at www.tracyzhang.com.
To read more about JIT and its original purpose, visit our About page.
